Usually it’s pipelines that explode, but 20 firetrucks rushed to a methane power plant in Didcot, Oxon, tonight. Somebody remind me: why are we building more of these when solar power is cheaper, faster, cleaner, and never leaks or explodes?
BBC 19 October 2014, Major fire at gas-fired Didcot B power station, Continue reading Major fire at Didcot natural gas plant in Oxfordshire, England
Update 28 Sep 2014: With details from Bill Huston. The main point remains:
“Supporting the pipeline proposal as it stands amounts to surrendering our future to the petroleum industry.”
That about sums it up, both for Kinder Morgan’s Constition Pipeline Northeast Direct project (NED)
through Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts,
and for Spectra and FPL’s Sabal Trail pipeline through Alabama, Georgia,
and Florida.
Parry Teasdale wrote for The Columbia Paper of Ghent, NY 25 September 2014, EDITORIAL: Stop this pipeline,
The proposed pipeline would reportedly run beneath 55 private properties in Columbia County if it’s approved by federal regulators. The property owners would have to grant rights of way to the company. Neither the towns nor the county could intervene.
The editorial doesn’t really buy that last: it laster asks local governments to intervene.
Opponents say that property values along and nearby Continue reading Stop this Pipeline –Columbia Paper not buying the script
PHMSA Administrator
Rather than stopping leaks and explosions, Cynthia L. Quarterman (no relation)
seems to spend a lot of time
testifying before Congress, see for example
these CSPAN videos.
Maybe now that “market forces” are shifting away from fossil fuels,
instead of chasing the white whale of pipelines for fracked methane to LNG export, we can get a new PHMSA Administrator who will do something about the lax safety of the pipelines we’ve got while we get on with shifting to sun, wind, and water power.
James F. Bowe, Jr. and Sara E. Peters wrote for Energy Newsletter, March 2014, Congress Probes Crude by Rail Safety Developments; Voluntary Industry-Regulator Agreement Addresses Safety Concerns, Continue reading Departing PHMSA Administrator has let regulated companies determine testing as LNG exports increase
How desperate is the pipeline industry getting?
One has gone so far as to demand a court grant it veto power over public open records.
Kala Kachmar, Montgomery Advertiser, 17 September 2014, Alagasco sues Advertiser to stop use of pipe safety plan,
Alabama Gas Corporation has taken legal action to attempt to stop the Montgomery Advertiser from publishing or writing about the company’s document that outlines a plan to ensure the safety of gas pipes.
The document, Alagasco’s Distribution Integrity Management Plan (DIMP), was obtained in June through a public records request to the Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC), which oversees the state’s utilities.
All gas companies are required by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to file a plan that assures pipeline safety and integrity with the state entity that oversees utility companies.
The regulation requires Continue reading A methane pipeline company sues a newspaper about publishing open records
All members of the Dougherty County Commission signed a letter saying
“we grow increasingly concerned” that FERC and Sabal Trail aren’t
listening to concerns of Dougherty County citizens.
And that was after one August meeting of citizens discussing
and opposing that fracked methane pipeline;
Dougherty County citizens have held at least
four such meetings by now.
Maybe the Dougherty County Commission would like to
take legal action
by passing a land-use ordinance regulating pipelines.
many other County Commissions that are going to be affected by
And maybe the Alternative 1,
Alternative 2,
or
Alternative 3
if the pipeline gets moved from its current proposed path
might want to also take action.
Here are images of the pages the Dougherty County
Commission sent to
FERC
5 September 2014, starting with the two pages of the Commission’s letter
dated 25 August 2014, three pages of a stakeholder writeup signed by Dinorah Hall,
two pages not depicted that were broken TIFFs, but presumably contained
the 13 August 2014 Albany Herald story about the South Dougherty League meeting,
and a Limited Warrantee Deed dated 24 May 2014 transferring 79.184 acres from
Down Home Plantation LLC to Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which.
the Dougherty County Commission guesses is for a compressor station.
It’s not like that land transfer is a secret. Searching for Sabal Trail in Continue reading We grow increasingly concerned –Dougherty County Commission to FERC
Lori McCraney of 
Suwannee Alliance for Sustainable Growth wrote in the Suwannee Democrat 11 September 2014,
Guest commentary — Is the Sabal Trail pipeline necessary?
I am pleased that the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners has issued a resolution challenging the location of the Sabal Trail pipeline in the vicinity of the Withlacoochee River. Hamilton County resident Chris Mericle did an excellent job of explaining the risks of locating the pipeline in such fragile karst terrain. Sable Trails LLC quickly responded by saying that it will move the crossing to the west, possibly crossing the Suwannee River somewhere near the Suwannee River State Park.
The same problems still exist with tunneling under the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia and tunneling under the Suwannee River at two locations in Suwannee County. As Mr. Mericle explained about drilling under our rivers, “The horizontal directional drilling could intersect spring conduits, affect spring well flows, and ultimately river base flow. Grouting in this cavernous, Continue reading Is the Sabal Trail pipeline necessary? –Lori McCraney
Safety, property values, insurance, schools: same concerns about Spectra’s
Algonquin pipeline as about its Sabal Trail pipeline.
Plus Algonquin runs by the safety-paper-forging Indian Point nuke!
Nothing to worry about, says Spectra’s Marylee Hanley,
same as she said about that compressor leak at Steckman Ridge,
and same as Spectra said about Searsmont, Maine, where residents
say they were lied to.
New York residents aren’t buying that; they don’t want their property and lives risked for LNG export profit.
They already had 50 people
in a meeting in July, and they’re doing more.
And FERC
has actually denied a Spectra Algonquin pipeline permit before;
time to do it again!
Lanning Taliaferro wrote for Ossining-Croton-on-Hudson Patch 25 August 2014, Opponents Set Sept. 3, 4, 13 Info Sessions on Natural Gas Pipeline Project,
Residents and elected officials throughout Westchester and Putnam Continue reading Citizens meet against Spectra’s Algonquin pipeline
Natural gas or oil pipelines are natural enemy targets,
in addition to the way they frequently
blow up on their own.
Why build such hazards when solar power is faster, cheaper,
cleaner, and doesn’t blow up?
Elad Benari wrote for Arutz Sheva 17 January 2014, Sinai Terrorists Blow Up Natural Gas Pipeline,
Strong explosion rocks central Sinai after explosives were planted beneath the gas pipeline connected to cement factories in the area.
What happens if someone blows up a solar array? Flying glass, which is bad, but nothing like blowing up the explosive fuel inside a natural gas or oil pipeline, not to mention distributed rooftop solar arrays would be very hard to destroy enough of to match the energy denial of one damaged pipeline.
Gas pipelines in Egypt has been attacked more than a dozen times Continue reading Pipelines as enemy targets
Another neighborhood in Dougherty County discovers it doesn’t like the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, including because it would further endanger the already threatened Flint River.
Sharon Wiggins wrote for WALB 19 August 2014, Dougherty County residents speak out against proposed pipeline,
Members of the Radium Springs community met Tuesday night to express their concerns about the proposed route of the Sabal pipeline project. The nearly 500 mile pipeline begins in Alabama, stretches through Georgia and ends in Florida. Those against it are concerned about the human, economic and environmental impacts it could have.
“We know that the Flint River is one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the United States,” said Gloria Gaines, Former Dougherty County Commissioner.”They’re concerned about the impacts that it could have on the ability to farm, to hunt, to fish, to recreate.”
Continue reading Radium Springs against Sabal Trail pipeline in Dougherty County
There’s no safe way for the yard-wide Sabal Trail fracked methane
pipeline through the
fragile karst limestone containing
the Floridan Aquifer, according to what Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection
told FERC back in April.
And what’s this about
seven foot pipeline depth in Florida, while
Spectra’s Andrea Grover complained
in the Valdosta Daily Times about requests for five feet deep in Georgia?
FL-DEP points out that caves might not support a pipeline and testing or drilling could easily cause sinkholes. Plus blasting could change local hydrology.
The situation is actually worse than FL-DEP described. We don’t know that contamination couldn’t come from BCPs carried from Spectra’s Texas Eastern pipeline, or radon from the Marcellus Shale, in addition to the solvents FL-DEP mentioned. We don’t know the pipeline would carry only a gaseous product; it could be sold and used for something else. And as DEP says, it’s not just leaks that are the problem: the pipeline would require large amounts of testing water that would have to come from somewhere and go back somewhere, presumably contaminated with whatever was in the pipeline. What guarantee do we have that contamination wouldn’t go down those borings under our riverbeds?
Filed with FERC 18 April 2014 as four pages of the 74-page “Florida State Clearinghouse comments on Dockets # PF14-1, et al Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Planned Southeast Market Pipelines Project (Sabal Trail and Florida Southeast Connection Projects).” Some of it was also submitted to FERC by Florida’s Suwannee River Water Management District, but there is new material here; especially that superimposition map. Continue reading Sabal Trail pipeline considered harmful for karst limestone Floridan Aquifer –FL-DEP