Tag Archives: pipeline

Videos: GP Investments, Hahira, Pipeline, Alapaha Water Trail @ LCC 2014-09-09

Five citizens spoke, on topics including the “horrible wretched smell” from ADS, the Sabal Trail pipeline, the proposed local charter school, and the board packet and the Alapaha River Water Trail. Chairman Bill Slaughter asserted there had been nineteen applicants for the Planning Commission appointment and seemed to think the public should be happy about that, having learned it presumably by telepathy. He didn’t divulge who those applicants were, and the only one in the board packet (charming young white guy Brad Folsom) 300x450 2014-09-09-uldc-map-001, in wndes County Zoning Map, by Lowndes County Planning and Zoning, 9 September 2014 was appointed after somebody reminded the Chairman to at least get a motion first. They also appointed Commissioner Joyce Evans to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. On the GP Investments water rezoning, County Planner Jason Davenport didn’t know whether there had been a dump site there or where the well would go, but they approved it anyway. They also approved the bookkeeping ULDC updates for Special Events, Zoning Map, Fees and they have since put the new zoning map online!

They approved unanimously the annual prisoner work detail contract without even mentioning the cost. And unanimously with no discussion they approved the Hahira extratorial request.

Here’s the agenda with links to the videos and some notes. See also the board packet, obtained for you by LAKE through an open records request, and the LAKE videos of the previous morning’s Work Session, which have quite a bit more information, including applicants for appointment speaking.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos of Dougherty County citizens opposing Sabal Trail pipeline @ DCC 2014-09-15

As a Commissioner said, “It don’t pass the smell test” that Sabal Trail already bought land for a compressor station before they even filed for a formal permit. A Commissioner said “We have to be more aggressive.” Well, then, time to pass a land-user ordinance against pipelines! Thanks to Jennifer Maloney, you can see for yourself Albany and Dougherty County citizens and Commissioners opposing the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline in a community effort at a Dougherty County Commission meeting 15 September 2014. Continue reading →

Solar or wind investment will produce more energy than oil or natural gas

We already knew solar and wind are better investments than nuclear or natural gas, and now we find they’re already better than oil.

In Impact Lab 18 September 2014, $100B invested in wind or solar will produce more energy than oil,

Kepler Chevreux, a French investment bank, has produced a fascinating analysis that has dramatic implications for the global oil industry. The investment bank estimates that $100 billion invested in either wind energy or solar energy — and deployed as energy for light and commercial vehicles — will produce significantly more energy than that same $100 billion invested in oil.

The implications, needless to say, are dramatic. It would signal the end of Big Oil, and the demise of an industry that has dominated the global economy and geo-politics, for the last few decades. And the need for it to reshape its business model around renewables, as we discuss here.

“If we are right, the implications would be momentous,” writes Kepler Chevreux analyst Mark Lewis.

“It would mean Continue reading →

Demanding the state PUC get a friendly judge: a best practice for utilities?

300x225 Title page, in A Best Practices Leadership Forum for Small Utilities, by Carol A. Brown, Chief of Staff to President Michael R. Peevey, 2 April 2013 A utility didn’t stop at blowing up a Calfornia neighborhood, it also demanded the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) get a favorable judge for that 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipe explosion. The CPUC president’s chief of staff just last year wrote slides praising his Legacy as Best Practices. Does that legacy include suborning justice? He’s still there, although she was fired, and three PG&E executives “ended their employment”. How many other PG&E and other utility executives and CPUC and other state regulators follow those same Best Practices?

Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press, 15 September 2014, PG&E Officials Removed for Improper Communications,

Four senior officials with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the state commission regulating it were removed or resigned over emails released Monday showing the utility and state regulators appeared to negotiate which judge would be assigned to hear one of the utility’s rate cases.

The emails show the commission ultimately assigned to the case a judge for whom PG&E had expressed a preference, rather than another judge who PG&E said “has a history of being very hard on us.”

Also Monday, California Public Utilities Commission president Michael Peevey, who was included Continue reading →

Duke Energy and Sabal Trail at Suwannee County Commission 2014-09-02

300x219 Swearing in speakers, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014 Duke Energy reps couldn’t answer any questions beyond their canned presentation, not about water use, not about their permit application to FL-PSC for a new site, and not about Sabal Trail pipeline routing. But the Suwannee County Commission passed their requested resolution anyway for a pair of new natural gas turbines.

Update 16 September 2014: Here’s video of Debra Johnson’s find:

Mr, Oxendine (chairman) announced at the end of the meeting that “they are not ignoring the Sabal Trail Pipeline and its threat to Suwannee County. Mr. Oxendine also stated “he has instructed Mr. Harris and Mr. Prevatt (County Attorney) to evaluate the situation and consider doing something similar to the other counties that have passed resolutions and ordinances against The ST pipeline in their counties.” Next meeting tomorrow night Tuesday 09-16-2014 at 6pm.

300x223 Duke application: introduction, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014 Someone (apparently county staff) introduced the Duke item in the agenda below:

for the construction of two new simple-cycle combustion turbines and associated equipment as well as a 40 by 100 administrative building. The turbines will be fueled by natural gas….

It’s Duke’s existing land plus a bit more they’ve bought.

300x222 Debra Johnson, Suwannee County resident, in Duke Suwannee new turbine resolution sails through Suwannee County Commission, by John S. Quarterman, 2 September 2014 Local resident Debra Johnson asked Duke to withdraw their plans.

Continue reading →

Alternative 4: Richland, Preston, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail

300x395 Map, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Richland in Stewart County, Preston in Webster County, Americus in Sumter County, Cordele in Crisp County, Ashburn in Turner County, if you thought you were off the Sabal Trail path, think again! You’re in FERC’s eye for a 36-inch fracked methane pipeline just like Tifton, Adel, Hahira, and Valdosta in Tift, Cook, and Lowndes Counties Georgia, and in Florida Jennings in Hamilton County, Lake City in Columbia County, Alachua and Gainesville in Alachua County, Ocala in Marion County, Wildwood in Sumter County, and Ferndale in Lake County, and probably some other cities and counties you can find on the map. And Alternative 4 would cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County just before passing right next to Lowndes High School and an exploding pipeline segment’s throw from Valdosta Mall.

300x386 Withlacoochee River and Lowndes High School, in Alternative 4: Richland, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and I-75 FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Alternative 4 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” would start even farther north on I-75 than Alternative 1.

Alternative 4 beginning from Alternate 2 near Richland, Georgia and following Highway 280 to near Americus, Georgia; then following a high voltage transmission line (along Sabal Trail’s Hillabee Alternative route); then following Alternate 1 starting near Tifton, Georgia and extending to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of Alternative 4: Continue reading →

Alternative 3: Albany, Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Capps FERC to Sabal Trail

Watch out Dougherty, Mitchell, and Thomas Counties Georgia, and Jefferson, Taylor, Lafayette, Suwannee, and Columbia Counties, Florida, and the Flint, Ochlockonee, Aucilla, Ecofina, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers: Alternative 3 is for you! County Commissions and city councils in the county seats of Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Perry, Mayo, Live Oak, and Lake City may want to take action like Jefferson County already did to stop water bottling, as may Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, The Villages, and Ferndale in Alachua, Marion, Sumter, and Lake Counties, Florida.

300x341 Alternative 3, in Alternative 3: Armena to Capps to FGT FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Alternative 3 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” begins like Alternative 2 near Armena, GA and goes through Albany, then veers due south.

Alternative 3 beginning at approximately MP 141 (near Albany, Georgia) and following Highway 82 to Highway 19 (Slappy Boulevard) in Albany, Georgia; then following Highway 19 through Albany, Camilla, and Thomasville, Georgia to the FGT pipeline corridor south of Capps, Florida; then following the FGT pipeline corridor to I-75 and the Alternate 1 and 2 routes to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of the whole route of Alternative 3, including the FGT pipeline part: Continue reading →

Alternative 2: MP 141 -> US 82 -> I-75 -> FL Turnpike FERC to Sabal Trail

Watch out Albany Mall, Deerfield-Windsor School, Kerr Gardens Park and Pond, Miller-Coors Albany Brewery, Pilot Travel Center and of course the Flint River at the US 82 bridge! 300x154 Armena through Miller-Coors Albany Brewery, in Alternative 2: Armena to US 82 to I-75 to FL Turnpike, FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 If Sabal Trail’s mile point (MP) 141 is still on the Lee-Dougherty County line just west of Armena, GA on US 82, then Alternative 2 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” would look very much like Alternative 1, plowing through the north edge of Albany, GA and much of Dougherty County, before heading on through Sylvester, Tifton, Adel, Hahira, Valdosta, Jennings, Lake City, Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, past The Villages, to Ferndale, FL.

Alternative 2 extending along other pipeline and road rights-of-way from near MP 0 to approximately MP 141 (near Albany, Georgia), and then following Alternate 1 to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s MP 141 in the maps Sabal Trail sent to FERC in November 2013: Continue reading →

Alternative 1: US 82 -> I-75 -> FL Turnpike FERC to Sabal Trail

After Dawson and Albany, new Georgia cities Sylvester, Tifton, Adel, Hahira, Valdosta in Georgia (right past Lowndes High School), and Jennings, Lake City, Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, and Ferndale in Florida. If you thought this pipeline wouldn’t affect you, think again. Or some later pipeline if we let this one through. See also Alternative 2 (watch out, Albany!), Alternative 3 Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Capps and a row of north Florida counties), and Alternative 4 (Richland, Preston, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and yet again down I-75 as in Alternative 1).

Update 2014-09-15: Added first paragraph and fixed typos.

FERC’s recent instructions direct Sabal Trail to “include analyses” of

Alternative 1 Alternative 1 extending from near MP 0 to MP 460.6 (the proposed endpoint) following the Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC (Sabal Trail) proposed Sabal Trail Project (Project) route until reaching Highway 82 near Dawson, Georgia; then following Highway 82 to Interstate 75 (I-75); then following I-75 to Highway 91 near The Villages, Florida; then following Highway 91 to Highway 27 near Ferndale, Florida; and then following a Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) pipeline to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of that route, and then let’s name some cities and towns thus targetted by the yard-wide fracked methane pipeline: Continue reading →

Nova Scotia banned fracking; will southeast U.S. ban fracked methane pipelines?

Yesterday Nova Scotia announced a ban on fracking. Will local or state governments in the southeast, now threatened by the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, ban such pipelines? Especially since FERC has now directed Sabal Trail to examine routes through Americus, Cordele, Ashburn, Tifton, Adel, Valdosta, and even Thomasville, in addition to the ones it already proposed through Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties?

Sierra Club Canada wrote about public meetings in its Media Release of 28 August 2014, Government of Nova Scotia Needs to Ban Fracking,

“Public meetings held by the panel were attended by an overwhelming majority of well-informed citizens who had deep concerns about fracking,” according to [Gretchen] Fitzgerald, “Those concerns should be met with the type of leadership they deserve: an immediate, legally binding ban.”

And the Nova Scotia government listened. Bruce Erskine wrote for The Herald Business 3 September 2014, Nova Scotia to ban fracking, posting a video in which you can hear Energy Minister Andrew Younger say: Continue reading →