Tag Archives: Florida Southeast Connection

FPL parent NextEra Energy admits solar and wind far better investments than pipelines 2018-01-26

Even Sabal Trail partner NextEra Energy’s earnings call has far more about record solar and wind deployment and earnings (“added $0.67 per share”) than about pipeline declining earnings (“added $0.10 per share”) and misinformation, claiming Sabal Trail is operational and on schedule when it isn’t.

Which is better, NextEra, $0.67 or $0.10 per share? Oh, wait, effectively you answered that: “As the world’s current leader in wind, solar, and storage development….”.

Solar, NextEra Energy
Solar, NextEra Energy

One sentence is NextEra’s only mention of Sabal Trail; nothing about the Sierra Club lawsuit against FERC that less than a week later saw the DC Circuit Court reject all requests for rehearing, meaning as early as next week the court may mandate shutting down Sabal Trail. NextEra company FPL is the sole remaining customer listed in Sabal Trail’s custoner index. Maybe it’s time to bail out and get on with solar power in the Sunshine State.

NextEra Energy, via Motley Fool, 26 January 2018, NEE earnings call for the period ending December 31, 2017,

CEO and Chairman James L. Robo:

Fourth, we’re advancing our renewable product offerings as we prepare for the next phase of renewable development. As a result, our prospects for new renewables growth has never been stronger. As Continue reading →

Georgia Power new acquisition AGL’s Pivotal LNG exporting through Jaxport

Back in May 2015, Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers both told me “If we can’t do coal, we have to do pipelines”. I-75 through Atlanta, Macon, Valdosta, I-10 through Lake City A year in the making, Southern Company bought pipeline company AGL Resources. Turns out AGL Resources is also an LNG export company, exporting through Jacksonville by LNG containers on trucks. And the plot thickens with the pending corporate takeover of CSX Railroad by the former CEO of Canadian Pacific, given that CSX depends a lot on carrying coal, which remember is what Southern Company is rapidly getting away from. Could CSX want to carry LNG? Meanwhile, LNG containers are already rolling down I-75 and I-10 to Jaxport, apparently through Atlanta, Macon, Valdosta, and Lake City.

Southern Company PR, 1 July 2016, Southern Company and AGL Resources complete merger, create a leading U.S. energy company, Continue reading →

Florida Southeast Connection Alignment Maps from May 2016

Small, big, huge, and PDF versions of each and every one of the 144 alignment maps FSC filed with FERC in May 2016 are on the LAKE website.

[21040-510-ALS-00001 STA: 00+00 TO 50+00, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA]
21040-510-ALS-00001 STA: 00+00 TO 50+00, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA
PDF

Follow the link for details of what, and how you can help.

For maps of the rest of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP, including Sabal Trail), see SMPP.

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Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Atlanta TV station exposes ALEC lobbyists in Savannah

Caught on-camera: ALEC’s off-duty sheriff’s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel for “taking pictures in the hotel”, after ALEC’s marketing droid denied any lobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and legislator in a bar spelling out how it works: ALEC gives “scholarships” to legislators who then meet in closed rooms with corporate reps (including all the companies involved in the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline) who have equal votes on draft bills for legislators to get passed as law in many states. Bills promoting fracking, pipelines, LNG export, and against solar power, renewable portfolio standards, not to mention for private prisons and privatized education and against municipal broadband and country-of-origin labelling, plus many other corporate give-aways subsidized by the taxpayers and the environment. It’s time for the IRS to revoke ALEC’s 501(c)(3) status. And for the Georgia legislature to apply the state’s sunshine laws to itself.

Brendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015, Legislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort, 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 →

Twice the acreage than solar for Sabal Trail pipeline to produce the same power @ FERC 2014-03-05

According to Sabal Trail’s own numbers, twice as much land for the entire three-pipeline Spectra -> Sabal -> FSC proposed gouge through three states as would be required to produce as much solar power.

STT’s solar acreage estimates from their Draft Resource Report 10: Alternatives (RR10) of November 2013, Continue reading →

Third Sabal Trail pipeline route misses Georgia entirely

Andrea Grover of Sabal Trail Transmission has been telling Florida landowners about another proposed pipeline route that completely bypasses Georgia. Received yesterday on Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC:

For those that are against having the pipeline run through their property, go to Ocala Star Banner on the web where there is a map with the proposed route for the pipeline from Alabama to Florida. This route barely touches the southwest corner of Georgia (if at all). Why did Sabal change the route? I don’t either. The newspaper is dated October 24, 2013.

-Ronald Kicklighter

Contracts for natural gas pipeline through Florida get initial OK, by Morgan Watkins for Ocala StarBanner picked up a story first run in the Gainesville Sun,

A $3.5 billion, 600-mile natural-gas pipeline system that will stretch from Alabama into Florida is still in the planning stages, but homeowners near the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe rivers are concerned because the routes being proposed might run through their neighborhoods.

 

Landowners in Georgia don’t want it crossing their land or the Flint or Withlacoochee Rivers, either.

Florida Power & Light selected Continue reading →

Schedule of Open Houses required by FERC for Sabal Trail

After the series of divide-and-conquer landowner meetings Spectra just held, another series of Open Houses starts in December: here’s the schedule. Later, FERC may hold and sponsor Scoping Meetings. Local counties can hold public hearings in addition to all these, and Andrea Grover said in front of multiple witnesses that Spectra would speak and answer questions at such a county public hearing.

Update 3 Dec 2013: Brooks County, Georgia already had a citizen speak. Lowndes County, Georgia is having Sabal Trail speak. See the calendar. See also Sabal Trail’s own list of open houses.

There’s also a meeting of the corporate cast of characters with FERC on November 5, 2013. I wonder if intervenors could attend that meeting, at least by telephone?

The Open House roadshow gets to Albany Dec 11, Moultrie Dec 12, and Clyattville Dec 16, interleaved with meetings in Alabama and Florida.

Here’s FERC’s definition of Open Houses: Continue reading →

Florida Southeast Connection pipeline preliminary filing with FERC

What costs less than a latte or a slice of pizza? A day’s electricity from Florida Power and Light, according to FPL VP Pam Rauch who also is NextEraEnergy VP and President of yet another pipeline company shell that wants to pull a 100 foot gas pipeline through Georgia for the benefit of Florida.

Still more names in the pipeline shell game: Pamela Rauch who filed FP14-2 for Florida Southeast Connection LLC (FSC), is Vice President, Development and External Affairs for NextEraEnergy and Vice President of External Affairs for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) in January since 2008; on her LinkedIn profile she has the NextEra logo next to the FPL name. Here’s a nice picture of her making a case for an FPL rate increase for, among other things,

“our ability to finance the billions of dollars in improvements that keep reliability high and bills low, and that create thousands of jobs for you and your neighbors.”

Those would include “modernizations” as Spectra rep Andrea Grover put it in Moultrie like closing coal plants and building this pipeline through Georgia by Spectra Energy, a company with a corrosive-record of property damage and PCB-spilling environmental damaga for neighbors like hers in Florida. We could have more jobs for people right here through rooftop solar, and we’d get energy, reduced bills, and no risk of PCB or other spills.

What do you think about this, neighbors in Georgia? Maybe you’d like to get the Lowndes County Commission to get Spectra and maybe FSC to come explain themselves?

FERC file list for FP14-2 and text of the preliminary filing approval for Florida Southeast Connection: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail pipeline preliminary filing with FERC

Look at the other company names in this filing: Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (Transco), Florida Southeast Connection, LLC (FSC), and Merjent, Inc. And another one, since filer Lisa A. Connolly is listed by Spectra as with Gulfstream Natural Gas System, LLC. Oh, and she’s also General Manager, Spectra Energy Transmission, according to Center for Houston’s Future. United Way of Houston says she’s General Manager, Rates & Certificates for the Spectral puppet master, Spectra Energy.

All three shells, Sabal Trail, Transco, and FSC, are hoping to get a common environmental rubberstamp with Merjent ghost-writing their Spectral document:

Transco- and FSC-sponsored projects are requesting separate pre-filing reviews. However, you have indicated that these three projects are connected actions and, as such, my staff will perform a single environmental review of these projects and will prepare one environmental impact statement that addresses all three projects….

My staff has reviewed the proposals submitted for the selection of one third-party contractor to assist us in preparing the National Environmental Policy Act documentation required for the Sabal Trail, Transco, and FSC Projects. We have selected Merjent, Inc. (Merjent) as the third-party contractor to work under the direct supervision and control of the Commission staff for all three projects. I request that you, Transco and FSC proceed with executing a contract with Merjent so work may begin as soon as possible.

FERC file list for PF14-1 and text of the letter: Continue reading →