Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Song: We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!

Ethics, FERC, Law, New York, , , , ,

We’ve all seen it here in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and our allies from New York went to FERC in DC to sing it: FERC’s a rubberstamp machine!

Here’s the video:


We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!
Video by NY Friends of Clean Air and Water

We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine!
(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
Recorded the 1 May 2014 (day of Minisink trial at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals).

LYRICS:
We’re here at FERC to have our say
So listen closely, don’t walk away
This is your country It’s yours to save Continue reading Song: We all know FERC’s a Rubber Stamp Machine! →

20 MW Solar at Hazlehurst, GA by Silicon Ranch for Green Power EMC

Georgia, Jeff Davis, Solar, , , , , , ,

After the 30+ MW solar farm in Social Circle, Walton County, GA for Georgia Power, another 20 MW one near Hazelhurst, Jeff Davis County, GA for Green Power EMC. Do this every month and Georgia will start to catch up with other states such as New Jersey. Somebody tell FERC solar is faster, cheaper, and far far cleaner than a dirty, dangerous, land-grabbing fracked methane pipeline.

PR 20 June 2014, Green Power EMC Project Boosts GA’s Supply of Solar Energy,

Green Power EMC, the renewable energy supplier for 38 Georgia Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs), has reached an agreement to purchase the full output of a new 20 megawatt (MW) solar project planned for construction in southeast Georgia.

The ground-mounted solar project will be constructed near Hazlehurst, Ga., in Jeff Davis County. It will be one of the largest solar generating facilities in Georgia. The solar array will occupy approximately 135 acres and will incorporate over 87,000 solar modules. Once completed, the solar array will generate more than 43,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable electricity annually.

Under an agreement with owner-operator Silicon Ranch Corporation, Continue reading 20 MW Solar at Hazlehurst, GA by Silicon Ranch for Green Power EMC →

Brenham, Texas, and the highly dangerous character of gas and its tendency to escape

Explosion, Florida, Hazards, Law, Leak, LNG, Safety, Texas, Washington County, , , , , , , , , , ,

Imagine the fireball in 1992 in Brenham, Texas on your land or next to your children’s school or in Riviera Beach or Tampa or Jacksonville. The pipeline companies that stored too much “natural” gas in a cavern 2,000 feet below ground that leaked and exploded and killed and injured people, incinerated cattle, and destroyed houses got off on some charges because they believed their own PR that their inherently dangerous product was safe. Will you accept a pipeline company’s bet that a yard-wide pipeline only a few feet below ground won’t leak or that an LNG storage or export facility in a highly populated area won’t leak? Or should we get on with clean, fast, safe, solar power in the Sunshine State and everywhere else?

A retired Air Force Colonel with an advanced degree in nuclear physics, Walter Carss, was an eye witness to the explosion. Carss said the countryside was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant flash of light. Turning in his chair, Carss looked in the direction of the cavern. There, he observed an enormous fireball billowing skyward. As the fireball cooled, it began to turn into a huge pillar of grey smoke. Carss then noticed a visible shock wave racing across the rural landscape. He watched the shock wave rip Continue reading Brenham, Texas, and the highly dangerous character of gas and its tendency to escape →

Say No to Sabal Trail! –Gulf Restoration Network

Environment, Explosion, FERC, Florida, Hazards, Leak, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You can join this new ally in telling FERC to say no to that useless, damaging, and dangerous fracked methane Sabal Trail pipeline.

Cathy Harrelson wrote for Gulf Restoration Network 12 June 2014, Say ‘No’ to the Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Florida’s besieged waterways are facing a new threat: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, wants to run a natural gas pipeline over, under and through our aquifers, rivers and springsheds. Our waters are already under threat from runoff pollution and over-pumping, and this major pipeline would risk sinkholes, gas leaks and aquifer contamination. Florida’s water is too important to take these risks— but we can say ‘no’ today!

Sabal Trail is seeking Continue reading Say No to Sabal Trail! –Gulf Restoration Network →

Pipeline EIA insufficient without interstate highway option –EPA

Constitution Pipeline, EPA, FE, FERC, Hazards, Law, New York, Pennsylvania, , , , , , , , , , , ,

If FERC needs to consider an interstate highway route for the Constitution Pipeline through Pennsylvania and New York State, it also needs to consider running down I-75 through Georgia and Florida for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. Just as numerous state and federal agencies insisted on that in New York and Pennsylvania, state agencies in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and the same federal agencies can insist on the same for the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC 100-foot-wide gash to the sea.

Joe Mahoney wrote for The Daily Star 17 April 2014, EPA deems pipeline study ‘insufficient’,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that a draft report on the environmental impacts of the proposed Constitution Pipeline is “insufficient,” and that a potential option of co-locating the transmission line along Interstate 88 “has Continue reading Pipeline EIA insufficient without interstate highway option –EPA →

South Georgia pipeline trials

Georgia, Lee County, Stewart County, , , , , , , , , ,

11AM 10 July 2014, Leesburg, Georgia, according to the Clerk of Court in Lee County: Sabal Trail Transmission v. James E. Bell II and Robert Bell, Case number 14CV208RS. Others tell me the Bells are countersuing Sabal Trail for going on their property despite being told not to. Whatever is decided there will affect every other pipeline land access case. This is an opportunity for pipeline opponents from everywhere to help: show up at the hearing, write a letter of support for the Bells, maybe even file a legal brief, or demonstrate nearby.

There was another case Continue reading South Georgia pipeline trials →

Pipelines bust mortgages

Economy, Fracking, , , , , , ,

Mortgage effects of fracking and methane pipelines have been a concern for more than two years now. Do you want a fracked methane pipeline through your property that you might want to mortgage someday or already have a mortgage on?

Ian Urbina wrote for the New York times 19 October 2011, Rush to Drill for Natural Gas Creates Conflicts With Mortgages,

Mr. May said the issue was causing “a high level of concern for prudent banks and lenders.” He and other bankers have also questioned how the growing grid of buried pipelines that carry natural gas from wells to consumers will comply with mortgage rules. A separate report from the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress, said signing a drilling lease without prior approval on a property with a mortgage owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac “generally will be considered an act of default under the mortgage.”

That could give either of the federally run companies the right to demand immediate payment of the full loan and even foreclose on the property if the owner cannot pay, the report said.

-jsq

LNG exports worse than coal –U.S DoE

Environment, FE, Law, Leak, LNG, Solar, Water, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The same Office of Fossil Energy (FE) that authorizes LNG exports now reports that methane leaks from fracking wells and pipelines are at least as bad for the climate as CO2 from coal. Add to that the destruction of private property rights, wetlands and forests, and overuse and contamination of groundwater, and fracked methane is a disaster. Plus it diverts resources that could be used to go straight to solar and wind power.

Steven Mufson wrote for the Washington Post 9 June 2014, Exporting U.S. natural gas isn’t as “clean” as you think,

The report is titled “Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Perspective on Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States.”

It says the benefits of cleaner, more efficient combustion of natural gas are largely offset by methane leakage in U.S. production and pipelines and by methane leaks and energy used in the process of liquefying and transporting the LNG. In the case of shipping LNG from the U.S. gulf coast to Shanghai, the greenhouse gas benefits could in some cases be completely offset by those factors when measured over a 20-year period, the report says.

The Energy Department report was released Continue reading LNG exports worse than coal –U.S DoE →

Sabal Trail and FSC want FERC to avoid considering fracking

Environment, FERC, FL PSC, Fracking, Law, Solar, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Of course FPL and Spectra don’t want FERC to look at fracking, but nothing in FERC’s own rules says it can’t, and a recent court case might be a precedent to get it to do so. Maybe Audubon Florida is discovering trying to tinker with pipeline routes is like signing up for the 1885 Berlin Conference that divided Africa by drawing lines on a map. Sierra Club Florida, Georgia, and Alabama already understand the only appropriate route for that fracked methane boondoggle is no route, with new power from the sun.

I’ve added a few links to these quotes from what Susan Salisbury wrote for the Palm Beach Post 5 May 2014, Fracking not an issue with pipeline for FPL’s plants, firms say, Continue reading Sabal Trail and FSC want FERC to avoid considering fracking →

FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects

Alabama, Environment, FERC, Florida, Fracking, Georgia, Law, LNG, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Solar, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Would this U.S. Court of Appeals ruling mean FERC needs to consider the cumulative effects of the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline on the same properties as the existing SONAT pipeline? And what about those LNG export authorizations FERC has repeatedly claimed it knows nothing about? And how can FERC justify that project at all, given that solar power is faster, cheaper, and far less environmentally damaging?

Katie Colaneri wrote for NPR 6 June 2014, Court rules federal regulators must consider cumulative impacts of pipeline project,

Regulators violated federal law by not considering the cumulative environmental impacts of multiple upgrades to a natural gas pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, a federal appeals court said on Friday.

Three environmental groups argued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should not have been allowed to conduct an environmental review for one expansion project on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline without considering three other proposed upgrades on the same line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed.

The judges ruled that FERC failed “to include any meaningful analysis of the cumulative impacts of the upgrade projects.” The judges also found Continue reading FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects →