Filed with FERC 30 September 2014:
Mary Rehberg, Albany, GA.
Albany and Dougherty County do not want, need or benefit in any way by this pipeline. These pipelines have been known to leak and to blow up. The pumping station needs jet turbines to pump the gas and the noise level will be horrific to anyone living near it. It should not be anywhere near any homes or businesses. We get all the risk and none of the benefit. We just do not want it!
How to comment with FERC.
FERC’s reps said their five Commissioners would decide in about a year, and Sabal Trail said they’d tune details and “educate the public” about the alleged “need” and “jobs” and “environmental safety” of their yard-wide fracked methane pipeline gouged through a hundred-foot right of way plus a compressor station. The public wasn’t having any of that in Albany, Georgia yesterday.
Update 30 Sep 2014: But that very same day, FERC rubberstamped Cove Point LNG in Maryland after “more than 140 speakers at three public meetings related to the Environmental Assessment and received more than 650 comments”, and that’s what we’re going to get with Sabal Trail, unless our elected and appointed officials go beyond talk and pass binding ordinances, deny permits, and countersue.
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Franklin White for WFXL 29 Sep 2014,
Public information meeting held for proposed pipeline.
PHMSA Administrator
Rather than stopping leaks and explosions, Cynthia L. Quarterman (no relation)
seems to spend a lot of time
testifying before Congress, see for example
these CSPAN videos.
Maybe now that “market forces” are shifting away from fossil fuels,
instead of chasing the white whale of pipelines for fracked methane to LNG export, we can get a new PHMSA Administrator who will do something about the lax safety of the pipelines we’ve got while we get on with shifting to sun, wind, and water power.
James F. Bowe, Jr. and Sara E. Peters wrote for Energy Newsletter, March 2014, Congress Probes Crude by Rail Safety Developments; Voluntary Industry-Regulator Agreement Addresses Safety Concerns, Continue reading Departing PHMSA Administrator has let regulated companies determine testing as LNG exports increase
Lori McCraney of 
Suwannee Alliance for Sustainable Growth wrote in the Suwannee Democrat 11 September 2014,
Guest commentary — Is the Sabal Trail pipeline necessary?
I am pleased that the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners has issued a resolution challenging the location of the Sabal Trail pipeline in the vicinity of the Withlacoochee River. Hamilton County resident Chris Mericle did an excellent job of explaining the risks of locating the pipeline in such fragile karst terrain. Sable Trails LLC quickly responded by saying that it will move the crossing to the west, possibly crossing the Suwannee River somewhere near the Suwannee River State Park.
The same problems still exist with tunneling under the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia and tunneling under the Suwannee River at two locations in Suwannee County. As Mr. Mericle explained about drilling under our rivers, “The horizontal directional drilling could intersect spring conduits, affect spring well flows, and ultimately river base flow. Grouting in this cavernous, Continue reading Is the Sabal Trail pipeline necessary? –Lori McCraney
FPL integrated ownership of fracking and pipelines to LNG export for its profit,
at the expense of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida landowners, U.S. natural gas customers, and of course
FPL ratepayers: that’s what FPL is hoping to wrap up at the Florida PSC.
FPL wants to buy the 50% its parent NextEra Energy bought of “independent” PetroQuest’s Oklahoma fracking operation back in 2010 before FPL put out its December 2012 RFP for what ended up being the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC methane pipeline to Martin County, Florida, plus an FPL pipeline from there to the sea at Riviera Beach. where meanwhile three LNG export operations have been authorized and a fourth LNG export operation has reqeusted a permit from FERC.
FPL’s PR of 25 June 2014 doesn’t mention most of the above, not even that NextEra already owns half of PetroQuest’s Oklahoma fracking operation. FPL proposes innovative plan to invest in natural gas to save customers millions of dollars and lower long-term fuel costs, Continue reading FPL to purchase NextEra gas fracking subsidiary in Oklahoma
Natural gas or oil pipelines are natural enemy targets,
in addition to the way they frequently
blow up on their own.
Why build such hazards when solar power is faster, cheaper,
cleaner, and doesn’t blow up?
Elad Benari wrote for Arutz Sheva 17 January 2014, Sinai Terrorists Blow Up Natural Gas Pipeline,
Strong explosion rocks central Sinai after explosives were planted beneath the gas pipeline connected to cement factories in the area.
What happens if someone blows up a solar array? Flying glass, which is bad, but nothing like blowing up the explosive fuel inside a natural gas or oil pipeline, not to mention distributed rooftop solar arrays would be very hard to destroy enough of to match the energy denial of one damaged pipeline.
Gas pipelines in Egypt has been attacked more than a dozen times Continue reading Pipelines as enemy targets
Another neighborhood in Dougherty County discovers it doesn’t like the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, including because it would further endanger the already threatened Flint River.
Sharon Wiggins wrote for WALB 19 August 2014, Dougherty County residents speak out against proposed pipeline,
Members of the Radium Springs community met Tuesday night to express their concerns about the proposed route of the Sabal pipeline project. The nearly 500 mile pipeline begins in Alabama, stretches through Georgia and ends in Florida. Those against it are concerned about the human, economic and environmental impacts it could have.
“We know that the Flint River is one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the United States,” said Gloria Gaines, Former Dougherty County Commissioner.”They’re concerned about the impacts that it could have on the ability to farm, to hunt, to fish, to recreate.”
Continue reading Radium Springs against Sabal Trail pipeline in Dougherty County
And Spectra, of the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline,
is also an oil pipeline company now.
Bill Trexler wrote for Emerging Markets 18 August 2014, Energy shares may fall again: Spectra Energy Corp. (SE), Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR), WPX Energy (WPX), Nabors Industries (NBR), Weatherford International (WFT), Transocean LTD (RIG),
Shares of oil companies gained as oil futures prices rose on Friday, after Ukraine said its artillery destroyed a large part of a column of armored vehicles seen entering Ukraine from Russia.
However, prices still posted losses for the week, as soft global demand pressured them down to multi-month lows….
Continue reading Spectra the war stock and oil company
Evidently Spectra’s Andrea Grover was too obviously failing to convince people to stop worrying and love the Sabal Trail pipeline, because FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy has taken up the mighty megaphone of methane talking points. And the Gainesville Sun ran him on the same page as Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and Jim Tatum of Our Santa Fe River, today, 18 August 2014. Here are the links and a few excerpts. Read ’em for yourselves!
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and Jim Tatum, Pipeline poses multiple problems,
Again, we must point out that Florida Power & Light just recently estimated that in 10 years the demand for power will increase approximately 13 percent, but the Sabal Trail’s new pipeline would have an increase of 33 percent delivery capability. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a report with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission saying that the recently completed (2011) Southeast Supply Header System was designed as an “alternative natural-gas source during hurricane-related disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico.”
That’s actually an underestimate Continue reading OSFR v. FPL: head to head in the Gainesville Sun
At that South Dougherty League meeting yesterday,
Gloria Gaines summed up Sabal Trail’s proposed compressor station near Albany, GA:
“This proposal should vehemently be challenged; it should be vehemently opposed.”
Aaryn Valenzuela reported for WALB TV yesterday, Proposed Sabal Trail pipeline and compressor station raises concerns, Continue reading Dougherty County fighting Sabal Trail pipeline