Category Archives: Transparency

Ask your Congress members to oppose TPP today

Here’s a handy form by EFF to oppose the secretly-negotiated privacy-deleting corporate-greed-defending natural gas export pipeline-enabling Trans-Pacific Parternship treaty.

Parker Higgins and Maira Sutton wrote for the Electronic Frontier Foundation 28 December 2013, 2013 in Review: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,

The biggest TPP story this year was the publication by WikiLeaks in November of the chapter titled “Intellectual Property.” Unfortunately, its contents confirmed many of our worst fears: from ratcheting up copyright term lengths around the world, to boxing in fair use, to mandating a draconian legal regime around DRM software, section after section contained clauses plucked from corporate wishlists and snubbed the public interest altogether.

And then there’s Ted Poe’s House Subcommittee pushing TPP for LNG exports that would propel “natural” fracked gas pipelines such as Spectra Energy’s Sabal Transmission gas pipe through private property and public rivers and watersheds and aquifers.

Here’s what’s up next: Continue reading →

Secret meeting of Lowndes County Commission and state reps @ LCC 2013-12-20

The VDT report doesn’t say when or where, and doesn’t say whether Dexter Sharper (District 177) wasn’t invited or chose not to attend.

There’s nothing about this meeting in the online agendas or calendar, even though that calendar lists Pictures with Santa at the Historical Courthouse (12/19/2013).

There is this undated public notice with no agenda:

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners will meet with members of Lowndes County’s Legislative Delegation on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 4:00 p.m. in the Commissioner’s Conference Room located on the 3rd floor of the Judicial-Administrative Complex, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia.

K. Paige Dukes, County Clerk
pdukes@lowndescounty.com 229-671-2400

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT 22 December 2013, Commissioners host local delegation, oddly omitting the when and where and much of the why from the traditional who, what, when, where, and why of journalism.

The Lowndes County Commission hosted Continue reading →

Susan Waller refusing to answer a question @ Sabal 2013-12-17

Here’s Susan Waller of Spectra refusing to even listen to a question that she had just asked for:

FERC-required Open House about the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
by Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy,
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

Blake Clark remarked on this video he took:

This short clip speaks for it’s self. Notice Susan Waller’s condescending tone through out the clips entirety. It is assumed, and I have witnessed her speaking to most landowners inquiring more information in the same tone here. Are the people at Sabal (Spectra) or “what ever they may be calling themselves this week” really concerned for you, your questions, or your property? You decide!

Visit Spectrabusters.org for more information on the Sabal Trail Pipeline, Thank you!

Earlier she complained that someone who presented her with evidence was “disruptive”.

What I wanted to ask her about was Continue reading →

Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL @ Sabal 2013-12-17

When someone took Susan Waller up on her offer to answer questions about the Sabal Trail pipeline, she seemed to find the truth as reported by her own company to a federal pipeline oversight agency to be “disruptive”.

Disable Sabal – Sabal Trail (Spectra Energy) Open House Madison, FL,

We are a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company.

So said Spectra VP or Shareholder Outreach Susan Waller. She then complained that “your group” was “disruptive” and “you don’t want to hear the truth”.

So Ben Vieth showed Waller lists of incidents of corrosion reported by Spectra to PHMSA. To which another Sabal Trail rep. said, “We have a safe operation”.

Here’s the video:

Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline,
FERC-required Open House, Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy (Sabal),
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

It’s interesting that even after Continue reading →

Larry Rodgers and Mindy Bland on Chris Beckham radio show right now

Lowndes County landowners Larry Rodgers and Mindy Bland on the Chris Beckham radio show right now. “Veiled threats” –Mindy Bland. Larry Rodgers said:

These people do not have a customer in Georgia, so eminent domain does not apply in Georgia.

His attorney (Bill Langdale) responded to a Sabal Trail lawyer letter saying that, and as yet there is no response.

You continue paying taxes on that property forever. They continue making profits on that property forever.

Chris Beckham remarked that there’s no other 36 inch pipeline in Georgia, and Mindy is explaining Continue reading →

Coal tax and a gas pipeline for Christmas?

This was an op-ed submission to the VDT, which didn’t respond. Today’s the GA PSC vote, so I’m blogging it now.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) wants to do for coal what the Florida PSC already did for that gas pipeline Sabal Trail wants to gash through here: raise utility customer rates!

Who wants a Christmas present of higher electricity rates and continued coal smoke, plus increased guaranteed profit for Georgia Power of 11.5%? They already raised rates each of the last three years for gas and nuclear plants not yet even built; why should we permit more rate hikes when the PSC votes December 17th? Last week’s Public Policy poll found 69% of Georgia voters oppose that rate hike.

Is a one-time payment enough to let a huge 36 inch fracked methane pipeline gash through our communities while Spectra Energy of Houston and FPL of Juno Beach, Florida profit forever, and your property values go down and your hazards go up?

Those FPL profits come from rate hikes on your cousins the Florida ratepayers. AARP opposes that, saying: Continue reading →

Take a stand against the the pipeline –Karen Noll

Received today on Spectra reps unfamiliar with Spectra fines @ LCC 2013-12-09. -jsq

Take a stand against the the pipeline by sending in your comment to FERC.gov. At the website you eRegister and they send you an email. Once registered you can submit a comment on docket # PF14-1. Find below an example of a comment, feel free to copy any or all as you please:

Sabal Trail pipeline proposal poses a significant safety threat to our community through accidents. Leaks from such pipelines in the US have caused explosions and have destroyed homes and killed people 29 times this year alone. Since the proposed pipeline is much larger than any of these recent explosions, a pipeline of 36 inch radius could do extreme damage if such an accident should occur in the Lowndes county area where it is proposed. Not only those living near the pipeline but Continue reading →

Spectra reps unfamiliar with Spectra fines @ LCC 2013-12-09

Both of Spectra’s principal representatives to the Lowndes County Commission and the Dougherty County Commission claim not to be familiar with Spectra’s well-known public record of safety violations, and some of what they say contradicts the public record, so how can we believe any of their safety assertions about Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail Transmission pipeline?

Update 3PM: more evidence from Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

As I’ve mentioned before, Spectra’s Andrea Grover told us that everyone in Pennsylvania was happy now, after I asked her about the Steckman Ridge compressor station leak in front of reporter Matthew Woody, at the 16 October 2013 Spectra meeting at Wiregrass Tech in Valdosta. There’s more beyond the article about pipeline fines and incidents Woody wrote 24 November 2013 for the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), the local newspaper of record.

Her excuse for the compressor leak, if I recall correctly, was that Continue reading →

Sabal Trail answers: Commissioners did forward questions @ LCC 2013-12-09

Nobody said last Monday that Commissioners had asked for a written response from Sabal Trail. All we knew was the four questions Commissioners asked. Maybe the county should hire a public information officer; I see they no longer have one listed on their website front page, and the last website public notice is from April. Fortunately, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall forwarded Spectra’s answers yesterday. He also copied the Valdosta Daily Times, with attached PDF. -jsq

From: Demarcus Marshall
Date: December 13, 2013, 3:01:32 PM CST
Subject: FW: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdf
Concerned Citizens,
These are the responses from Sabal Trail regarding the questions forwarded to me. Please forward to those in opposition of the surveys and those that have agreed to them.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, M.P.A.

From: Fahrenthold, Brian C
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2013 9:46 PM
To: Demarcus Marshall
Cc: Bill Slaughter; Joyce Evans; Richard Raines; Crawford Powell; John Page; County Manager; Belinda Lovern
Subject: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdf
Commissioner Marshall, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners and County Manager Pritchard:

Attached is a more detailed summation to the questions posed to the Commission by Ms. Singletary.

Should you need Continue reading →

I don’t want to have to fear for my children as they sleep at night –Mindy Bland on WCTV @ LCC 2013-12-10

The Commission didn’t let citizens speak after Spectra’s sales pitch for the Sabal Trail Pipeline Monday, but some citizens spoke up in Citizens to Be Heard Tuesday and WCTV covered that.

Winnie Anne Wright wrote for WCTV yesterday, Citizens Address Lowndes County Commission About Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Residents covered topics such as the lack of economic impact on Lowndes County, the legality of the pipeline, and also the safety.

“As a mother of three, I don’t want to have to fear for my children as they sleep at night. And you hear a lot of people say that natural gas line explosions don’t happen, and for those that feel that they don’t, I really encourage them to go on the internet and google gas line explosions and then tell me that they don’t happen. As a mother, I feel like I have to step up and do what I can to protect my children”, says Mindy Bland, an impacted homeowner.

Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange