Tag Archives: LAKE

FERC refuses to release RFP for environmental contractor

FERC is less transparent about a $3 billion project than a local library board was about a $10 million project. Last night in Valdosta FERC again failed to provide the RFP used in selecting the environmental contractor to be used on all three of the proposed connected methane pipelines. I’ve never heard of any other tax-funded agency refusing to release an RFP of which they have a copy. Have you?

FERC Kevin Bowman environmental protection specialist (pictured on the left) said he’d never heard anyone request an RFP before. He should talk to his FERC co-worker John Peconom (pictured on the right), because, as I mentioned when I stood up to talk, Peconom had already refused to release that RFP.

At the make-up Open House in Moultrie I asked John Peconom for: Continue reading FERC refuses to release RFP for environmental contractor

Spectra Energy — Be the Best it Can Be –Mike Benard

Mike Benard sent this today to Spectra’s Andrea Grover, copied to a long list of news media and local, state, and federal elected and appointed officials and employees. For local background, see Spectra reps unfamiliar with Spectra fines @ LCC 2013-12-09. -jsq

Ms. Grover:

Those of us property owners who are already Spectra Energy “stakeholders” (the company’s term), want Spectra Energy to be the best it can be, consistent with its publicly stated commitment to Stakeholder Engagement, Integrity, Transparency, and Accountability.  

Reference link:  http://www.spectraenergy.com/Sustainability/Economic/Acting-with-Integrity/

To that end, and regarding your activities as a “Director of Stakeholder Outreach” on behalf of Spectra Energy’s proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, property owners in Georgia report that you are asserting the following at public meetings:

•  You assert that property owners at Spectra Energy’s Steckman Ridge compressor facility in Bedford County, PA are “happy” despite ongoing problems there and a consistent lack of response from Spectra Energy to its “stakeholders.”  

FACT:  I speak for more than a dozen families who live next to or near the problematic compressor facility; and your statement is incorrect and misleading.  What facts do you have to support such a disingenuous allegation?  A ring of health, water and operational complaints surround this facility that began operations in 2009.  Based on unofficial record keeping by neighbors, there have been nearly 60 shutdowns, blowdowns and related incidents at the Steckman Ridge compressor station and underground natural gas storage facility between August 2009 and the present.  And there is much more, as you know.

You assert that uncontrolled releases of methane and other hydrocarbons that happen too frequently at the Steckman Ridge compressor facility are “normal.”  Let’s hope not.  Your assertion is uninformed and misleading.  

FACT:  Recall the March 9-10 incident Continue reading Spectra Energy — Be the Best it Can Be –Mike Benard