Tag Archives: Williams

Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Spectra, FPL, and Williams have not even formally filed with FERC for pipeline permits yet, and that process usually takes about a year. Permitting confusion benefits Spectra about its Sabal Trail Transmission 36-inch hundred-foot-right-of-way fracked methane pipeline, because people don’t know what they can do. You can file ecomments right now, and show up and protest. As soon as the pipeline company files for the formal permit process, you can file as an intervenor, which gives you legal rights to be heard, file legal briefs, and to appeal. Plus many state and local permits also have to be filed, and people can participate in those processes. Even if there ever is a FERC permit, a landowner who makes the pipeline company actually go through the eminent domain process will very likely get a better deal. If enough landowners say Come and Take It, the whole thing may become uneconomical for Spectra, as for Williams Company when it cancelled the Bluegrass Pipeline in Kentucky.

FERC’s Pre-Filing Process

Spectra and Williams and FPL are currently in the pre-filing process with FERC, Continue reading Timeline: Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline has no permit yet

Princeton asks FERC to reject, Congressmen and Senators ask for safety review

Last week, Princeton, New Jersey, resolved to ask FERC to reject Williams Transco’s current plan for a 42-inch pipeline. This week, U.S. Congress and Senate members from New Jersey asked FERC to “review all safety issues”. This is all partly because a Transco contractor was involved in an explosion in March. Spectra was the “probable cause” of the 1994 Durham Woods, NJ pipeline explosion and fire, according to NTSB. Seems like time for some town around here to ask FERC to reject the Sabal Trail pipeline, and for Congressmen and Senators to join in.

2014-06-04: Contractor being sued for Ewing explosion to build Transco pipeline in Princeton, Montgomery, By Nicole Mulvaney/The Times of Trenton, Continue reading Princeton asks FERC to reject, Congressmen and Senators ask for safety review

Williams Transco explosion in Appomattox Virginia 2008-11-14

Almost $1 million PHMSA fine to Williams Transco for safety regulation violations that let corrosion continue until a pipeline exploded near Appomattox, Virginia in 2008, taking out two homes and injuring five people, with local and state governments footing the bill as usual for the pipeline company failure. Yet Transco let much the same thing happen again in 2011 in Marengo County, Virginia, after which even PHMSA said “Transco has a history of cathodic protection [corrosion] concerns on other segments.”

The Lynchburg News & Advance wrote 11 August 2009, Company fined in Appomattox pipeline explosion, Continue reading Williams Transco explosion in Appomattox Virginia 2008-11-14

Williams explosion and fire, Opal, WY 2014-04-23

Fourth major incident this year for Williams, this time in Wyoming. Yet again locals and their local and state governments were left to pick up the tab, and the cause is still “under investigation”.

Ryan Parker wrote for the Denver Post 23 April 2014, Wyoming town evacuated after gas plant explosion,

There was an explosion followed by a fire Wednesday afternoon at the Williams Gas Plant near Opal, Wyo..

The entire town of Opal was evacuated Continue reading Williams explosion and fire, Opal, WY 2014-04-23

Williams Oak Grove explosion in Marshall County, WV 2014-04-05

In which Williams admits subsidence can cause a gas pipeline explosion. So does an even larger (36-inch vs. 12-inch) pipeline through the fragile karst sinkhole-prone limestone of the Floridan Aquifer for the Sabal Trail pipeline connected to Williams’ Transco sound like a good idea? Especially considering pipeline companies aren’t held accountable for the expense of their explosions, leaving local and state governments to pick up the tab?

Jeff Jenkins wrote for MetroNews 5 April 2014, Resident describes natural gas line explosion in Marshall County,

“It was a very loud explosion. I got up and looked out the window. It sounded like a plane, like a jet engine liner was going over the top of my house,” Fork Ridge Road resident Roger Dobbs told MetroNews Saturday. “I looked out the back window and you could see the smoke flying high in the sky and the flames going up.”

The site is about a mile from Dobbs’ home. The line is owned by a subsidiary of Williams, LP and carries unprocessed natural gas from production wells according to a statement from the company.

Emergency officials initially believed the rupture may have been caused by a mudslide. The line was Continue reading Williams Oak Grove explosion in Marshall County, WV 2014-04-05

Williams fire and explosion near Plymouth, WA 2014-03-31

A two-mile evacuation ratio around a Williams fracked methane facility in Oregon, and once again a state agency investigates while federal PHMSA does nothing, same near Plymouth, WA, as on Sauvie Island, OR.

Kristi Phil reported for the Tri-City Herald 31 March 2014, UPDATE: Evacuation radius near Plymouth plant to be reduced,

It’s unknown when Plymouth residents will be able to return to their homes after an explosion and fire at a nearby natural gas facility Monday morning triggered fears of a second, larger explosion.

Up to 1,000 residents and agricultural workers were evacuated from a two-mile radius around Northwest Pipeline in south Benton County after the explosion, which caused slow leaks from a massive storage tank and injured five people.

Hazardous materials experts entered the liquefied natural gas facility Monday afternoon for the first time nearly eight hours after the initial explosion and fire inside a building at Northwest Pipeline, a subsidiary of Williams Partners.

Claire Graham and Emily Bowman reported for KNDO 23 and KNDU 25 1 April 2014, Fire and Explosion at Natural Gas Plant near Plymouth,

Pipeline safety investigators from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission are responding Continue reading Williams fire and explosion near Plymouth, WA 2014-03-31

PHMSA deputized Oregon PUC to investigate three-month Williams Co. methane leak

Unless somebody dies or is injured, it’s not a reportable incident, says the federal agency in charge of investigating fracked methane pipeline safety. PHMSA finally deputized a state Oregon safety organization after three months of leaks from a pipeline owned by Williams Company, also owner of Transco, the first pipeline in the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> FSC chain to the sea through Alabama and Georgia to LNG export from Florida.

Lynne Terry reported for Oregon Live 10 January 2014, Safety switch triggers natural gas leak on Sauvie Island,

Williams spokesman Tom Droege said gas spewed into the air in a controlled manner for about 70 minutes. He said Williams personnel switched the gas flow to a secondary line. The station is now operating normally.

Gas service was not interrupted during the leak and no one was injured, Droege said.

The company apologized for inconvenience to residents. Households were evacuated and the bridge was closed in response to the leak.

Three months later, Continue reading PHMSA deputized Oregon PUC to investigate three-month Williams Co. methane leak

Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Williams Co.’s excuse: “an insufficient level of firm customer commitment” for its Marcellus shale to Gulf of Mexico gas pipe. That’s corporate-ese for it got to be too expensive; it’s the same thing a company that wanted to put a biomass plant in Lowndes County said. Couldn’t have had anything to do with massive public resistance, oh no. This is the same Williams Co. that owns Transco, first in the chain of the Transco -> Sabal Trail -> Florida Southeast Connection pipeline through Alabama and Georgia to Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where there are already several companies authorized for LNG export. That one could get too expensive, too.

Tim Rudell wrote for WKSU 29 April 2014, Bluegrass pipeline project through Ohio and beyond is cancelled, Continue reading Bluegrass fracked methane pipeline cancelled

Can Sabal Trail fracked methane go to China?

People talk about LNG exports to China through the Transco – Sabal Trail – Florida Southeast Connection pipeline, even though FPL says it knows nothing about exports through that Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP), and FERC also seems to know nothing. If that fracked gas really can go to China, where’s FERC’s rationale for federal eminent domain, which depends on Florida needing the gas? Nevermind FPL’s own 10-Year Site Plan doesn’t support a need for the gas, and EPA doesn’t buy what it’s seen as rationalizations for that alleged need: can the gas go to China?

FERC has admitted in more than one Scoping Meeting that it’s not the pipeline company that has to get export authorization: it’s the end user. And FPL is not the only end user and FERC is not the only export-authorizing agency. Continue reading Can Sabal Trail fracked methane go to China?

FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC

FPL doubled down on a need because it claims fracked methane is “clean”, in its FERC filing of 21 April 2014. FPL says it is “a strong supporter of solar power” even though it didn’t increase its solar capacity from 2010 to 2013 because of the lame baseload capacity excuse. FPL says it knows nothing about Export of Gas, even though Floridian LNG, located next to FPL’s Martin County “Clean Energy” Center right at the end of the Transco-Sabal-FSC pipeline, was approved for LNG export by the U.S. DoE Office Fossil Energy (FE) 14 November 2013, and Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy was approved for export from Florida by FE 27 July 2011. And FPL says its ratepayers are not paying the costs of the pipeline, even though FPL VP of development and external affairs Pam Rauch argued in pring 29 July 2012 for a “Clean Energy” (fracked methane) Center at Cape Canaveral that was one of several mentioned by the Tampa Times 24 October 2014 as a reason for a new pipeline, and that same Pam Rauch filed PF14-2 with FERC for the Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) pipeline that connects from Sabal Trail to FPL’s “Clean Energy” Center in Martin County, next to Floridian LNG. FPL doesn’t seem to know what’s going on next to it, and maybe not what its own employees are doing. I hope EPA doesn’t consider the questions it filed with FERC the same day answered by this weak tea from FPL.

April 21, 2014
Ms. Kimberly D. Bose
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426

Subject: Southeast Market Pipelines Project
Docket Nos. PF14-1-000, PF14-2-000, and PF14-6-000

Dear Ms. Bose:

Florida Power & Light Company (“FPL”) hereby submits these comments in response Continue reading FPL supports solar power without spending money on it –FPL to FERC