Category Archives: Safety

Many safety violations at Georgia nukes, and NRC is shut down

Georgia’s two nuclear sites got more than a safety violation a month over a dozen years, and now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is shut down. Maybe we need power sources that don’t need so much safety inspection, like solar and wind and efficiency and conservation.

AP wrote yesterday, 166 violations issued at Ga. nuclear power plants,

A congressional study expected to be released later this month shows that two nuclear power plants in Georgia were issued 166 safety violations between 2000 and 2012.

The unreleased Government Accountability Office report obtained by the Associated Press shows that Plant Hatch in Baxley was issued 90 safety violations during the time period. According to the report, three of the violations were higher-level offenses.

According to the report, Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro was also issued 75 safety violations between 2000 and 2012.

Allison Macfarlane wrote on the NRC blog 9 October 2013, From the Chairman: An Update on the NRC Shutdown, Continue reading →

Pipeline dog and pony in Albany Monday

Monday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.

Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,

Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.

Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading →

Spectra pipeline meeting tonight at Wiregrass Tech @ Pipeline 2013-10-16

Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be, as it cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida through south Georgia, using eminent domain to make you sell your land, to deliver gas from fracking in Pennsylvania for the benefit of Florida Power and Light. Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps Brian Fahrenthold or Andrea Grover a few questions, like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers, and what about those fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?

Added: facebook event.

Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Wiregrass Georgia Tech (Atrium)
4089 Val Tech Road
Valdosta, GA

The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading →

GIS maps of Sabal Trail pipeline preferred route

Sabal Trail had an interactive GIS map of the entire pipeline route in Moultrie last night, with zoom and pan detail as good as the tax assessor maps for Brooks and Lowndes Counties. The Sabal Trail reps declined to provide a copy of the whole GIS, but they obligingly panned down the pipeline and waited while I took pictures with my smartphone.

Here’s GIS of the pipeline route through Brooks and Lowndes Counties:

GIS of Brooks and Lowndes Counties

This is zoomed in where the route crosses US 84 and then the Withlacoochee River, which is the county line:

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Pipeline Context maps –Spectra Energy and FPL

Where does Spectra Energy’s natural gas come from, and where does it go? These maps from the Moultrie meeting help explain. Spoiler: from fracking to FPL.

In “Our Portfolio of Assets”, Spectra Energy shows pipelines running from shale gas formations in and around Pennsylvania and down the Appalachians into Tennessee, through north Georgia, and into Alabama, as well as from gas storage facilities in Louisiana and shale fields in Texas.

Our Portfolio of Assets --Spectra Energy

So that’s where it comes from: the Marcellus Shale and its relatives down through (soon) the Conasauga Shale in north Georgia and Alabama and into Louisiana and Texas. Fracking, in other words.

That was not a word that was used by any of the Sabal Trail reps nor a word that appeared on any of their maps or in any of their handouts. But fracking is how natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus Shale, as Andrea Grover presumably knows, since she was sent to Pennsylvania in April to explain a Spectra Energy gas release from a compressor in Marcellus Shale country.

Where is the gas through the Sabal Trail pipeline supposed to go? Orlando, to the Sabal Trail Central Florida Hub. Why? Well, according to Andrea Grover, Florida Power and Light is “modernizing”. She explained that FPL has shut down some coal plants, and is converting to natural gas. She this map of the Florida Southeast Connection:

Continue reading →

Spectra Energy in Moultrie about Sabal Trail Pipeline

I went to the Spectra Pipeline meeting in Moultrie tonight, where many people in blue shirts saying Sabal Trail, including Brian Fahrenthold (who volunteered that I could take pictures of maps) and Andrea Grover (who will be in Valdosta tomorrow), were happy to answer questions from a landowner such as myself.

Here’s just part of the display:

Part of the Moultrie display

The Making of a Pipeline:

Continue reading →

Greenlaw concerned about Sabal Trail pipeline

Received today. I added the links. -jsq

Mr. Quarterman,

I am an attorney with GreenLaw investigating issues related to the proposed Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. We have serious concerns regarding the need for this pipeline and its proposed route.

I am writing you because Dinorah Hall, who first brought this issue to our attention, has told me that you are also very concerned about this proposed pipeline. I wanted to be sure that you are aware that Sabal Trail will be holding an open house to discuss the proposed pipeline this Wednesday, October 16 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Wiregrass Georgia Tech Atrium, 4089 Valdosta Tech.

This is an opportunity for the public Continue reading →

Tonight in Moultrie, tomorrow in Valdosta, Spectra Pipeline meetings

Spectra Energy is coming to Valdosta and Moultrie to tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be, as it cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida through south Georgia, using eminent domain to make you sell your land, for the benefit of Florida Power and Light. Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps Brian Fahrenthold or Andrea Grover a few questions, like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers, and what about those fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?

Tonight (Tuesday) 15 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Moultrie Technical Facility
800 Veterans Parkway
Moultrie, GA
Tomorrow (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Wiregrass Georgia Tech (Atrium)
4089 Val Tech Road
Valdosta, GA

I have confirmed by calling Wiregrass Tech Economic Development that Spectra Energy will be there from 3:30 to 8:30 PM, which Wiregrass Tech says apparently includes setup and teardown. The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called. Tech’s web server seems to be down right now, but Google has cached her as:

Cobb, Christy,
Director of Economic Development,
(229) 468-2218,
christy.cobb@wiregrass.edu

-jsq

Solar vs. fossil fuel stocks

Should Harvard President Drew Faust worry that “Significantly constraining investment options risks significantly constraining investment returns”? Actually, if Harvard has been wasting investments in oil and gas for the past year, its endowment has lost a bundle. Ditto VSU.

Let’s compare stock performance of Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN) which invests in solar stocks with the PowerShares DB Energy Fund (NYSEARCA:DBE), which invests in oil and natural gas companies. Yep, that’s 120% for TAN and 0% for DBE:

TAN solar v DBE oil and gas 1 year

Sure, if you go back farther, solar stocks continued to drop after 2009 until this year: Continue reading →

Our investments are political –Divest Harvard to Drew Faust

Divest Harvard summed it up:

Our investments ARE political.

And that’s just as true at VSU.

Not even Tim DeChristopher put it more pithily than that. Samantha Caravello wrote in the Harvard Law Record 7 October 2013, Pres. Faust, There’s Nothing Neutral About Investing in Climate Wreckage, noting that Pres. Faust’s excuses were actually in response to “an invitation from undergraduates to participate in an open forum on divesting Harvard’s $32 billion endowment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.”

President Faust warned against using the endowment in ways that would position the university as a political actor, claiming Continue reading →