Tag Archives: pipeline

Pipeline dog and pony in Albany Monday

Monday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.

Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,

Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.

Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading

Spectra pipeline meeting tonight at Wiregrass Tech @ Pipeline 2013-10-16

Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be, as it cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida through south Georgia, using eminent domain to make you sell your land, to deliver gas from fracking in Pennsylvania for the benefit of Florida Power and Light. Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps Brian Fahrenthold or Andrea Grover a few questions, like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers, and what about those fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?

Added: facebook event.

Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Wiregrass Georgia Tech (Atrium)
4089 Val Tech Road
Valdosta, GA

The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading

GIS maps of Sabal Trail pipeline preferred route

Sabal Trail had an interactive GIS map of the entire pipeline route in Moultrie last night, with zoom and pan detail as good as the tax assessor maps for Brooks and Lowndes Counties. The Sabal Trail reps declined to provide a copy of the whole GIS, but they obligingly panned down the pipeline and waited while I took pictures with my smartphone.

Here’s GIS of the pipeline route through Brooks and Lowndes Counties:

GIS of Brooks and Lowndes Counties

This is zoomed in where the route crosses US 84 and then the Withlacoochee River, which is the county line:

Continue reading

Sabal Trail Pipeline Context maps –Spectra Energy and FPL

Where does Spectra Energy’s natural gas come from, and where does it go? These maps from the Moultrie meeting help explain. Spoiler: from fracking to FPL.

In “Our Portfolio of Assets”, Spectra Energy shows pipelines running from shale gas formations in and around Pennsylvania and down the Appalachians into Tennessee, through north Georgia, and into Alabama, as well as from gas storage facilities in Louisiana and shale fields in Texas.

Our Portfolio of Assets --Spectra Energy

So that’s where it comes from: the Marcellus Shale and its relatives down through (soon) the Conasauga Shale in north Georgia and Alabama and into Louisiana and Texas. Fracking, in other words.

That was not a word that was used by any of the Sabal Trail reps nor a word that appeared on any of their maps or in any of their handouts. But fracking is how natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus Shale, as Andrea Grover presumably knows, since she was sent to Pennsylvania in April to explain a Spectra Energy gas release from a compressor in Marcellus Shale country.

Where is the gas through the Sabal Trail pipeline supposed to go? Orlando, to the Sabal Trail Central Florida Hub. Why? Well, according to Andrea Grover, Florida Power and Light is “modernizing”. She explained that FPL has shut down some coal plants, and is converting to natural gas. She this map of the Florida Southeast Connection:

Continue reading

Spectra Energy in Moultrie about Sabal Trail Pipeline

I went to the Spectra Pipeline meeting in Moultrie tonight, where many people in blue shirts saying Sabal Trail, including Brian Fahrenthold (who volunteered that I could take pictures of maps) and Andrea Grover (who will be in Valdosta tomorrow), were happy to answer questions from a landowner such as myself.

Here’s just part of the display:

Part of the Moultrie display

The Making of a Pipeline:

Continue reading

Greenlaw concerned about Sabal Trail pipeline

Received today. I added the links. -jsq

Mr. Quarterman,

I am an attorney with GreenLaw investigating issues related to the proposed Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. We have serious concerns regarding the need for this pipeline and its proposed route.

I am writing you because Dinorah Hall, who first brought this issue to our attention, has told me that you are also very concerned about this proposed pipeline. I wanted to be sure that you are aware that Sabal Trail will be holding an open house to discuss the proposed pipeline this Wednesday, October 16 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Wiregrass Georgia Tech Atrium, 4089 Valdosta Tech.

This is an opportunity for the public Continue reading

Tonight in Moultrie, tomorrow in Valdosta, Spectra Pipeline meetings

Spectra Energy is coming to Valdosta and Moultrie to tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be, as it cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida through south Georgia, using eminent domain to make you sell your land, for the benefit of Florida Power and Light. Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps Brian Fahrenthold or Andrea Grover a few questions, like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers, and what about those fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?

Tonight (Tuesday) 15 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Moultrie Technical Facility
800 Veterans Parkway
Moultrie, GA
Tomorrow (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Wiregrass Georgia Tech (Atrium)
4089 Val Tech Road
Valdosta, GA

I have confirmed by calling Wiregrass Tech Economic Development that Spectra Energy will be there from 3:30 to 8:30 PM, which Wiregrass Tech says apparently includes setup and teardown. The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called. Tech’s web server seems to be down right now, but Google has cached her as:

Cobb, Christy,
Director of Economic Development,
(229) 468-2218,
christy.cobb@wiregrass.edu

-jsq

Natural gas pipeline exploded in Oklahoma; seen in two other states

The most obvious risk of that proposed natural gas pipeline was seen in another one Monday through today in Oklahoma (and Texas and Kansas): explosion and fire. The pipeline proposed for here would be 44% bigger; maybe we could have an explosion seen from Florida and Alabama!

CBS News reported today, Okla. pipeline blast sparks huge blaze, spurs evacuations,

Deputy Cliff Brinson, of the Harper County Sheriff’s Department, says the fire sounded like four roaring jet engines and had flames reaching two football fields high.

He says no injuries were reported, and residents within two miles of the blast were evacuated.

A family of three living in a home about 200 yards away escaped unharmed, authorities say.

By the time the pipeline company, Northern Natural Gas, released a statement they called it “a flicker”.

Video by Spencer Albracht: Continue reading

Florida Power and Light selected Sabal Trail for pipeline through Georgia

A Florida company selected a Texas company that can use eminent domain in Georgia to take your land. Does that seem right to you? Florida PSC has to review this pipeline. Where’s Georgia PSC on this?

FPL PR 26 July 2013, FPL selects Sabal Trail Transmission and Florida Southeast Connection to build new natural gas pipeline system into Florida,

Florida Power & Light Company today announced that its evaluation of proposals for additional natural gas transportation capacity determined that the best, most economical solution for ensuring Florida’s continued access to the clean, affordable, U.S.-produced fuel necessary to meet the growing electricity needs of the state’s residents and businesses is a combination of a natural gas pipeline and interconnection hub to be built by Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, and a second natural gas pipeline to be built by Florida Southeast Connection, LLC….

Both Sabal Trail and Florida Southeast Connection will be interstate natural gas pipelines subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval and oversight.

In conjunction with today’s public announcement, FPL filed a petition for prudence review with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC). Subject to PSC approval, Continue reading

Spectra never bothered to check pipeline for corrosion –Spectra employee

So “the pipe will be monitored 24/7”? That’s not Spectra’s actual practice, according to an employee and according to a federal fine.

By fjgallagher for Natural Gas Watch 19 June 2013, Spectra Energy Employee: We Never Bothered to Check Natural Gas Pipeline for Corrosion,

A Spectra Energy employee acknowledged to federal inspectors that the company never conducted key tests for corrosion on a natural gas pipeline that was already operating at excess capacity, according to documents recently obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org.

There’s much more in the article, including this:

Additionally, according to another May 2, 2013 letter sent under separate cover from (PHMSA) to Holeman, Spectra failed to install equipment to monitor whether or not the natural gas pipeline in question was being affected by corrosion and could not produce any records indicating that the pipeline had, in fact, ever been tested for corrosion or that the pipeline was even structurally sound.

So that’s what “the pipe will be monitored 24/7” means. Good to know.

See Item 2 in that Final Order with fines from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to Spectra Energy CEO Gregory L. Ebel: Continue reading