Category Archives: Natural gas

Videos: Trash, Pipeline, Tourism + KLVB appointments @ LCC 2014-12-08

Who could have foreseen that ADS wants a rate hike? The Resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline they already sent to FERC is on the agenda for voting along with everything else tomorrow, 5:30 PM, Tuesday 9 December 2014. Congratulations again in advance for doing that!

Update 2014-12-09: board packet.

Staff wants to rename the Sheriff’s complex for former Sheriff and former Comissioner G. Robert Carter. And a bunch of appointments, contracts, calendars, and special tax lighting districts. in a very full agenda. Other county commissions, such as Thomas County, list potential appointees in their agenda. If Lowndes County did that, we wouldn’t have to google to figure out how to spell names of appointees. And without this LAKE video, you wouldn’t know who was being considered, unless you skipped work to go to that 8:30 AM Work Session.

Here’s the agenda. The videos are below in the order events transpired, followed by a video playlist.

Continue reading →

Pipeline resolution, Trash report, Tourism + KLVB appointments @ LCC 2014-12-08

The Resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline they already sent to FERC is on the agenda for voting. Congratulations in advance for doing that!

Advanced Disposal is back to report on their trash disposal. Did they turn in their required written report this time? How about that recycling? ADS’ Steve Edwards scheduled to report is the same who couldn’t forsee any further acquisitions before they bought three more companies. And a bunch of appointments, contracts, calendars, etc. in a very full agenda.

Shortly after the previous Commission meeting, almost a month ago, I filed an open records request for the board packet. Today at 4:35PM I got a call saying it’s ready. It takes me 30 minutes to get there. They close at 5PM.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
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Spectra backtracks on eminent domain in VDT

Sabal Trail tries to teach us how to read, plus redefining centuries of common law.

Joe Adgie wrote for the VDT today 3 December 2014, Sabal Trail: Accusations ‘lack any substance’,

Two representatives with Sabal Trail Transmission disputed complaints from property owners in correspondence with The Valdosta Daily Times and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Lisa Connolly, general manager of rates and certificates for Sabal Trail, said that letters sent to property owners should be read in a different light than was presented.

“A fair reading of these letters Continue reading →

Moultrie wasn’t asked about MGAG gas from Sabal Trail –WCTV

Spectra starts trying to walk back its previous eminent domain statements, as WCTV reveals MGAG didn’t ask Moultrie before saying Colquitt County needed gas from Sabal Trail, and even MGAG says that deal wouldn’t (yet) affect eminent domain.

300x172 Winnie Wright with eminent domain letter, in Spectra backtracks about MGAG on WCTV, by John S. Quarterman, 2 December 2014 Picking up where the VDT left the MGAG Sabal Trail gas eminent domain story, Winnie Wright waved the bloody letter on WCTV yesterday 2 December 2014, New Sabal Trail Project Has Many South Georgia Residents Worried About Eminent Domain, and after quoting the eminent domain threat from that Sabal Trail attorney letter, said: Continue reading →

Bloomberg notices solar now cheaper than all other forms of energy

What Jon Wellinghoff predicted a year ago is starting to filter 300x199 Solar prices dropped below all other energy sources, in Georgia solar breakeven, by John S. Quarterman, 30 November 2014 into the news media: solar is going to win, and very quickly. Welcome to a sunny world!

Tom Randall, Bloomberg, 29 October 2014, While You Were Getting Worked Up Over Oil Prices, This Just Happened to Solar,

After years of struggling against cheap natural gas prices and variable subsidies, solar electricity is on track Continue reading →

OPEC v. fracking: Russia to win, U.S. LNG export to lose

OPEC just pushed down oil and gas prices, and the main beneficiary will be Russia. 300x166 NYSE ARCA OIL & GAS INDEX (INDEXNYSEGIS:XOI), in OPEC drops oil and gas prices, by John S. Quarterman, 28 November 2014 U.S. and other sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine already pushed the ruble down, which makes Russian fracking less exposed to this price drop. Natural gas prices are falling with oil prices. So a big winner could be Siberian natural gas fracking for China. Which could nip U.S. LNG exports at their budding export terminals. Since LNG export is the most profitable market for fracked methane, the pipeline craze could go bust. And that could help the U.S. get on with cheaper, faster, safer, and far cleaner solar power.

Will Kennedy and Jillian Ward, Bloomberg, 27 November 2014, OPEC Policy Ensures U.S. Shale Crash, Russian Tycoon Says, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail disappointed in GWC Dirty Dozen; locals disappointed in Sabal Trail –WCTV

Spectra’s Andrea Grover is “disappointed” in Sabal Trail being on the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen; does she also find it “hard to believe” like Sabal Trail’s well-documented eminent domain threats?

300x166 Harm --Chris Manganiello, in GWC Dirty Dozen Sabal Trail on WCTV, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 26 November 2014 Winnie Wright, WCTV, 26 November 2014, Sabal Trail Pipeline Environmental Concerns Cited In Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ Report,

Recently, The Georgia Water Coalition put the Sabal Trail Pipeline on their Dirty Dozen Report for 2014.

300x167 Winnie Wright of WCTV, in GWC Dirty Dozen Sabal Trail on WCTV, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 26 November 2014 You can see Cherry Creek sinkhole behind her as she reported. She was navigated there by VSU professor Can Denizman.

She also interviewed several locals, including me at the Withlacoochee River.

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Sabal Trail’s eminent domain argument applied to FPL headquarters

300x72 Between the Atlantic and the canal, in FPL Headquarters, by John S. Quarterman, 24 November 2014 The alleged “Project Need” in Sabal Trail’s Friday FERC docket CP15-17 permit application to get eminent domain for its 100-foot-wide gouge for a yard-wide hazardous fracked methane pipeline is: Sabal Trail claims it has contracts to sell the gas. Let’s apply that logic to Sabal Trail co-owner FPL’s headquarters.

This is FPL headquarters at 700 Universe Blvd., Juno Beach, Florida, in the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s map: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail newspaper assertions contradicted by Spectra corporate documents and FERC filings –John S. Quarterman to FERC

“I ask you and FERC to stop Sabal Trail from telling newspapers things that Spectra Energy’s own corporate documents refute, and to start paying attention to multiple requests by county commissions and other affected parties.”

Back in December, Spectra’s Andrea Grover and Brian Fahrenthold were “not familiar” with Spectra’s lengthy safety rap sheet (see above picture). Yesterday’s VDT had Sabal Trail: Eminent domain accusation ‘hard to believe’ by Joe Adgie. Meanwhile, the Moultrie Observer has picked up the VDT story. Maybe some newspapers will also publish better information than what trained pipeline PR people seem not to remember or believe, despite copious evidence of the actual facts.

Filed with FERC 19 November 2014 accession Number: 20141119-5232. The attachments are in the PDF, and they’re all in the links in the HTML version below. -jsq Continue reading →

SONAT pipeline break in Berrien County, GA on offshoot of same line Sabal Trail proposes to parallel –John S. Quarterman to FERC

300x225 The break in the ditch across from 986 Bradford Road, in Berrien break, by John S. Quarterman, 6 November 2014 “The SONAT pipeline that broke in Berrien County, Georgia was only a 9- or 10-inch line, I’m told at 800PSI. Sabal Trail proposes a 36-inch line, at much higher pressure. I’m no expert, but that seems like at least twenty times the explosive capacity. I don’t want that risk for any of my neighbors anywhere.”

Filed with FERC 15 November 2014 (PDF), posted by FERC 17 November 2014 as Accession Number: 20141117-5040. Continue reading →