Tag Archives: Gulf of Mexico

Strom Crystal River LNG export approval 2014-10-21

Strom can ramp up its LNG export to the Gulf from Crystal River an order of magnitude with its initial units, Legal Style and then add more units, all without any further approval by anybody, says this Order from the U.S. DoE Office of Fossil Energy, which also appears to permit bomb trains shipping LNG anywhere in Florida, or maybe even other states, with some of the fracked methane probably coming from Sabal Trail if built. This FE Order was issued 21 October 2014, one month to the day before Sabal Trail filed in the FERC formal process in 21 November 2014. Yet not a word was said about Strom or any other LNG export by FERC or Sabal Trail in any of the FERC Scoping Meetings I went to, as I pointed out at the one 1 October 2015 in Lake City, Florida.

FE is even more a rubberstamp regulatory-captured lapdog of the fossil fuel industry than is FERC, and Strom is setting up to require no further approvals by them or anybody else: Continue reading Strom Crystal River LNG export approval 2014-10-21

Petition against Sabal Trail by Gulf Restoration Network

Johanna de Graffenreid, Gulf Restoration Network, 11 November 2015, EPA Warns – Sabal Trail Pipeline Threatens Gulf,

Last week, thanks to the courageous efforts of community members across the nation who stood up to the oil industry in their backyards, President Obama vetoed the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. Unfortunately, there’s no rest for the weary and a new threat to our Gulf is rearing its ugly head. Unless we stand up to Spectra Energy, and the EPA intervenes, the Sabal Trail Pipeline will begin construction in 2016.

There’s more, and a link to a petition to Stop the Southeast Market Pipeline.

Please sign.

“If I am not for myself who is for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?” —Hillel the Elder

Or, as the Texians said at Gonzales, the Georgians at Fort Morris, and the Spartans at Thermopylae:

Come and Take It!

Please sign this petition.

-jsq

Nonami Oglethorpe moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

Ted Turner’s Nonami plantation near Albany, Georgia has filed a motion to intervene with all three parts of the fracked methane pipeline project including Sabal Trail, using a form of filing that other groups could copy.

Intervenor is a landowner with land laying both within the proposed right-of-way corridor for the Sabal pipeline and within very close proximity to one of Sabal’s proposed compressor stations, thus exposing its property to condemnation and deleterious effects associated with the construction and operation of a natural gas transmission pipeline and deleterious effects of a compressor station.

Filed with FERC 22 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141222-5003, “Motion to Intervene of Nonami Oglethorpe, LLC under CP15-17.” Continue reading Nonami Oglethorpe moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

Gulf Restoration Network moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

An environmental organization protecting the Gulf of Mexico and the wetlands and the streams and rivers flowing into it has filed a motion to intervene with all three parts of the fracked methane pipeline project including Sabal Trail, using a form of filing that other groups could copy.

GRN is concerned that the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, and other components of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project, is not justified by any existing need and that their construction and operation will unnecessarily destroy coastal wetlands and impair water quality in rivers and streams in Alabama and Florida, with attendant impacts on the Gulf.

Here’s how to file a motion to intervene. GRN’s was filed with FERC 19 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141219-5312, “Motion to Intervene of Gulf Restoration Network, Inc. under CP15-17, et al”. -jsq Continue reading Gulf Restoration Network moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

A fourth Florida LNG export request: Strom, Inc. from Starke, FL

Still time to object to this fourth company filing to export Sabal Trail fracked methane, adding to the three already authorized. FERC knew about this Strom LNG export request before the last three FERC Scoping Meetings, and never told us. This fourth LNG export operation will affect both the Santa Fe River watershed and the St Johns River watershed.

Strom, Inc. filed LNG export authorization requests with U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) 18 April 2014, all still being considered, all for liquifying in Starke, Bradford County, Florida, all for 25 years, and all explicitly saying they want to use Sabal Trail fracked methane.

In FE’s list of 2014 – LNG Export, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Re-Exports & Long Term Natural Gas Applications: Continue reading A fourth Florida LNG export request: Strom, Inc. from Starke, FL

Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Williams Co.’s excuse: “an insufficient level of firm customer commitment” for its Marcellus shale to Gulf of Mexico gas pipe. That’s corporate-ese for it got to be too expensive; it’s the same thing a company that wanted to put a biomass plant in Lowndes County said. Couldn’t have had anything to do with massive public resistance, oh no. This is the same Williams Co. that owns Transco, first in the chain of the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> Florida Southeast Connection pipeline through Alabama and Georgia to Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where there are already several companies authorized for LNG export. That one could get too expensive, too.

Tim Rudell wrote for WKSU 29 April 2014, Bluegrass pipeline project through Ohio and beyond is cancelled, Continue reading Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Explain why the gas is needed –EPA to FERC

EPA isn’t buying FPL’s need for new power in Florida,

or that methane is better than many alternatives (including that renewable energy sources should be considered together, not separately), or that a pipeline is the best way to get gas (specifically suggesting Port Dolphin instead), or that any of the proposed routes are appropriate, not to mention catching inconsistent numbers of compressor stations and asking to see any non-FPL customers. And EPA asked for GIS data, as well as further information on water withdrawals and water re-emitted into the environment. My favorite is this one:

EPA recommends FERC provide in the EIS readable and comprehensible maps and figures, and clearly describe all potential impacts with the proposed action upon children’s health. For example, maps of schools, day-care facilities, multifamily housing, and hospitals should have different legend colors and be created at scales providing appropriate information, i.e., proximity of sensitive receptors to the navigation and transportation corridors.

FERC shows EPA’s comments as filed 23 April 2014, although they are dated two days earlier. -jsq

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY Continue reading Explain why the gas is needed –EPA to FERC