Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Spectra and TransCanada competing in LNG export in British Columbia

TransCanada, of the notorious Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, is also competing with Spectra Energy for fracked methane export through an LNG export terminal on the British Columbia coast, and Spectra just got another approval for its “corridor” for not one but two giant pipelines to the Pacific Ocean.

Gordon Jaremko wrote for GPI 4 April 2014, NEB OKs Spectra (Westcoast) Tolls; Major Expansion Planned to Serve Pacific LNG,

Spectra Energy (Westcoast) received approval from the National Energy Board (NEB) for the stable base of its agenda: a 2014-2015 tolls and tariff settlement with customers of its current capacity of 3 Bcf/d.

The deal enables the BC grid to focus on a plan aimed at almost quadrupling its capacity by becoming the principal conduit between northern shale deposits and proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals on the Pacific Coast.

The settlement was not opposed or even questioned Continue reading Spectra and TransCanada competing in LNG export in British Columbia

Coffee & Conversation in Albany on the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Line 2014-04-08

Next Tuesday Greenlaw’s Executive Director Stephanie Stuckey Benfield will speak in Albany, Dougherty County, Georgia, about the proposed methane pipeline.

Coffee & Conversation on the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Line

Tuesday, April 8
8:00 – 9:00 am

Hilton Garden Inn
Downtown Albany
101 Front Street
Albany, GA 31701
Light Breakfast will be served

GreenLaw Executive Director
Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
will talk about Sabal Trail
and GreenLaw’s involvement

Continue reading Coffee & Conversation in Albany on the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Line 2014-04-08

Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings

On 14 November 2013 the U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy approved LNG export authority for a company located next to the end of the Transco-Sabal Trail-FSC pipeline in Martin County, Florida, right where FPL is already building another pipeline to the sea. All the time since then Spectra and FERC have been saying the Sabal Trail pipeline is not for export. FERC’s whole rationale for federal eminent domain for this pipeline is that Florida needs the power. If the methane is really for export, what excuse is there for federal eminent domain?

The order’s cover page says:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY

ADVANCED ENERGY SOLUTIONS. LLC ) FE DOCKET NO. I3~104-LNG

ORDER GRANTING LONG-TERM MULTI-CONTRACT
AUTHORIZATION TO EXPORT LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
IN ISO CONTAINERS LOADED AT THE
FLORIDIAN FACILITY IN MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA,
AND EXPORTED VIA OCEAN-GOING VESSEL
TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENT NATIONS
IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

DOE/FE ORDER NO. 3360

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Friday 15 November 2013, the next day after that LNG authorization, Continue reading Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings

Protests work, even against TPP, TAFTA, and EU demands for U.S. methane exports after Ukraine

European leaders and the U.S. president are aware of opposition to fracking, even in Europe.

Robin Emmott and Jan Strupczewski wrote for Reuters 26 March 2014, Obama tells EU to do more to cut reliance on Russian gas,

U.S. President Barack Obama told the European Union on Wednesday it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.

There is some bad news:

Speaking on a visit Continue reading Protests work, even against TPP, TAFTA, and EU demands for U.S. methane exports after Ukraine

Cancelled! Paddle Against the Pipeline on the Withlacoochee River

Update 9PM 16 April 2014: Cancelled due to flood-stage water levels in the Withlacoochee River, with more rain expected Friday. To be rescheduled.

7:30 AM Saturday 19 April 2014 on the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, put in at Old Quitman Road on the Brooks County side (just south of US 84): Paddle past where the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline would cross the Withlacoochee River, digging into our fragile karst limesone, above our drinking-water Floridan Aquifer. This is a joint event of Continue reading Cancelled! Paddle Against the Pipeline on the Withlacoochee River

FERC gets an earful in Florida

FERC’s John Peconom admitted FERC staff had never recommended denying a pipeline permit, and again admitted that the Commission had only ever denied two. He got an earful from local citizens in Marion County, Florida last night. The last FERC Scoping Meeting is tonight at the Citrus Tower in Clermont, Lake County, Florida.

Bill Thompson wrote for the Ocala StarBanner yesterday, Regulators get an earful over planned gas pipeline,

DUNNELLON — The last time an energy company installed its lines across Frank Atkins’ family’s property, grave markers in a family-owned cemetery were displaced.

The 85-year-old said that after Florida Power Corp. came through in the 1960s, he could not find the burial plot holding his mother, who died giving birth to him.

Now that a natural gas pipeline is slated to pass through his Citrus County land, Atkins said he’s concerned the one-acre cemetery, where more family members are buried, Continue reading FERC gets an earful in Florida

Core drill sampling

Seen on Our Santa Fe River 20 March 2014. -jsq

Gas Pipeline Alert:

Core drill sampling: What happened and what DID NOT happen… Last week, OSFR, residents and Christopher Byrd (IREPHA lawyer) stopped Sabal Trails from drilling for core samples for the purpose of building a drilling platform on both sides of the Santa Fe River.

OSFR began receiving phone calls and emails last week about this drilling procedure. We were absolutely certain that this was a “cart before the horse” problem. There have been no completed Continue reading Core drill sampling

Pipelines, property values, and insurance

What happens to your property values or homeowners insurance a pipeline company takes your land to gouge a path for its fracked methane or oil? It affects the property values not just of your land, but of your neighbors’, and yours and their property insurance. It also opens the pipeline company and associated businesses to civil lawsuits. And FERC’s assertion that federal law supersedes state and local laws for eminent domain does nothing to stop such lawsuits; many such lawsuits are winning lately. Not even the federal government is immune from pipeline lawsuits.

Stop the Pipeline has a good article, mostly about land near fracking wells: LOSS OF PROPERTY VALUES, DIFFICULTY GETTING MORTGAGES AND HOME INSURANCE,

“Another illustration is the gentleman who has had 63 acres for sale now for several years. He purchased the property as an investment, and now has three pipelines and an above ground valve. He can not give this property away. As he reaches retirement age his retirement has been stolen from him. This is no different than Enron or any other scandal, only it has been made legal thievery. There are two other pieces of property that have been for sale for several years, one of which is a large parcel of about 70 acres and the other is about 10 acres.”

The insurance industry has been studying this issue for years, and wants to steer clear of it. Continue reading Pipelines, property values, and insurance

Spectra submitted EA to BC for 2 pipelines to LNG export

Not one, but up to two pipelines for LNG export in a single “transportation corridor” in British Columbia, for 8.4 billion cubic feet per day in a single right of way, twice as much as earlier Spectra PR about this same project. Does anybody still doubt Spectra CEO Greg Ebel’s assertion that “I would expect we’ll have some involvement in all of” the North American LNG export terminals that Spectra’s pipelines “go right by”? And if Spectra wants to put two pipelines in that right of way in BC, what do they expect to do in the right of way they propose through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida? Sure, they haven’t said they want to do that here, but they didn’t say it about BC at this stage, either. Spectra thanks the aborigines of BC for sharing their objections and plows ahead anyway. We are all Indians to Spectra’s cowboys, but this time there are more of us.

Dave Michaels wrote yesterday for energeticcity.ca (I added the links and images), Gas Pipeline Application

Spectra Energy has handed in an Environmental Assessment Certificate application to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office for its Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission Project.

If approved, the project would ship as much as 4.2 (b) billion cubic feet per day through a pipeline from the Cypress area (southwest of Pink Mountain) to the Ridley Island Terminal, near Prince Rupert. The proposal now undergoes Continue reading Spectra submitted EA to BC for 2 pipelines to LNG export

TREPO allies with SpectraBusters and pipeline opponents

Received Monday 25 March 2014 as a PDF. -jsq

Three River Estates Property Owners, Inc.
P.O. Box 148
Fort White, FL 32038-0148
386-497-3320

Position Statement on Sabal Trail/Spectra Energy Methane Pipeline

The Three River Estates Property Owners (TREPO) Board of Directors joins with other homeowners and conservation groups in strongly opposing the placement of the Sabal Trail Methane gas pipeline, anywhere in the Ichetucknee Springs Basin & Ichetucknee Trace & surrounding areas. We specifically oppose Continue reading TREPO allies with SpectraBusters and pipeline opponents