A Florida company selected a Texas company that can use eminent domain in Georgia to take your land. Does that seem right to you? Florida PSC has to review this pipeline. Where’s Georgia PSC on this?

FPL PR 26 July 2013, FPL selects Sabal Trail Transmission and Florida Southeast Connection to build new natural gas pipeline system into Florida,

Florida Power & Light Company today announced that its evaluation of proposals for additional natural gas transportation capacity determined that the best, most economical solution for ensuring Florida’s continued access to the clean, affordable, U.S.-produced fuel necessary to meet the growing electricity needs of the state’s residents and businesses is a combination of a natural gas pipeline and interconnection hub to be built by Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, and a second natural gas pipeline to be built by Florida Southeast Connection, LLC….

Both Sabal Trail and Florida Southeast Connection will be interstate natural gas pipelines subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval and oversight.

In conjunction with today’s public announcement, FPL filed a petition for prudence review with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). Subject to PSC approval, FPL’s cost of using the new pipelines to deliver natural gas for its power plants will be factored into the fuel charge on customer bills beginning in 2017, consistent with how the company’s costs of using the two existing pipeline systems are recovered.

Sabal Trail

The Sabal Trail project will include approximately 465 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline (55 miles in Alabama, 196 miles in Georgia and 214 miles in Florida). The Sabal Trail pipeline will be capable of transporting more than 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to serve local distribution companies, industrial users and natural gas-fired power generators in the Southeast.

Following FPL’s selection of Sabal Trail through the RFP evaluation process, a NextEra Energy subsidiary agreed to invest approximately $1 billion of the system’s projected cost of roughly $3 billion upon specified terms. NextEra Energy was provided the option to invest with Spectra Energy in order to facilitate on-time construction and enhance availability of financing for the pipeline project.

“We are very pleased to partner with NextEra in providing the critical natural gas infrastructure needed to help meet Florida’s growing electricity demand,” said Bill Yardley, president of U.S. transmission and storage for Spectra Energy Corp. “This project will also make additional natural gas supplies and new energy infrastructure available to power generators across Florida, thus increasing the energy diversity, security and reliability across the state.”

Really? Solar power would have provided more energy diversity, security, and reliabiity for Florida. And this pipeline provides nothing for Georgia.

FPL didn’t ask for new energy; it only asked for natural gas:

In December 2012, FPL issued a request for proposals (RFP) for new natural gas transportation

And Georgians get to pay for savings to FPL:

FPL’s economic analysis showed that these projects will save FPL customers nearly $600 million compared with the next closest proposal.

How about we say no to this pipeline? And yes to solar power in south Georgia.

-jsq

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