Tag Archives: Energy Transfer Partners

Ex-military infiltrators of pipeline opposition

Be sure that if you are at all successful in opposing a pipeline you will get infiltrators, whether FBI or private security. Be prepared to deal with it, whether by checking backgrounds, or comparing lists, or by some other methods.

One of the most effective methods appears to be exposing what the pipeline company and their hired hands are up to, as The Intercept_ did about infiltrators at Standing Rock, using leaks from private security firm TigerSwan, which was hired by pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) to “protect” its Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). THE INFILTRATOR: How an Undercover Oil Industry Mercenary Tricked Pipeline Opponents Into Believing He Was One of Them, Alleen Brown, The Intercept_, 30 December 2018,

An infiltrator
Joel McCollough, far right, at a climate march launch event in Chicago hosted by Food and Water Watch in April 2017. Photo: Courtesy of Gloria Araya, in The Intercept_.

What he’s certain of is that the glimmer of opportunity he saw at the beginning of the pipeline fight was extinguished when The Intercept published more than 100 TigerSwan situation reports leaked by a former operative, revealing the security firm’s extensive surveillance efforts, coordination with law enforcement, and comparisons of water protectors to jihadi fighters. …

He remembers thinking at one time, “If they watch their p’s and q’s, they will be the standard. They’ll be the company that everybody’s gonna use.” The former contractor laughed. “That didn’t happen.”

DAPL is a petroleum products pipeline, but we heard some of the same Continue reading

Et tu, FERC? No tax writeoffs for MLPs; pipeline stocks plummet 2018-03-15

On the Ides of March, FERC, apparently forgetting its the companies it supposedly regulates that pay its salaries, knocked pipeline company stocks down by disallowing a tax writeoff. This was one month after FERC inadvertently cleared a path for renewable sun and wind power through batteries. Look who got whacked the most, and not even FERC’s Sabal Trail rubberstamp permit reinstatement could save it:

Pipeline MLP vs. Electric Utility, Stock Charts
Stock price comparison, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 14, 15, 16 March 2018. The colorful candle canyon is for Spectra Energy Partners LP (SEP), which was by far the worst affected of those shown.

You may wonder as I do: what is FERC doing Continue reading

America’s largest college mutual fund VA529 owns Spectra Energy, a stranded investment

Parents and grandparents buy 529 college savings plans as safe investments, so VA529 chose poorly in Spectra Energy, the very risky company behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline now plowing through the Floridan Aquifer drinking water of south Alabama, Georgia, and all of Florida and under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers against growing opposition. Maybe you’d like to mention that to Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan, the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra. There’s a handy VA529 contact form or you can call or write:

1-804-371-0766
Toll-Free: 1-888-567-0540
9001 Arboretum Parkway
North Chesterfield, VA 23236

Spectra is so risky it just sold itself so Enbridge would take on about $22 billion of Spectra debt. Debt especially racked up since Continue reading

Many same investors in Sabal Trail and Dakota Access Pipeline

DAPL and Sabal Trail are more intertwined than we thought. But first, who are the institutional investors in the three Sabal Trail partners? Three Banks NASDAQ makes this easy to discover, and the answer is in the first table below: among banks State Street and Bank of America stand out.

Let’s not forget Williams Company, of the Transco Hillabee Expansion Project from which Sabal Trail wants to get its fracked methane; see the second table, which State Street clearly wins, and there’s Goldman Sachs.

We learned this week that Enbridge of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota: that Enbridge is buying Spectra Energy of Sabal Trail.

But there’s more! Last year Williams was bought by Energy Transfer Equity, which is the main backer of DAPL.

Update 2016-09-26: Actually, Energy Transfer backed out of buying Williams Co..

See the third table, which shows banks bought into at least five of the partner entities: Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

Opponents of Sabal Trail are not just fighting the same industry as DAPL: they’re fighting many of the same companies and the same investors.

Investors in Sabal Trail partners (Spectra Energy, NextEra Energy, Duke Energy)

Continue reading

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