Tag Archives: Economy

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 →

Nukes have always been a government sponsored boondogle as cover for nuclear weapons production –John Pate



From Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace and Matsutaro Shoriki founding
the Japanese nuclear industry
to Shinzo Abe’s international nuclear salesmanship,
nuclear power has always been a whitewash for nuclear weapons,
with “peaceful” nukes

a boondoggle for big corps subsidized by taxpayers and ratepayers.
Yet the sun is rising around the world, on Japan as well as on the U.S.

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower kicked it off with his

“Atoms for Peace”
speech at the UN, 8 December 1953,



The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the
impounding, storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable
and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide
special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable
material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.

The more important responsibility of this Atomic Energy Agency would
be to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be
allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts would
be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture,
medicine, and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be
to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of
the world. Thus the contributing powers would be dedicating some of
their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind….

Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States
does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and
the hope for peace.



And “Atoms for Peace” was part of an organized government PR campaign
(“Operation Candor”)
about Soviet nuclear weapons; see

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/atoms_for_peace.html”>Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library for sources.
Operation Candor was replaced by Operation Soothing Syrup (I am not making this up),
according to Continue reading →

Solar and wind cheaper than fossil fuels –more evidence

The most cost-effective power sources are solar and wind,
re-affirms a study that includes social costs,
such as the environmental costs of the climate
change caused by CO2 from fossil fuels
(the social cost of carbon, or SCC),
and the health damage caused by sulfur dioxide pollution.
It’s time to stop paying for utility executive profits with our health and dollars.
No fracking, no pipeline.

M Caulfield wrote for Exposing the Truth 24 September 2013,

Renewable Energy Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuel,

168292900_900x675[1]Renewable energy is becoming more and more
competitive. Alternative and renewable energy sources are increasingly
becoming more affordable. According to a new study published in the Journal
of Environmental Studies and Sciences, it is now less costly in
America to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels, than it
is to get it from coal-fired power plants. The study shows, when climate
change costs and other health impacts were factored in, that it is even
more cost effective to convert an existing coal-fired power plant with
a wind turbine, than it is to keep the old fossil fuel-burning plant.



Unsubsidized renewable energy is now cheaper than electricity from coal and
gas power stations in Australia as well. Wind farms in Australia
can produce energy at AU$80/MWh. Meanwhile, coal plants are
producing energy at AU$143/MWh and gas at AU$116/MWh. And the myth that alternative energy sources
were enormously more costly than the typical
fossil fuels, is proving to be untrue. And after initial
investment costs are waged, making them now ameliorated, and the raw materials for solar and wind power are free, besides
costs of upkeep, and the harvesting of those sources doesn’t cause
mayhem to the environment. Making it an ever-more appealing alternative
energy source.

“The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and
renewables are expensive is now out of date… The
fact that wind power is now cheaper than coal and gas in a country with some of the world’s best fossil fuel
resources shows that clean energy is a game changer which promises to turn
the economics of power systems on its head,” – Michael Liebreich,
chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

In lead author Laurie Johnson’s Blog 17 September 2013,

New Study: Clean Energy Least Costly to Power America’s Electricity Needs, 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 →

Chinese nukes in Britain

Bad news from Britain.
Let’s hope U.S. NRC doesn’t take this as a precedent.

The Telegraph, today,

Chinese companies to buy big stake in next generation of British nuclear power,



George Osborne, the Chancellor, has announced that the UK will allow
Chinese companies to take a stake in British nuclear power plants.

The decision could lead to China taking a future majority
stake—and even be allowed to own up to 100 pc—in the
development of the next generation of British nuclear power.

Mr Osborne made the announcement on Thursday the last day of a
week-long trade visit to China after a visit to Taishan nuclear
power station on the coast near Hong Kong.

Taishan is a collaboration between French energy company EDF and the
China General Nuclear Power Company.



EDF is at the heart of UK Government Continue reading →

Spectra met Lowndes and Valdosta @ Pipeline 2013-10-16



Spectra Energy subsidiary Sabal Trail Transmission held

a landowner one-on-one at Wiregrass Tech last night.
Matthew Woody of the VDT was there, as was one Valdosta City Council
member, one Lowndes County Commissioner, and at least two county staff,
plus some landowners (“might as well get something out of this”,
several said at the food bar), one of whom was a match for Andrea Grover.

Matthew Woody, VDT:

Continue reading →

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 →