Not much change in routes, according to most observers so far,
in the maps Sabal Trail Transmission LLC filed with FERC 2 April 2014.
Lisa A. Connolly’s cover letter for Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC by Sabal Trail Management, LLC, Its Operator (notice the two levels of shell companies) to Ms. Kimberley D. Bose, Secretary, FERC says: Continue reading Sabal Trail submits alignment drawings to FERC
On 14 November 2013 the U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy
approved LNG export authority for a company located
next to the end of the Transco-Sabal Trail-FSC pipeline
in Martin County, Florida,
right where FPL is already building another pipeline to the sea.
All the time since then Spectra and FERC have been saying the Sabal Trail
pipeline is not for export.
FERC’s whole rationale
for federal eminent domain
for this pipeline is that Florida needs the power.
If the methane is really for export,
what excuse is there for federal eminent domain?
The order’s cover page says:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY
ADVANCED ENERGY SOLUTIONS. LLC ) FE DOCKET NO. I3~104-LNG
ORDER GRANTING LONG-TERM MULTI-CONTRACT
AUTHORIZATION TO EXPORT LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
IN ISO CONTAINERS LOADED AT THE
FLORIDIAN FACILITY IN MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA,
AND EXPORTED VIA OCEAN-GOING VESSEL
TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENT NATIONS
IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
DOE/FE ORDER NO. 3360
NOVEMBER 14, 2013
Friday 15 November 2013, the next day after that LNG authorization, Continue reading Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings
European leaders and the U.S. president are aware of opposition to fracking, even in Europe.
Robin Emmott and Jan Strupczewski wrote for Reuters 26 March 2014, Obama tells EU to do more to cut reliance on Russian gas,
U.S. President Barack Obama told the European Union on Wednesday it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
There is some bad news:
Speaking on a visit Continue reading Protests work, even against TPP, TAFTA, and EU demands for U.S. methane exports after Ukraine
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, 28 March 2014 — Come
to the SpectraBusters community panel about the Sabal Trail
methane Pipeline Saturday at Valdosta State University, to
learn how the pipeline could affect you, your property, and
our community. Discussion will be followed by a question and
answer session, in this free event, to which elected and
appointed officials and candidates and the public are
invited.
| Saturday 29 March 2014 3PM to 5PM Lowndes County Georgia |
SpectraBusters
Community Panel Student Union Theater Valdosta State University 1500 N. Patterson Street Valdosta, GA 31698 (229) 333-5800 |
Seen on Our Santa Fe River 20 March 2014. -jsq
Gas Pipeline Alert:
Core drill sampling: What happened and what DID NOT happen… Last week, OSFR, residents and Christopher Byrd (IREPHA lawyer) stopped Sabal Trails from drilling for core samples for the purpose of building a drilling platform on both sides of the Santa Fe River.
OSFR began receiving phone calls and emails last week about this drilling procedure. We were absolutely certain that this was a “cart before the horse” problem. There have been no completed Continue reading Core drill sampling
Received Monday 25 March 2014 as a PDF. -jsq
Three River Estates Property Owners, Inc.
P.O. Box 148
Fort White, FL 32038-0148
386-497-3320Position Statement on Sabal Trail/Spectra Energy Methane Pipeline
The Three River Estates Property Owners (TREPO) Board of Directors joins with other homeowners and conservation groups in strongly opposing the placement of the Sabal Trail Methane gas pipeline, anywhere in the Ichetucknee Springs Basin & Ichetucknee Trace & surrounding areas. We specifically oppose Continue reading TREPO allies with SpectraBusters and pipeline opponents
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, 23 March 2014 — All
of south Georgia and north Florida drinks out of the
Floridan Aquifer, where the FERC Scoping meetings and a
SpectraBusters community panel meet this week about Sabal
Trail’s attempt to take our lands to gouge a 100-foot
right of way for a 36-inch methane pipeline through our
fragile karst limestone, risking turning our springs into
sinkholes.
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?
Florida newspaper reporters are not buying the pipeline company’s spin. Instead they write about the fragile limestone that holds our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer, damage to which can easily turn a spring into a sinkhole. Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel about Spectra’s safety record, and today Morgan Watkins wrote for the Gainesville Sun, Expert: Pipeline would cross Santa Fe at the worst spot,
Standing along the bank of the Santa Fe River near the riverside house in southern Suwannee County his family has owned since 1967, Kevin Brown pointed to the spot where a natural gas pipeline is expected to cross underneath the ground.
But Brown’s brother David, a geologist, and other concerned folks hope to persuade the company leading the project to select what they consider a safer crossing point….
The river and the surrounding area is pockmarked with springs and sinkholes. Exposed limestone — a crumbly, fractured rock — Continue reading Sabal Trail at worst spot –expert in Gainesville Sun
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