Tag Archives: pipeline

Sierra Club Chapters Oppose Sabal Trail Gas Pipeline –read by Danielle Jordan @ FERC 2014-03-04

Danielle Jordan, VSU student and president of Students Against Violating the Environment, stood up for local landowners and the environment against Spectra’s Sabal Trail pipeline at the Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting 4 March 2014, by reading a statement against the pipeline by the Sierra Club chapters of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

Here’s the text she was reading: TRI-STATE SIERRA CLUB CHAPTERS OPPOSE GAS PIPELINE: Statement of the Georgia, Florida, and Alabama Sierra Club Chapters Opposing the Sabal Trail Pipeline.

Here’s the video:


Sierra Club Chapters Oppose Sabal Trail Gas Pipeline –read by Danielle Jordan
Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline,
Scoping Meeting, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 March 2014.

-jsq

Corporate power comes home –Jim Parker

Letter to the Editor in the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday. -jsq

How is it that one foreign corporation, that has just come into existence to do this project, can have greater power than all of the thousands of citizens affected, and their elected governments?

No, I’m not talking about the Keystone XL pipeline, but he issues are the same. This one wants to run a 36-inch gas pipeline through a number of states and counties, including Lowndes, affecting thousands of landowners. It’s known as Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, and is the unholy offspring of Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy.

How can one foreign corporation (they’re from out of state), have so much power vis-avis the thousands of landowners and citizens of Lowndes County, that the citizens must give up a hundred-foot-wide swath of their land, along with the depreciation of their property values, not to mention their personal safety, and allow this pipeline to come through? The gas is not even for use in Lowndes County, or even the State of Georgia. However, the general feeling is we have to give in to the corporation’s demands. County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter is quoted as saying, “There’s nothing we can do.”

Does anyone else see the problem here? Continue reading →

Videos @ LCC 2014-03-10

An unexpected concern about limiting someone’s ability to expand his business was expressed by Lame Duck Commissioner Richard Raines, the same who made the motion for the exclusive franchise for trash collection by ADS, and who apparently (in executive session so we don’t know for sure) voted twice to sue local business Deep South Sanitation. They spent five or six minutes on an annexation request by Lake Park that was not on the agenda, even though they received it last week. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM, and don’t forget the budget hearings continue all day today.

One road in the Nelson Hill subdivision wasn’t up to snuff and will be omitted from the adoption of infrastructure; that’s better than the county’s previous practice for that development of staff waivers with no public hearings. Plus four rezonings, one for a former County Commissioner and another for a community well for a development. And the annual contract renewal for the MIDS on-call bus system, plus a master software service contract.

See Musical chairs in local qualifying for why John Page is no longer a Commissioner and they already removed his picture from the entryway. There’s more about that in the previous post with the agenda. And here’s the agenda again with links to the videos and a few notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Solar power record installation and acceleration in 2013 in U.S.

Solar power is already second only to methane in new energy generation, and solar is increasing its growth rate much faster than “natural” gas. Solar is going to win, and quickly. How many unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipelines will we let the fracking industry gouge through here before we get on with solar power for local energy, local jobs, and local lower electric bills?

Mike Munsell wrote for greentech solar 7 March 2014, US Solar Market Grew 41%, Had Record Year in 2013: The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of PV, according to the Solar Market Insight Year in Review report.

According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013, photovoltaic installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over 2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of concentrating solar power came on-line.

Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally, the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year 15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2013 there were more than Continue reading →

Videos: Moultrie FERC Scoping Meeting @ FERC 2014-03-05

Here are videos of the whole thing.

Updated 31 March 2014: Who stood up.
Updated 4 June 2014: Fixed video links.

Not only did Colquitt County pass a resolution about pipeline depth; a County Commissioner the county attorney stood up and reminded FERC about it, which got John Peconom to admit that FERC has required a deeper minimum pipeline depth in some other states.

So far that’s speaking against the pipeline:

Only one of those county commissions claims there’s nothing you can do; the rest are all doing something.

See also:

VDT redacted Sabal Trail pipeline FERC Scoping Meeting story @ FERC 2014-03-04

Amusingly, when the VDT fixed the typos in their online story, they redacted me and Gretchen right out of it. I’m flattered! Still, congratulations to the VDT on quoting a lot of landowners (and a few others who remained unredacted), and on putting this story on the front page.

Here’s an extract from the online version showing changes from the printed version (pictured) as if the newspaper had used standard blogging markup for changes after posting. Starting with the pullquote in the printed version, which they edited heavily in the online version:

Affected Land owner Landowner Larry Rodgers said he has been trying to sell his property for a long time, and once he He had an interested buyer and they found out about, but upon learning of the pipeline running through his property they dropped their, the interested party withdrew the offer.

“Where do I go to file that complaint!? And whose who’s responsible for value lost due to property damage?” Rodgers asked. Peconom replied, “I don’t have an answer for you tonight, but well we’ll look into it.”

Concerned citizens Gretchen Quarterman said she was concerned about the pipeline moving Natural Gas that has been fracked, and the taking of property from private land owners to benefit a company that does not do business in Georgia. She also brought up safety concerns regarding sink holes, and proposed Florida use an alternate way of producing energy, such as solar “because as we all know Florida is the sunshine state.” Continue reading →

Videos: Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting @ FERC 2014-03-04

Here are videos of the whole thing.

Update 2014-03-08: Fixed date.

See also:

  • FERC holds meeting to discuss Sabal Trail pipeline by Colter Anstaett, WALB

    “I just lost a contract on the sale of part of my property because of this pipeline,” said Larry Rodgers, a Lowndes County landowner.

    “Why is it set in stone that you pay one price forever for the value of the property they use when they’re gonna be makin’ profits on it forever…the landowner has to continue to pay property taxes. So, I don’t understand why they can’t share the profits,” continued Rodgers….

    One concerned landowner, Rick Hastings, questioned whether any information that the third party collected and presented Continue reading →

There’s nothing we can do about the pipeline –Bill Slaughter @ LCC 2014-02-24

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Lowndes County Commissioners about the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, after the Chairman refused to let a citizen speak during the 25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session. But there are things local governments can do, as other local governments and elected officials have already demonstrated.

Citizen Carol Singletary drove 100 miles to get there. As Chairman Bill Slaughter asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting, she said she called in to say she wanted to speak. Slaughter responded,

You have to fill out the paperwork and everything in order.

Phillip Singletary said he did, and it was in the Commission Chamber entranceway.

The Chairman did not relent; “just do it next week; next time”. Nevermind that he has let people speak who hadn’t turned in the paperwork before the meeting started (we have videos). He even let pipeline reps speak from the audience without coming up to the podium and didn’t let any citizens speak at the Spectra sales pitch back in December.

Commissioner John Page moved to adjourn, and added that he would like to see Ms. Singletary after the meeting. Chairman agreed, somebody seconded, and they voted to adjourn.

Do elected Commissioners now have to get a vote of the Commission to talk to citizens?

Here’s the video of that part.

After the meeting, Continue reading →

Fire engine sinkhole in Atlanta

I wonder if their insurance covered this? TV reporter wonders if sewer lines were affected. What if a methane pipeline had been there, like when Florida Gas Transmission called the 25-acre sinkhole in Louisiana “Force Majeure”, or an act of God, or not their fault? Will your insurance cover sinkholes or broken pipelines?

AP in the AJC 3 March 2014, Atlanta fire engine stuck in sinkhole,

Department spokeswoman Janet Ward told local outlets that the sinkhole on Ashby Grove opened as the truck was driving along the street Monday afternoon. Ward estimates that the hole was about 8 feet long, 6 feet wide and 5 feet deep.

Marcus K. Garner wrote for the AJC yesterday Atlanta firetruck gets stuck in sinkhole,

The cause of the sinkhole is unknown at this time.

Leaking sewer or water line, overpumping, other?

Julie Wolfe reported for 11alive yesterday, Continue reading →

FERC pipeline Scoping Meeting tonight in Valdosta: testify for your community

A local affected landowner and the chair of a local political party ask you to come tonight at 6PM at the Holiday Inn on West Hill Avenue to testify to the federal agency that decides on a permit for the proposed yard-wide hundred-foot right of way methane pipeline that a company from Houston wants to gash through here. First a presentation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), then citizens can stand up and be recorded by a court reporter.

As directly affected local landowner Carol Singletary pointed out on WALB Sunday,

“When you have it within 100 feet of your home, you cannot have any sense of security there. There are alternate routes that aren’t being considered. So I want to get those on the table and some strong considerations given to those.”

As Gretchen Quarterman pointed out for the Lowndes County Democratic Party on WCTV yesterday,

“The Georgia Democrats feel that there’s a moral obligation to leave the world as beautiful and majestic as we found it and the pipeline, it does not do that”, says Gretchen Quarterman, Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Committee.

More from the LCDP Press Release yesterday, plus more meetings and more ways to testify, Continue reading →