Category Archives: Pipeline

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 →

Sabal Trail uses VDT to threaten eminent domain

Andrea Grover’s response to being caught by the VDT actually knowing about Sabal Trail threats of eminent domain after she said were “hard to believe” is… to use the VDT to threaten eminent domain!

The example the VDT quoted Wednesday of an eminent domain threatening letter from Sabal Trail’s Atlanta law firm was dated 26 November 2013. Yet a year later, today, 28 November 2014, Joe Adgie in Sabal Trail to install taps in Georgia quotes Ms. Grover in the VDT: 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.

Continue reading →

Could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover –VDT

Who exactly is “hard to believe”?

Joe Adgie, VDT, today, 26 November 2014, Residents share eminent domain letters,

Letters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.

Continue reading →

Opposes Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes County –Lowndes County Commission

Escalating from the Chairman’s letter of 11 April 2014, perhaps after listening to requests from citizens, the Lowndes County Commission passed a resolution wanting no part of Sabal Trail in the county or in the state of Georgia.

Update 2014-11-25: Well, according to Joe Adgie in the Valdosta Daily Times today, “Even though the missive has already been mailed [to FERC], the resolution will not be formally voted on until the county commission’s next meeting in December [9th].”

Filed with FERC in docket CP15-17 on 21 November 2014 as Accession Number: 20141121-5242, but that was a Friday and FERC doesn’t work on weekends, so it actually appeared Monday 24 November 2014.

300x52 Commissioners, in Lowndes County Commission Work Session, by John S. Quarterman, 10 November 2014 RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas has proposed to build a $3.7 Billion, 460mile natural gas line known as Sabal Trail, and;

WHEREAS, The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners has concerns regarding personal property rights 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 →

China, U.S., and Russia energy deals: bad news for Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?

The U.S. and China made a historic deal on climate change this week. Here’s the good (it’s real, it’s huge, and it’s positive economically for both countries), the bad (nuclear is first on the list of those “clean energy” sources), and the ugly. Also this week China made a second huge natural gas deal with Russia: what does that mean to the current U.S. push for LNG exports, including the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline gouge through Georgia?

The Deal

Rebecca Leber, The New Republic, 12 November 2014, The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Wednesday commitments to reduce both countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. The surprise announcement, which came while Obama visits Beijing this week, is the clearest sign yet the two countries are serious on climate change.

After months of negotiations Continue reading →