Facebook event by Joan Martin McNeal:
When: Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:30pm
Where: City Hall, 477 Pendleton St., Waycross, GAWill we get help Or will it be just another story? EPA Meeting Scheduled for Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 PM Waycross City Hall to give us an update on Seven Out Superfund Site. They will also have on hand the Georgia Dept of Health. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!
-jsq
The Industrial Authority’s new office is urgent enough for a special called meeting. Inquiring reporter Gretchen is going to see what the fuss is about.
Maybe it’s just because this office search has had more episodes than Star Wars. Before Roy Copeland was appointed to the VLCIA board, they were considering buying the old Board of Elections site from him. Now he’s even been Chairman twice and given that up, and they still don’t have a new office. Or maybe it’s something to do with who owns 103 Roosevelt Drive.
Interestingly, HG Pinnacle Properties, Inc. also owns the much larger surrounding lot,
2318 N Patterson Street,
on which
a Valdosta Electric trailer has been parked
across from the hospital for so long it shows up on Google Maps.
On VLCIA’s website and facebook page (although oddly not in their current news page:
There will be a Special Called Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority 12 noon Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Offices.
The purpose of this meeting is to review bids regarding the renovation and construction of 103 Roosevelt Drive.
-jsq
LTE in the VDT today. I added the images and the links. -jsq
Albert Einstein once said that “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” This philosophy can be applied to countless social and political issues and speaks of the dangers of apathy. Add to this situation a lack of information and our society is truly in danger, as companies like SPECTRA Energy not only count on our apathy, but will also try to hoodwink us.
The Sabal Trail Pipeline currently discussed in our community is really part of a larger story, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Fracking allows companies like Halliburton to free oil and gas trapped in geologic formations, but in a fashion that is extremely dangerous to our environment (especially
groundwater aquifers) and human health. Exempt from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, fracking has created countless problems for communities from Pennsylvania to Texas, and may soon be coming to north Georgia.
The gas pipeline under discussion is literally a tentacle Continue reading
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
Defining away another problem,
like he already did
Internet access,
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter
said:
I can’t honestly just buy into the real problem of transparency in this community.
This was after numerous people in the room at the
VLMPO Open House on Common Community Vision at Mildred Hunter 23 October 2013
expressed concerns about needs to
video local government meetings and put them online,
and to make various processes more open.
Regarding videoing, Slaughter trotted out former Valdosta Mayor John Fretti’s old chestnut about allegedly in cities where meetings are televised citizens grandstand and the meetings drag on forever. Nevermind that there are numerous ways to do it, such as putting videos on the web and not simulcasting, and in places like Tallahassee that do both not many citizens usually show up. The people I’ve seen grandstanding consistently at local government meetings around here are Continue reading
Received yesterday.
Good first step. Will the Commission also have Spectra speak at the Regular
Session, like they did ADS back in February?
Will it make that a public hearing?
Update 11:30 AM:
Pipeline meeting set:
Commissioner gathers opposing views by Matthew Woody, front page of the VDT this morning. -jsq
From: Demarcus Marshall <marshall at lowndescounty.com>
Date: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:51 AM
To: Tim Bland
Cc: Matthew Woody
Subject: Sabal Trail PipelineTim and Residents along the Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline,
Brian Fahrenthold of Sabal Trail Pipeline contacted me yesterday and requested an audience with the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have submitted to the chairman a slot for him to address the commissioners at our December 09, 2013 work session.
I am writing you to ask Continue reading
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.
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
Spectra said “more rural” “lessens stakeholder impact”.
What do you think about that, rural landowners whose land Spectra wants?
County Chairman Bill Slaughter said
the most positive thing he’s said so far,
“we’re going to be looking out for the citizens of Lowndes County”,
about this
natural gas pipeline potentially ripping a 100 foot right of way
through this county and many others in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama
for the benefit of Florida Power and Light.
And Valdosta, you’re not for sure out of the pipeline path:
remember
FERC could choose that Option B through Valdosta that is Spectra’s
alternate route.
James Buechele wrote for WCTV yesterday, Pipeline Would Cut Through Florida & Georgia, Continue reading
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