Tag Archives: oil

Natural gas pipeline carried oil which leaked: owned by a Spectra company

You don’t know when a natural gas pipeline might be carrying oil. You do know pipelines corrode and leak, and this one did. It’s owned by DCP Midstream, but guess who is a director there and which company owns half of it!

Odessa American, 14 April 2015, Crews begin oil spill cleanup in West Odessa,

Crews with DCP Midstream and the Ector County Environmental Office are assessing an oil spill that took place Tuesday afternoon in West Odessa.

Environmental office officials said they were called to Moss Avenue and West Third Street about oil coming from the ground.

The low-pressure pipeline, according to Scott McMeans, supervisor at DCP Midstream, was a natural gas line that leaked due to corrosion causing oil to flow out.

McMeans said that sometimes Continue reading Natural gas pipeline carried oil which leaked: owned by a Spectra company

Spectra already lost at FERC once; could also lose at NRC

FERC previously denied a Spectra pipeline, and now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) may prevent one. After three months of asking, John Peconom of FERC divulged how many pipelines FERC had ever denied: two, of which one was for a pipeline from an LNG site in Providence, Rhode Island, proposed by KeySpan LNG, L.P. and Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC, and denied by FERC 5 July 2005. According to Spectra Energy:

Continue reading Spectra already lost at FERC once; could also lose at NRC

Seize the opportunity to end fossil fuels and soar with sun, wind, and water power

The opportunity is here right now, with oil and gas dropping while solar power goes up like a rocket. We can end the century-long domination of fossil fuels and get on with a cleaner, safer, more prosperous world powered by sun, wind, and water. Oh, and pry those clammy oily hands off our political systems while we’re at it. Solar power is going to win anyway. And we have the opportunity to speed that victory fast enough to stop the fracking-junkie pipeline push, including stopping Sabal Trail and the Palmetto Pipeline.

Jon Queally, Commondreams, 25 March 2015, Naomi Klein: Shock of Oil Price Plunge Is Opportunity World Must Seize,

“Sometimes capitalism gives us a gift, and the sudden drop in oil prices is one of them. Think of what we could do, in rolling out renewable energy, for instance. We could take power and wealth generation away from multinationals and put it into the hands of communities. And we could ensure that the jobs paid a living wage and went to the people who need it most. The same goes for our food and transit systems.”

Continue reading Seize the opportunity to end fossil fuels and soar with sun, wind, and water power

If eminent domain is hardship to Mineral Interest Owners, it’s hardship to everyone else

If affected salt and other minerals in subsurface caverns are enough to deny a FERC permit, drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer should be, too. 1. Turtle Bayou Resolutions Marker, By Jim Evans, October 13, 2012 The “first formal protest of Texas colonists against Mexican tyranny” was signed at Turtle Bayou, Chambers County, Texas, where an Alabama Company four years ago wanted to store natural gas underground with an associated pipeline that FERC denied. Communities and local governments throughout the Floridan Aquifer have signed protests against fossil fuel company tyranny in the form of the unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

FERC denied that permit application for Turtle Bayou Gas Storage Company in 2011; one of only two pipeline applications that FERC’s John Peconom could find that FERC ever denied. The applicant appealed. FERC replied in Dockets CP10-481-002 and CP10-481-000, ORDER DENYING REQUEST FOR REHEARING OR RECONSIDERATION (Issued April 11, 2012), Continue reading If eminent domain is hardship to Mineral Interest Owners, it’s hardship to everyone else

Build FPL’s natural gas pipeline or not? –Palm Beach Post

FPL’s hometown newspaper never mentions solar or wind in an opinion piece asking whether you think the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is a good idea. You can comment directly in the newspaper. Maybe you’d like to send your comments to FERC, as well.

Palm Beach Post Opinion Staff wrote yesterday, Should FPL’s natural gas pipeline be built?

NextEra Energy, parent of Florida Power & Light, is contracting with Spectra Energy to run a natural gas pipleine 591 miles through the heart of the state, ending in Martin County.

FPL President Eric Silagy says the company needs the additional pipeline to provide redundancy and added capacity to the state’s existing natural gas pipleines. FPL is now the nation’s largest consumer of natural gas, he says.

It’s curious how FPL’s own projections in its 10-year plan don’t support Continue reading Build FPL’s natural gas pipeline or not? –Palm Beach Post

Ohio town fracked by well leak

A fossil fuel needle desperately trying to get another fix hit an artery and leaked oily mud and methane into a creek near Beverly, Ohio, forcing evacuation of people nearby. Once again, state agencies had to deal with a problem caused by a private company. This collateral damage drew in yet another fracking opponent, this time one founded by an opponent of the first Superfund.

Dean Narciso wrote for the Columbus Dispatch 8 May 2014, Shale well leaks during drilling process, forcing evacuations in Morgan County,

A Morgan County shale well being drilled in preparation for fracking began leaking on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of nearby residents.

State and federal environmental emergency-response teams and the drilling company finally contained the mess yesterday, but not before it reached a nearby creek.

The leak was discovered Continue reading Ohio town fracked by well leak

FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC

FPL doubled down on a need because it claims fracked methane is “clean”, in its FERC filing of 21 April 2014. FPL says it is “a strong supporter of solar power” even though it didn’t increase its solar capacity from 2010 to 2013 because of the lame baseload capacity excuse. FPL says it knows nothing about Export of Gas, even though Floridian LNG, located next to FPL’s Martin County “Clean Energy” Center right at the end of the Transco-Sabal-FSC pipeline, was approved for LNG export by the U.S. DoE Office Fossil Energy (FE) 14 November 2013, and Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy was approved for export from Florida by FE 27 July 2011. And FPL says its ratepayers are not paying the costs of the pipeline, even though FPL VP of development and external affairs Pam Rauch argued in pring 29 July 2012 for a “Clean Energy” (fracked methane) Center at Cape Canaveral that was one of several mentioned by the Tampa Times 24 October 2014 as a reason for a new pipeline, and that same Pam Rauch filed PF14-2 with FERC for the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) pipeline that connects from Sabal Trail to FPL’s “Clean Energy” Center in Martin County, next to Floridian LNG. FPL doesn’t seem to know what’s going on next to it, and maybe not what its own employees are doing. I hope EPA doesn’t consider the questions it filed with FERC the same day answered by this weak tea from FPL.

April 21, 2014
Ms. Kimberly D. Bose
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426

Subject: Southeast Market Pipelines Project
Docket Nos. PF14-1-000, PF14-2-000, and PF14-6-000

Dear Ms. Bose:

Florida Power & Light Company (“FPL”) hereby submits these comments in response Continue reading FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC

Less cost, more jobs, and better health with sun, wind, and water power for Florida, or a dirty destructive methane pipeline?

How about we recognize every place is the worst place for the water-risking land-taking hazardous methane pipeline, and get on with sun, wind, and water to power Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and all the other states?

According to Stanford University researchers, we can do that, and we can do it 100% by 2050, using technology that’s already available. For Florida, that’s 20% rooftop solar PV (half residential and half commercial and governmental), 47.9% solar PV plants, 10% concentrating solar plants, 5% onshore wind, 15% offshore wind, 1% each wave and tide, 0.1% hydroelectric. So that’s 77.9% sun, 20% wind, 1% wave, 1% tide, and 0.1% hydro.

Requiring 0% nuclear, 0% coal, and 0% natural gas. That’s right, Florida doesn’t need methane to shut down coal and nukes. All the Sunshine State needs is sun, wind, and water.

With 355,500 construction jobs and 149,000 operation jobs, $20.1 billion or 3% of Florida’s GDP saved in avoided health costs, 2,210 Floridans not dead from air pollution.

Oh, and 42.9% less energy used over all, plus energy costs to customers cut more than in half.

Who are you going to believe? Researchers at Stanford who have no financial stake in the outcome? Or pipeline companies and utility companies that stand to profit from taking Continue reading Less cost, more jobs, and better health with sun, wind, and water power for Florida, or a dirty destructive methane pipeline?

Judge strikes Nebraska Keystone XL pipeline law

This victory for landowners against eminent domain by an out-of-state company for the Keystone XL oil pipeline is relevant to the Sabal Trail methane pipeline, which is just as big a boondoggle for remote companies at the expense of local landowners and taxpayers.

Alison Sider and Alicia Mundy wrote for WSJ yesterday, Nebraska Judge Blocks Governor’s Keystone XL Decision: Court Decision a Victory for Opponents of the Pipeline Project

A Nebraska judge ruled Wednesday the law allowing the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline to be built across the state is unconstitutional, a move that could further delay the project.

Lancaster County District Court Judge Stephanie Stacy sided with three landowners who argued Nebraska’s governor shouldn’t be able to sign off on the pipeline’s route. The governor, Republican Dave Heineman, was handed that power in a law the state Legislature hastily passed in 2012. But the court ruled that under the state’s constitution, only Nebraska’s Public Service Commission could approve such a pipeline route.

The judge ruled the Legislature overstepped its bounds and the governor’s approval “must be declared null and void,” because it was based on an unconstitutional law.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who defended the law in court, said he would appeal the decision.

Georgia’s Public Service Commission hasn’t approved any route for Spectra’s Sabal Trail methane pipeline, and I don’t think Alabama’s has, either.

TransCanada said it was disappointed Continue reading Judge strikes Nebraska Keystone XL pipeline law

Judge lets pipeline company intervene in lawsuit

Stop the Sabal Trail pipeline early before it gets harder. Making a bad bet shouldn’t guarantee winning by legal judgment at the expense of landowners, methane pollution, and delayed solar deployment.

Gabriel Tynes wrote for Lagniappe yesterday, Pipeline company intervenes in lawsuit against Corps,

A federal judge has allowed pipeline company Plains Southcap to intervene in a lawsuit between Mobile Baykeeper and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, citing a rule of civil procedure permitting non-parties to step in to protect interests “that may be impaired by the disposition of the suit,” particularly those which existing parties “cannot adequately protect.”

Maybe the court should “adequately protect” the local watershed and drinking water supply from this kind of spill or worse: Continue reading Judge lets pipeline company intervene in lawsuit