Tag Archives: Williams Company

Spectra, Duke, NextEra, Williams, all members of ALEC super-lobby group

All the companies behind the Southeast Market Pipelines Project have representatives sitting in those back rooms voting on draft bills on an equal basis with state legislators, according to the latest information publicly availlable. Back in the news a year after an Atlanta TV station reported on an ALEC meeting in Savannah, ALEC is not just for Georgia, every state has legislators in that super-lobbying group, including Florida and Albama, taking those draft bills back to their legislatures and often getting them passed. Now you know why the same bad bills to ban home rule on fracking, to block renwable energy portfolios, to impose a solar tax, and of course to promote fracked methane pipelines, show up at the same times in states all across the country.

Brendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015, Legislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort. They found out quite a bit before ALEC had off-duty deputies throw them out of their hotel. Continue reading Spectra, Duke, NextEra, Williams, all members of ALEC super-lobby group

Two Sabal Trail-feeding pipelines delayed by FERC due to opposition

Williams talked up Atlantic Sunrise to feed Transco and Sabal Trail, and Spectra bought into Penneast. Now both have been delayed many months, shortly after the Georgia legislature resoundingly rejected river-drilling easements for Sabal Trail and Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida and WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come see the sinkholes, springs, and caverns Sabal Trail didn’t tell FERC about. You can ask Congress to get the GAO to investigate FERC.

Elizabeth Skrapits, Popular Resistance, 2 April 2016, FERC Postpones Decisions On Two Gas Pipeline Projects, Continue reading Two Sabal Trail-feeding pipelines delayed by FERC due to opposition

We will accept Sabal Trail’s answers –FERC issues certificates

Property rights, environment, or safety? 14% pipeline company profit is more important! said FERC. But this fight is not over.

Page 1 Without ever appearing on FERC’s public calendar, and a month in advance of when FERC previously said, FERC yesterday issued certificates for Sabal Trail, the Transco Hillabee Expansion Project, and Florida Southeast Connection. Trial-style evidentiary hearing? Nope, FERC believes Sabal Trail. Consolidation of the three dockets into one? Nope, everybody should have opposed all three, says FERC. Environmental justice? Hey, demographics don’t matter, pipeline siting is all about engineering and “environmental” issues. And profit. Don’t forget profit for the pipeline companies. Solar power? Nevermind, Continue reading We will accept Sabal Trail’s answers –FERC issues certificates

Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Penn. same problems as Sabal Trail

First the good news: a Pennsylvania pipeline protester had all charges dismissed for videoing license plates at a pipeline construction site. All of those plates were from out of state: so much for pipeline company promises of local construction jobs. Much else going on in Pennsylvania sounds very familiar.

Tom Knapp, LancasterOnline, 13 November 2015, Pipeline protester not guilty of disorderly conduct for filming at construction site,

Mark Clatterbuck, a Martic Township resident and professor of religion at Montclair State University in New Jersey, was issued a summons by state police after videotaping out-of-state license plates of subcontractors working at the Williams Gas pipeline project.

The incident occurred Continue reading Atlantic Sunrise pipeline in Penn. same problems as Sabal Trail

What companies are in Sabal Trail and related?

Who is Sabal Trail, anyway? Counties resolving against Sabal Trail might want to make their resolutions against any new pipeline, since there’s already another one proposed for Suwannee County (see below).

Sabal Trail owned and operated by….

Reviving a pipeline idea that failed in the Florida PSC in 2009, FPL put out a request for proposals that was won by Sabal Trail in 2013. Note the original proposed Sabal Trail path in the map below did not go through Georgia; why that changed is a long story apparently only known in full to Spectra, FPL, and Williams Co.

Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC was formed by Continue reading What companies are in Sabal Trail and related?

FERC meetings for Draft Environmental Impact Statement 28 Sep 2015 – 8 Oct 2015

Two weeks for all the public meetings, rushing to make the 20 November 2015 final EIS notice date, Meeting schedule for a final decision 18 February 2016.

The Draft EIS released Friday 4 September 2015 is very long, but the most basic question is very short: why is FERC rushing to rubberstamp the unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous Sabal Trail pipeline and its fracked methane siblings Hillabee Transco and FSC when there’s neither need nor public benefit?

The Sunshine State should go straight to solar power.

If you don’t want any of these pipelines, you can send in your comments both to FERC and to state and local agencies and elected officials in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, and show up at these FERC meetings to protest. You can also still file a motion to intervene with FERC. And don’t forget to call Georgia Gov. Deal.

Filed with FERC 4 September 2015 as Accession Number: 20150904-3011, “Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Southeast Market Pipelines Project re Florida Southeast Connection, LLC et al under CP14-554 et al.” Continue reading FERC meetings for Draft Environmental Impact Statement 28 Sep 2015 – 8 Oct 2015

Spectra a potential bidder for Williams Co. of Transco

Few taxes for “investors who receive fat yields” (such as Florida Gov. Rick Scott): that’s what Sabal Trail is for, as Spectra may be one of the bidders for Williams Company, of Transco and the Hillabee Expansion Project, where Sabal Trail aims to get its fracked methane. Not any unproven “need” by Florida. Not any nonexistant customers in Georgia. Profit by a few fat cats headquartered in Houston, Texas, plus Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

The end of this article is the bottom line (literally). Mike Stone and Greg Roumeliotis, Reuters, 5 August 2015, Exclusive: Energy Transfer advances in auction for Williams – sources,

Energy Transfer would be the latest MLP to propose using a C-corporation as a way to maximize tax advantages, increase cash flows and broaden institutional interest.

The sector had previously embraced the MLP structure because the tax burden is passed through to investors who receive fat yields. Because the partnership pays no taxes, it has a lower cost of capital.

WMB was following the lead of Kinder Morgan, according to Albert Alfonso, Seeking Alpha, 23 July 2015, Energy Transfer Equity Enters The Auction For Williams, Continue reading Spectra a potential bidder for Williams Co. of Transco

FL Gov. Scott Sabal Trail permit conflict of interest –FloridaBulldog

Florida’s Governor Rick Scott owns Williams Co. and other pipeline company stock, and that’s an issue with FL-DEP’s intent to issue a permit for Sabal Trail, says the reporter who broke the Rick Scott conflict story a year ago.

Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog, 4 August 2015, Gov. Scott’s pipeline investment gets a boost from Florida environmental regulators,

The Board of Trustees of Florida’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund owns the submerged lands, according to DEP’s notice. The board is comprised of the governor and Cabinet — Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and state chief financial officer Jeff Atwater.

There’s much more in the story, including that WWALS Watershed Coalition intends to file a protest with FL-DEP by this Friday, August 7th. WWALS confirms that, and adds: Continue reading FL Gov. Scott Sabal Trail permit conflict of interest –FloridaBulldog

A pipeline partner admits LNG export is possible

FERC had been saying no LNG export, yet the pipeline partners said a year ago 300x388 Introduction and map, in Mountain Valley Pipeline Non-binding Open Season, by EQT Midstream Partners, LLP and NextEra Energy, for SpectraBusters.org, 12 June 2014 in their Open Season: “as well as deliveries to Cove Point LNG”. NextEra, co-owner of Sabal Trail Transmission, is one of the Mountain Valley Pipeline partners. Sabal Trail and FERC have told us Sabal Trail is not for LNG export, yet they never told us about an already-approved LNG export license right where the Sabal Trail pipeline chain goes in Florida.

Duncan Adams, Roanoke Times, 25 June 2015, Mountain Valley Pipeline partner says operation could be used for exports,

A partner in the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline confirmed this week that natural gas transported by the pipeline could be one supply source for liquefied natural gas bound for India.

The news comes after Paul Friedman, a project manager for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, repeatedly — and publicly — dismissed concerns last month from pipeline opponents that natural gas transported through the pipeline would be exported.

WGL Midstream has a Continue reading A pipeline partner admits LNG export is possible

Pipelines don’t age, and we have no idea why Transco blew up (again) –Williams Co.

How do they say these things with a straight face?

Although the pipeline that ruptured was at least 4 decades old, company officials say pipelines don’t age —

Sure and their bathrooms don’t require air vents, because they don’t stink.

…and its maintained according to federal standards.

As in the standards the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (PHMSA) told Williams Co. to follow back in September 2012, before fining it for not doing so? The PHMSA standards that are so poor that Continue reading Pipelines don’t age, and we have no idea why Transco blew up (again) –Williams Co.