Tag Archives: Osceola County

Sabal Trail Contractor Fairs: Ocala, Live Oak, Albany

Update 10 April 2016: And Moultrie, GA April 15th.

Trying to attract local support in counties where it wants compressor stations, Sabal Trail is holding Contractor Fairs, ignoring that:

Look in the dictionary under chutzpah (insolence), and you’ll see Sabal Trail’s picture. Two years ago in Gilchrist County, FL, Sabal Trail admitted Continue reading Sabal Trail Contractor Fairs: Ocala, Live Oak, Albany

The Empire Strikes Back: Spectra sues FL,GA,AL landowners

Reciting from the standard pipeline playbook, Spectra has started suing landowners. This while doughty rebels defeated 34 aye to 128 nay easements to drill under Georgia rivers, which could put a crimp in the Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail fracked methane boondoggle. Can we the people beat the Mickey Mouse fossil fuel empire?

Paul Brinkmann, Orlando Sentinel, 22 March 2016, Sabal Pipeline project files 160 eminent domain lawsuits,

The pipeline company insists that it already has federal and court authority to seize the property under the Natural Gas Act. Sabal claims its project must be under construction by June 21 and in service, by May 1, 2017.

Sabal Trail pipeline

According to maps provided by the utilities, the Sabal pipeline would come through the Four Corners area of northwestern Osceola County, dip south of Walt Disney World property, cross Interstate 4 near Celebration and connect with a hub of pipelines just west of Reunion Resort Golf Course.

The Greenpointe property is one of the biggest Continue reading The Empire Strikes Back: Spectra sues FL,GA,AL landowners

Sabal Trail in Albany, GA 2014-10-20

A Sabal Trail Open House in Albany, Dougherty County, GA Monday, then one in Jasper, Hamilton County, FL Tuesday. That’s the first two places in the route alternatives Sabal Trail just published. Does that mean Trenton, Gilchrist County, FL Wednesday and Kissimmee, Osceola County, FL Thursday? There is no published Open House schedule on sabaltrailtransmission.com or ferc.gov, so anybody who knows of more of these, let us know.

300x200 stiff upper lip: John Peconom of FERC, in FERC in Albany, by Jen Maloney, 29 September 2014 facebook event created today by Jen Maloney:

Sabal Trail “Open House”

Monday, October 20 at 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Hilton Garden Inn Albany Hotel
101 S Front St, Albany, Georgia 31701

The picture is by Continue reading Sabal Trail in Albany, GA 2014-10-20

Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives

A FERC comment period ending 15 November 2014 seems to mean Sabal Trail will miss its 31 October formal filing date. 300x391 Withlacoochee River Crossing Route Alternative, Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida (bare), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 No relief suggested for crossing the Withlacoochee River at the border of Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia (or inside Lowndes County next to Valdosta, according to several of the previous alternatives). And every proposed path still crosses the Suwannee River into Suwannee County.

Maybe that’s because the Dougherty County Commission and the Albany City Council actually stood up for their citizens, as did Gilchrist County (see Wacassassa Flats Alternative), while the Suwannee County Commission swallowed Sabal Trail disinformation and the Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council did little (except one letter from the Chairman) or nothing (except one letter from one Council member).

300x131 Sasser Route Alternative, Albany Compressor station Alternatives, Terrell, Lee, and Dougherty Counties. Georgia (bottom), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 There’s still time for Dougherty, Lowndes, and all the other counties and cities to pass ordinances, and to lobby state and federal agencies and elected and appointed officials. Oh, and there’s an election going on.

Also no mention of Sabal Trail’s Jasper, Florida Open House, 5-7:30 Tuesday 21 October 2014, but STT’s newspaper notice said the public is invited, so y’all come!

Filed with FERC today, 15 October 2014, Supplemental Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environment Impact Statement for the Planned Southeast Market Pipeline Project and Request for Comments on Environmental Issues etc. re Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC under PF14-1.

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Docket No. PF14-1-000

Continue reading Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives

Methane pipeline safety record questioned –Lauren Ritchie

A reporter for a major newspaper is calling Spectra on its safety record, and calling Spectra’s responses “not good enough”! After thirty years of Spectra safety promises, that’s putting it mildly. A Maine resident put it this way after the Spectra’s Searsmont compressor blowout: “we were clearly lied to”.

Lauren Ritchie wrote for the Orlando Sentinel today, Safety record of natural-gas pipeline partner raises concerns,

Spectra Energy Corp. along with FPL’s parent, NextEra Energy, would bury the 473-mile Sabal Trail pipeline expected to carry 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to just south of Orlando in Osceola County, where it would connect to another line for eventual delivery to FPL in Martin County.

Spectra’s safety record, however, leaves something to be desired.

Take, for example, the company’s Texas Eastern pipeline, a 9,200-mile Spectra project connecting Texas with the markets in the Northeast.

Between 2006 and 2013, the company had 21 “incidents” along the line, causing Continue reading Methane pipeline safety record questioned –Lauren Ritchie

Fight the Fracking Pipeline in Florida

PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Valdosta, 16 March 2014 — Florida forms the field for the pipeline fight this week, at a Suwannee County Commissioners meeting and three FERC Scoping Meetings. Plus later a SpectraBusters panel on the issues.

FERC Scoping Meetings*:
This week’s calendar:
SpectraBusters Panel:
In Conjunction with:

FERC Scoping Meetings*:

Continue reading Fight the Fracking Pipeline in Florida

Water supply more important than methane pipeline –Lauren Ritchie

“But this isn’t an issue just for tree-huggers. It’s one that every person who uses water ought to latch on to,” she wrote.

I added the links and the images below to what Lauren Ritchie wrote in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday, Move path for natural-gas pipeline to protect water supply,

Only a relatively small piece of a proposed natural-gas pipeline that is to cross three states would come through a corner of south Lake County, but the route is directly through one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Florida.

And, unfortunately, the pipeline is to be built by a company whose safety record is hardly sterling and whose tendency is to stare silently when asked questions about accidents.

I’d recognize the pipeline company from that description. Continue reading Water supply more important than methane pipeline –Lauren Ritchie

Watch Osceola County Commission live at 1:30 PM today

If you can’t get to Kissimmee today, you can watch it live on the Osceola County Commission’s website. And if you can’t get to that one, the pipelines are coming up at four other county commission meetings in Georgia and Florida from today through next week.

In addition to local landowner Monica Martin, she says the local Thai temple will also speak, Wat Florida Dhammaram, Theravāda Buddhist Temple.

And that’s not all:

Even many FPL allies oppose new methane pipelines, because of water, safety, health, fracking, property values, and other issues, and even county commissions in all three directly affected states (Lee County, Alabama started way back in May 2014) are having to respond to citizen concerns about unnecessary, environmentally damaging, and property-taking methane pipelines. Let’s go straight to solar and wind power!

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Even many FPL allies oppose new methane pipelines

FPL and Spectra could lose, because many organizations and individuals don’t want dirty methane pipelines when we can go straight to conservation, efficiency, and solar and wind power.

Kevin Spear wrote for the Orlando Sentinel 19 January 2014 Pipeline to bring natural gas to state,

Florida Power & Light Co. is on the cusp of getting the pipeline it has long wanted to carry natural gas from elsewhere in the nation to Central and South Florida to run the utility’s power plants.

But the proposed $3.6 billion project, which FPL hopes to start using in 2017, has drawn mixed responses from even groups that are usually allies.

Among them, Audubon Florida lauds natural gas as cleaner than coal when burned by power plants, while Sierra Club Florida opposes the line as likely to ensure that the state becomes further addicted to the fuel at the expense of developing solar power.

Other negative reactions include:

  • Contention by many environmentalists that the use of natural gas on the whole — from drilling to consuming — is as damaging to the environment as the use of coal.
  • Concerns that the route of the proposed pipeline is potentially harmful to Florida wetlands and aquifers.
  • Criticism from some environmental groups that Continue reading Even many FPL allies oppose new methane pipelines

Land owners affected by this project are listed as private (confidential) –James W Padgett to FERC about cemeteries in path of PF14-2 Florida Southeast Connection

Filed with FERC 18 November 2013:

James W Padgett, President
Olney-Alger Family Trust
42550 US Hwy 441 N
Okeechobee, FL 34972

November 7, 2013

Robert Sharra, Business Development
Florida Southeast Connection, LLC.
700 Universe Blvd
Juno Beach, FL 33408

Dear Mr. Sharra:

I am President, of Olney-Alger Family Trust Inc and represent the interest of the Padgett Cemetery in Indian River County and the Willis Cemetery in Osceola County. These two cemeteries are near the proposed route of the Pipeline Project PF14-2.

Continue reading Land owners affected by this project are listed as private (confidential) –James W Padgett to FERC about cemeteries in path of PF14-2 Florida Southeast Connection