Tag Archives: SONAT

Sabal Trail is proposiong an excessive number of crossings –Southern Natural Gas

July 27, 2015FERC, SafetyCompany, FERC, John S. Quarterman, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, Spectra Energy, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Even another pipeline company can’t get critical information out of Sabal Trail. Eight months after it requested details on proposed crossings by Sabal Trail of its existing pipelines, Southern Natural Gas Company is tired of waiting. And for good reason; Sabal Trail’s crossings exponentially increase risks of corrosion, leaks, and explosions:

The operational concerns associated with the high number of crossings create the potential for significant cathodic protection system issues for both operators. Continue reading Sabal Trail is proposiong an excessive number of crossings –Southern Natural Gas →

Kinder Morgan campaign contributions to GA Gov. Deal and Lt. Gov. Cagle

May 5, 2015Economy, Georgia, LNG, PoliticsCasey Cagle, Economy, El Paso Pipeline Partners, Elba Island, EPB, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, KMI, LNG, Nathan Deal, Politics, Sabal Trail Transmission, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, Spectra Energy, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Kinder Morgan contributed to the campaigns of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, and to numerous other elected officials, similar to Spectra Energy PAC and many other pipeline companies or associated political action committees. Could this have something to do with how Georgia state officials are not being very helpful to the citizens who overwhelmingly oppose both Kinder Morgan’s proposed Palmetto petroleum products pipeline through eastern Georgia and Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through southwest Georgia? Could it explain why the Georgia government seems to be treating both pipelines as if they were public-private partnerships with the state?

Searching Georgia Campaign Finance Commission campaign records show Kinder Morgan (KMI) subsidiary Southern Natural Gas (SONAT) contributed to a whole bunch of people, including Casey Cagle: Continue reading Kinder Morgan campaign contributions to GA Gov. Deal and Lt. Gov. Cagle →

No eminent domain for water-threatening unnecessary Sabal Trail pipeline –GA Rep. Dexter Sharper District 177

January 7, 2015Economy, Explosion, Florida, Georgia, Hamilton County, Hazards, Law, Lowndes County, Safety, Solar, Trees, WaterAgriculture, Dexter Sharper, drinking water, Economy, Education, eminent domain, explosion, Florida, Floridan Aquifer, forestry, Form 10-K, FPL, Georgia, Hamilton County, Hazards, insurance, John S. Quarterman, karst, Law, LCDP, limestone, Lowndes County, Lowndes County Democratic Party, Sabal Trail Transmission, Safety, SEC, solar, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Trees, Valdosta, Water, Withlacoochee RiverJohn S. Quarterman

The state representative for Valdosta and parts of Lowndes County cited their two resolutions and enumerated lack of need for a pipeline, threatening letters from Sabal Trail, alternative routes next to a school, ill effects on business including on forestry and agriculture and private property valuations, potential sinkholes due to drilling under the Withlacoochee River, including on the preferred route, or anywhere in the fragile karst limestone containing the Floridan Aquifer, plus Spectra Energy’s own SEC filings say it doesn’t have insurance to cover the kinds of safety problems in Spectra’s own history nor those pointed out by Southern Natural Gas Company. Dexter Sharper noted local evidence that solar power is cheaper and safer, and echoed the Lowndes County Democratic Party in writing:

“…we have a moral obligation to leave our children and grandchildren with an earth as safe, beautiful, and majestic as the one bequeathed to us by our parents and grandparents.”
For all these reasons, on behalf of my constituents and the citizens of Lowndes County and the state of Georgia, I oppose the Sabal Trail pipeline anywhere in the County of Lowndes or the State of Georgia.
I urge that FERC reject any permit for the Sabal Trail pipeline, or at the very least move it entirely out of the State of Georgia.

Filed 7 January 2015 with FERC as Accession Number: 20150107-5100, “Comment of Dexter Sharper, Georgia State Representative, District 177, under CP15-17.” Continue reading No eminent domain for water-threatening unnecessary Sabal Trail pipeline –GA Rep. Dexter Sharper District 177 →

MGAG didn’t contact local governments before agreeing with Sabal Trail

November 25, 2014Colquitt County, Dougherty County, Georgia, LawAlbany, Colquitt County, Dougherty County, Georgia, Hillabee Expansion Project, John S. Quarterman, Law, Moultrie, Sabal Trail Transmission, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Transco, Williams CompanyJohn S. Quarterman

Looks like Spectra is still making stuff up. Apparently Spectra got one of its usual pipeline distributors to make a deal in Georgia for Sabal Trail without that distributor ever asking its own customers whether they needed the gas. This is very convenient for undercutting opposition to Sabal Trail’s threats of Georgia eminent domain, but not very useful to the named counties or to Sabal Trail’s own credibility.

Remember Sabal Trail’s FERC Filing in Docket CP15-17 said on page 11: Continue reading MGAG didn’t contact local governments before agreeing with Sabal Trail →

Why accepting a natural gas easement is a bad deal

November 16, 2014Environment, Ethics, FE, FERC, Fracking, Hazards, History, Law, LNG, Solareasement, environment, Ethics, FE, FERC, Fracking, Government, Hazards, History, John S. Quarterman, Jon Wellinghoff, Kinder Morgan, KMI, Law, LNG, LNG export, national security, solar, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Here are a few things you get with a pipeline easement: no right to grow trees on it, limited right to put up fences, and if you do, you have to have gates in them that the pipeline company can put their own lock on. But you do get to continue to pay taxes on land you can no longer fully use; land that now contains a potentially corrosive, leaky, explosive hazard that you can’t tap for your own use. And you do get pipeline company contractors coming through at their convenience to mow or otherwise clear the right of way. Contractors who may be somewhat unclear on where the right of way ends and your trees, for example, start. Without ever having to notify you then or tell you later what happened. And it’s even worse than that: you may get another pipeline, and meanwhile the pipeline company will claim rights over local governments and developments. All while the world has changed and the sun has risen on a better way.

All bets are off if there’s a pipeline break

Continue reading →

An unnecessary threat by an unsafe company –Ted Turner’s Nonami Plantation to FERC about Sabal Trail

November 14, 2014Compressor, Dougherty County, FERC, Georgia, Law, Safety, WaterAlbany, compressor, Dougherty County, FERC, Georgia, habitat, John S. Quarterman, Joshua D. Marks, karst, Law, limestone, Nonami, property values, Safety, sinkhole, SONAT, SpectraBusters, Ted Turner, Terrell County, Water, wildlifeJohn S. Quarterman

And checkered pipeline company safety records, says Nonami:

The Project is Not Necessary and Thus Fails to Satisfy FERC Requirement of Being Publicly Necessary and Convenient
If Project is Proven Publicly Necessary, Alternative, Less Impactful Routes Exist
Pipeline Threatens the Property and the Community
Station Threatens the Property and the Community
Sabal’s Proponents have a Checkered Safety Record
Formal Public Opposition
Conclusion

I’ve added a few links and illustrations, but Nonami’s filing is so thorough it would take a long time to link to all the evidence.

Filed with FERC 13 November 2014, Comment filed on behalf of Nonami Oglethorpe, LLC by Davis, Pickren, Seydel & Sneed, LLP under PF14-1. Continue reading An unnecessary threat by an unsafe company –Ted Turner’s Nonami Plantation to FERC about Sabal Trail →

Needless risk through unnecessary crossings –SONAT to FERC about Sabal Trail

November 14, 2014Corrosion, Economy, FERC, GeorgiaBerrien County, boring, corrosion, crossings, Economy, FERC, Georgia, John S. Quarterman, Kinder Morgan, risk, soil, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, SpectraBustersJohn S. Quarterman

Disturbance of soil, exacerbating corrosion, needless risk through unnecessary crossings, and cutting corners through inappropriate boring methods: when even another pipeline company calls you out for those things, you’ve got a problem, Sabal Trail. And Southern Natural Gas just did that in ecomments to FERC.

SONAT should be worried about this after last week in Berrien County, Georgia:

Each crossing poses a risk during construction of the crossing as well as ongoing risks during operation and maintenance of the pipelines. Since the SNG pipeline must remain in service during construction of the crossings, each time Sabal Trail bores under, or cuts under, the SNG pipeline there is an increased risk that the integrity of the SNG pipeline will be compromised.

A humble county ditch puller broke SONAT’s pipeline on Bradford Road, resulting in Sheriff’s deputies from two counties, a city 911 vehicle, and an ambulance being scrambled, in addition to a fleet of Kinder Morgan vehicles. And me, since this break was only a few miles from my house, and the valve they used to turn off Berrien County is on my property. Neighbors I’ve known all my life were evacuated. One spark and they wouldn’t have had anything to come back to. And this was a 9 or 10-inch pipeline at 800PSI. Sabal Trail wants to run a 36-inch pipeline at twice the pressure, more than 20 times the gas. Why should any of us accept that risk for Sabal Trail’s corner-cutting profit?

You should have seen the face the Kinder Morgan rep on the spot pulled when I mentioned Sabal Trail. Now we can see spelled out what SONAT really thinks about their competitor, including: Continue reading Needless risk through unnecessary crossings –SONAT to FERC about Sabal Trail →

Sabal Trail to TECO to Jaxport for LNG export?

October 18, 2014Alabama, Duval County, EPA, Ethics, Florida, Fracking, Georgia, LNG, PoliticsAlabama, campaign, contribution, Duval County, EPA, Ethics, FGT, Florida, FPL, Fracking, Georgia, Gulfstream, Jacksonville, Jaxport, John S. Quarterman, LNG, LNG export, Nathan Deal, Politics, Rick Scott, Robert Bentley, Sabal Trail Transmission, Sempra Energy, SONAT, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Tampa, TECOJohn S. Quarterman

Marcellus Shale fracked methane through Atlantic Sunrise to Transco to Sabal Trail to TECO to Jaxport for LNG export? And maybe an explanation for why Sempra Energy, like Spectra Energy, donated to both GA Gov. Nathan Deal’s and AL Gov. Robert Bentley’s re-election campaigns. Sempra apparently wants to export Marcellus Shale gas from Jacksonville, and Sabal Trail is the proposed conduit for that through Alabama and Georgia to Florida.

John Burr wrote for Jacksonville Business Journal 10 March 2014, TECO Peoples Gas looks to expand natural gas pipeline to Jacksonville, Continue reading Sabal Trail to TECO to Jaxport for LNG export? →

FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects

June 7, 2014Alabama, Environment, FERC, Florida, Fracking, Georgia, Law, LNG, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, SolarAlabama, court, cumulative, Delaware Riverkeeper, environment, FERC, Florida, Florida Southeast Connection, Fracking, Georgia, Hillabee Expansion Project, John S. Quarterman, Law, LNG, National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Sabal Trail Transmission, Sierra Club, solar, SONAT, Southeast Market Pipelines Project, Spectra Energy, SpectraBusters, Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Transco, Williams CompanyJohn S. Quarterman

Would this U.S. Court of Appeals ruling mean FERC needs to consider the cumulative effects of the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline on the same properties as the existing SONAT pipeline? And what about those LNG export authorizations FERC has repeatedly claimed it knows nothing about? And how can FERC justify that project at all, given that solar power is faster, cheaper, and far less environmentally damaging?

Katie Colaneri wrote for NPR 6 June 2014, Court rules federal regulators must consider cumulative impacts of pipeline project,

Regulators violated federal law by not considering the cumulative environmental impacts of multiple upgrades to a natural gas pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, a federal appeals court said on Friday.

Three environmental groups argued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should not have been allowed to conduct an environmental review for one expansion project on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline without considering three other proposed upgrades on the same line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed.

The judges ruled that FERC failed “to include any meaningful analysis of the cumulative impacts of the upgrade projects.” The judges also found Continue reading FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects →

It seems that they just draw lines at random –James Ryder via Sen. Marco Rubio

June 7, 2014Brooks County, Economy, Environment, Ethics, FERC, Florida, Georgia, Law, Trees, WaterBrooks County, Economy, fair market value, FERC, Florida, FPL, Georgia, James Ryder, John S. Quarterman, Law, Marco Rubio, Morven, SONAT, Southern Natural Gas, Spain Road, SpectraBusters, Susan Waller, Tracey Ryder, Trees, Water, wetlandsJohn S. Quarterman

Florida’s other Senator just intervened with FERC on behalf of a landowner who has been trying to get reasonable solutions out of Spectra Energy since at least December. Sabal Trail is trying to force their unnecessary pipeline through this Brooks County, Georgia property among others that already have a gas pipeline: this one also already has an FPL power line. Why should FPL get to deface anybody’s property for both a power line and a pipeline while destroying wetlands and trees? Why do we think this will be the last pipeline if it is allowed to go in? As the Ryders ask, “If this was your farm, how would you like it divided?” How about not at all?

Filed with FERC 6 June 2014 as Senator Marco Rubio submits comments re the Southeast Market Pipelines Project under PF14-1. Florida Senator Bill Nelson intervened on behalf of Amelia Longley back on 1 November 2013.

Cover letter Continue reading It seems that they just draw lines at random –James Ryder via Sen. Marco Rubio →