Category Archives: Pipeline

Videos: Sold out to Sabal Trail @ LCC 2016-01-26

Thank you Commissioner Demarcus Marshall for voting no. Calling it “a good business decision”, the CEO of Waller Heating and Air lauded the others for voting to sell county land for a pittance to a company from Houston, Texas, nevermind their resolution of a year ago. We thought we elected them to represent the people of Lowndes County, and we thought they did back in December 2014 when they unanimously voted “the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners opposes the construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes County.” But at least one of them (“Wisenbaker) didn’t even remember that the county voted to oppose Sabal Trail. Apparently most of them concur with what the County Engineer said about landowners who have not taken Sabal Trail’s money, “I don’t know who they are.”

Update 2016-01-28: WCTV report, plus Gret chen’s question: “Is less than 50 cents per person in Lowndes County enough to risk drinking water for all?”

Landowners who did take the money mostly did not have Continue reading →

The hazardous waste Lowndes County Clyattville landfill is not just another Sabal Trail easement @ LCC 2016-01-26

There is no reason our only county-wide elected government should rush to take a pittance from a company from Houston, Texas for an easement through the closed landfill toxic waste site that would risk our drinking water and enable more easement takings from local landowners. On the front page of today’s VDT the County Clerk contradicted what Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter has written repeatedly to FERC, that he and the Commission represent “Citizens of Lowndes County”. She also didn’t mention the GA-EPD permit for any work within that landfill that the Chairman previously demanded from Sabal Trail, nor the multiple state other and federal permits Sabal Trail does not have. Although it’s still not on the published agenda, the Commissioners have an opportunity tonight to vote to support their own unanimous resolution of December 2014 against Sabal Trail.

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The County Clerk tried to roll back the clock to Continue reading →

Videos: Board appointments + Sabal Trail easement! @ LCC 2016-01-25

The main Work Session took six minutes this morning, followed by an executive session, which turned out to be about easements for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, which they’re adding to the agenda to vote on tomorrow evening at 5:30 PM.

See also the agenda. Below are links to each video, followed by a video playlist.

Continue reading →

Planning prevents crises: Eisenhower decisions

A local elected official recently confused “crisis” with “important”. Yet a crisis is something that is both urgent and important, and if we spend more time on things that are important and not urgent, such as planning, we won’t have as many crises. Instead, the corporate media and social media would have us spend most time on interruptions that are urgent but not important (traffic slowdowns or obstructions) or, worse, trivia that is neither urgent nor important (which celebrities are seeing whom). This confusion affects everything from attracting jobs to electing candidates to clean air and water.

Dwight D. Eisenhower had a solution:

In a 1954 speech to the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was quoting Dr J. Roscoe Miller, president of Northwestern University, said: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” This “Eisenhower Principle” is said to be how he organized his workload and priorities.

— Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle: Using Time Effectively, Not Just Efficiently by Mind Tools; see also Quote Investigator for several variant versions.

Even though it often seems to be forgotten, this has to be one of the most popular business and personal improvement methods ever, so there are plenty of graphics and explanations.


First Things First, book by Stephen Covey, 1994, described in Wikipedia

Do we really want to spend all our time putting out fires? If not, maybe we should Continue reading →

A clean energy future is already arriving –350.org & LNS

I’m thankful we’re already on the way to a clean energy future, Big Light bulb with more jobs, less expense than doing nothing, no new nukes, no coal at all, much less natural gas, no need for any new pipelines, better health, clean air and water, and profit. The COP meeting in Paris can do what it will, and we can still make a better world and profit by it. We’re already doing it, with solar and wind power, energy efficiency and conservation,

The Clean Energy Future: Protecting the Climate, Creating Jobs, Saving Money, by Frank Ackerman of Synapse for LNS and 350.org:

[M]eeting the IPCC targets will… create more jobs and save money.

This report, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail bad for VSU, rivers, animals, landowners, and community: to FERC in Valdosta 2015-09-30

Sinkholes, explosions, and other risks to our rivers, lands, and wildlife for no benefit from the Sinkhole Trail, plus FERC and its environmental contractor are paid by the pipeline companies, but still we can win, said local landowners and others to FERC in Valdosta last night, as you can see in these LAKE videos. And you can come to the Kayaktivism Day this Saturday several Valdosta State clubs are holding on the Withlacoochee River. Meanwhile, the FERC circus moves to Columbia High School in Live Oak, FL tonight. Continue reading →

A farce, a hoax, and wrong: citizens about Sabal to FERC in Moultrie 2015-09-29

“You tell us you’re sorry and it happens again”, said Alton Burns of Coolidge about pipeline leaks, fires, and explosions, setting the tone for the whole evening, which ended with local landowners calling the whole process a farce and a hoax. As attorney Jonathan Waters said, South Georgia is a home, not a pipeline easement.

The FERC meetings started the previous evening in Albany and continue at 5:30 PM each night at:

  • Wednesday, September 30, at Holiday Inn Valdosta, Conference Center Magnolia Ballroom, 1805 West Hill Ave., Valdosta, GA 31601. LAKE videos from Valdosta.
  • Thursday, October 1, at Columbia High School Auditorium, 469 SE Fighting Tiger Drive, Lake City, FL 32025 LAKE videos from Lake City.

There are many more things you can do to stop Sabal Trail. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Here are links to the LAKE videos from last night in Moultrie, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading →

Solar prices will drop much further below fossil fuels

High-placed utility executives have told me solar panels can’t get any cheaper. Here’s why economies of scale will continue to drive solar prices down, just like for Henry Ford’s Model T. There’s no excuse for new pipelines or nukes. Let the sun rise!

tl;dr: If current rates of improvement hold, solar will be incredibly cheap by the time it’s a substantial fraction of the world’s electricity supply.

Ramez Naam, on his blog, 10 August 2015, What’s the future price of solar?, Continue reading →

Solar power prices dropping faster than Moore’s Law

More confirmation that solar power is winning so there’s no excuse for any new pipelines.

tl;dr: Moore’s Law is an analogy. As an analogy, it works. And progress is happening far faster than I projected in my ‘solar Moore’s Law’ piece of 2011.]

Ramez Naam, on his blog, April 2015, Is Moore’s Law Really a Fair Comparison for Solar? Continue reading →

Let’s stop Sabal Trail before it makes any more mistakes

Thanks to Julie Bowland for the picture of my VDT op-ed today. -jsq

jsq op-ed in VDT The same day the Sabal Trail was quoted in the VDT August 5th as saying it had done enough subsurface analysis on our fragile karst limestone topography, a sinkhole opened up next to Shiloh Road. Sabal Trail already had to move its Albany compressor station because arrowheads had been found there. The pipeline itself is a much bigger mistake: let’s stop it before it damages our property values, forests, rivers, or our people.

Spectra Energy’s paid staff are continue to assert that Sabal Trail’s proposed gouge through our fields, farms, and under our rivers will proceed according their plan to profit executives and investors in Houston, Texas.

Actually, Continue reading →