Tag Archives: Spectra Energy

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 →

WCTV on the pipeline

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.

Option B by WCTV

James Buechele wrote for WCTV yesterday, Pipeline Would Cut Through Florida & Georgia, Continue reading →

Florida opposition to Spectra pipeline

The Sabal Trail roadshow rolled on to Florida, but hasn’t bowled over at least one landowner.

Dave D’Marko wrote for mynews13.com yesterday, Pipeline bringing gas, concerns to Floridians,

A new gas pipeline is coming to Florida that will pump up to a billion cubic feet a day to Florida Power and Light customers.

But some property owners aren’t happy. The company plans to take the pipeline right through their land. Sabal Trail Transmission met with landowners in Kissimmee Tuesday night. Another meeting is planned at South Lake High School in Groveland Wednesday.

Gertrude Dickinson, 82, got her first letter in June, warning her a company was bidding to bring a gas pipeline to Florida and her property was being considered. She didn’t wait for the project to gain approval, which it did later in the summer, and started fighting it immediately.

“I said I want a map of exactly where you are putting that pipe on my land and how much you are going to use,” Dickinson said.

Sabal Trail Route Map

She said what she got in return was this map showing all three states the 465 mile pipeline would go through, and a dot showing the general area she lived in Sumter County. What it didn’t explain is why they wanted to go through her land, and not the state-owned prairie across the street.

Well, that all sounds familiar. And look who’s down there speaking for Spectra:

Andrea Grover, a spokesperson for Sabal Trail Transmission, is part of the “Right of Way” team meeting with 3,000 landowners along the corridor. She said so far 80 percent have given permission for land surveying.

But Dickinson posted no trespassing signs, refusing to let surveyors on her land. Signs on her property point out she suffers from a condition known as auditory recruitment, which means noise from construction would be greatly amplified in her ears. She says previous episodes have led to heart attacks.

The company said it will reimburse owners fair value for their property, but Dickinson doubts that would be much in this economy.

“I can buy a few bags of groceries with the money and that’s it, and for what? They’ve taken my property, and my entrance, and my life possibly who knows,” she said.

-jsq

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 →

Pipeline complaints heard at Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2013-10-22

You don’t see this every day. After several citizens spoke in the Commission meeting against the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline and asked for the Lowndes County Commission to help them, four Commissioners stayed afterwards to listen to citizens:

Four Commissioners listening to citizens
L-R: Tim Bland, a citizen who spoke in the meeting, Joyce Evans (District 1), Matthew Woody (VDT), John Page (District 4), Bill Slaughter (Chairman), Carol Singletary, Demarcus Marshall (District 5), and other citizens.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2013.

Richard Raines (District 2) left quickly, saying he didn’t feel well.

Crawford Powell (District 3) spent the same time talking to County Engineer Mike Fletcher (who was at the Spectra meeting a week ago) about what could be done. There are things the county can ask for, and maybe get, that individual citizens cannot so easily accomplish.

Video of the Commission meeting will follow, including the citizens speaking.

-jsq

Spectra Energy fined $15 million for PCB spills at 89 pipeline sites –EPA

Those PHMSA fines weren’t the half of Spectra Energy’s leaks and environmental violations. Do we want a record-EPA-fined pipeline company running PCBs through our counties? Don’t we have enough PCBs in the ADS landfill in Lowndes County that’s in a recharge zone for the aquifer we all drink out of? Haven’t we already imported enough hazardous wastes from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross? Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should hear about these things tonight.

L.A. Times, 21 October 1989, Pipeline Firm to Pay Record EPA Fine, Continue reading →

Spectra pipeline property damage and safety record

Sabal Trail Transmission reps promise us their pipeline will be safe, but their parent company Spectra Energy has had twenty one incidents since 2006 for $8,564,246 in property damage, according to PHMSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

That Final Order of 21 December 2012 to Spectra CEO Gregory L. Ebel for $134,500 for violating both federal regulations and Spectra’s own internal company policies was only a in the flaming bucket. Another, marked in red as MAT’L/WELD/EQUIP FAILURE, PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT for $251,170 in property damage on 13 March 2012 in Marietta, York County, Pennsylvania, could be related to that compressor incident Spectra first said was nothing. Most of the others are about “internal corrosion” such as a Spectra employee says they never bothered to check for.

Here’s the current list of incidents from PHMSA, no doubt each with its own sordid story:

Serious Incidents are denoted in red.

Continue reading →

Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC

Received yesterday. Tim Bland wrote “This is what I emailed to all of the commissioners on Friday.” I added a few links and pictures. -jsq

Commissioners,

I would like to start by thanking Demarcus Marshall for attending the meeting held by Sabal Trail at Wiregrass Tech on Wednesday. It is nice to know that some of our elected officials are concerned about this project.

After talking with many of the affected landowners at this meeting, it appears that there is a general misconception about the certainty of this proposed pipeline. The officials from Sabal Trail, both in writing and in person, are telling landowners that this pipeline is coming and there is little any of us can do to prevent it. This appears to be the main reason for the high approval rating for the initial surveys. We were told that if we did not willingly participate in the survey, there would be little consideration given to our input and opinions when the pipeline is built. We were also told Continue reading →

Lowndes vs. Florida Pipeline

The VDT got some good quotes from Spectra and from landowners, and even from a Lowndes County Commissioners at the Spectra dog and pony at Wiregrass Tech last week. Not the whole story, though; this one has legs.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT today, Lowndes residents oppose Fla. pipeline,

Andrea Grover (Spectra), Matthew Woody (VDT) Sabal Trail Transmission held an open house at Wiregrass Georgia Technical College last week to explain the Florida natural gas pipeline expected to run through South Georgia.

Sabal Trail had bulletin boards depicting aerial photos with the proposed 600-foot corridor mapped out with two red dotted lines running parallel to one another. In the center of these dotted lines, there was a brown line which highlighted an existing pipeline.

He got a bit more detail from Spectra rep Andrea Grover about Option A (the current proposed pipeline path) vs. Option B: Continue reading →

Fracking at VSU

It’s good to see fracking reviewed in the VSU Spectator, including that it’s coming to Georgia unless we stop it, and we should stop it. It’s unfortunate the story ends with a bad idea when there’s a much better idea already rapidly being deployed: solar power.

Stephen Cavallaro wrote yesterday for the VSU Spectator, Fracking hits Georgia,

Fracking, the process of harvesting the environmentally unfriendly natural gas called shale that is being pushed by the government, plows its way through Georgia.

More like being pushed by fossil fuel companies who have bought too many politicians.

In March, I discussed a deal backed by the government between British-owned Centrica and American-owned Cheniere. The agreement was that Cheniere would spread toxic chemicals across America in order to fuel millions of British homes.

Kind of like Continue reading →