Tag Archives: FERC

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

All against, except County Commissioners @ FERC 2014-03-04



At FERC’s Scoping Meeting for Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline,
about 100 people, not counting FERC or Spectra. Lots of good
questions. Not many answers. John Peconom of FERC
said afterwards the comments were
mostly about the big picture.
Except questions from local government officials: there were none.
Video to come.


WALB was there for a
long time, so they’ll probably cover it (they did). Matthew Woody of the VDT had
heaps of material and went off to file by 10PM (here’s his story).

Three Lowndes County Commissioners were there:
Chairman Bill Slaughter, Joyce Evans, and Crawford Powell,
and County Engineer Mike Fletcher and Utilities Director Mike Allen.
Not one of them spoke.

In

Gilchrist County, Florida
, all five County Commissioners,
plus 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

Adapt natural gas pipeline to renewable resources? –Laura Dailey @ GCC 2014-02-20



Spectra was unwilling to consider adapting
their Sabal Trail pipeline plan to include renewable energy,
other than to continue reiterating that they do natural gas pipelines,
and to refer to renewables only as “alternative” energy.

Laura Dailey asked at the

Gilchrist County Commission meeting 20 February 2014
:



Will the pipelines be adaptable to future use of
other forms of energy besides the transmission of fossil fuels.
Anybody know that?

Brian Fahrentholdt of Spectra answered: Continue reading

FERC Scoping Meetings on Sabal Trail Pipeline –Joe Pitchard @ LCC 2014-02-25



County Manager Joe Pritchard told everyone about the FERC Notice of Intent
and Scoping Meetings

starting next week

(Albany Monday 3 March, Valdosta Holiday Inn on West Hill Ave.
Tuesday 4 March, Moultrie 5 March, all at 6PM).
at the

25 February 2014 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session
.

7. Reports-County Manager

He said materials were on the county’s website,

and they are
:

Continue reading

Gilchrist County, FL pop. 16,815; Lowndes County, GA pop. 114,552


Apparently it doesn’t take size

for elected commissioners to represent the people
, or

to choose not to
.
There’s still time for local governments
to choose to do at least those things FERC and NTSB say they should do about pipelines, especially the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission methane pipeline.



Google Population Chart

-jsq

Local government pipeline responsibilities

Make pipeline companies answer questions, motivate implementation of safety standards, announce FERC Scoping meetings, and enforce reasonable local zoning restrictions:
these are things local governments can do, and NTSB and FERC say they should do
most of them.
Gilchrist County Commission in Trenton, Florida has done most of them,
and plans to continue doing more.
The Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council still can, too,
plus all the other county and city governments along the proposed pipeline path,
and their statewide county and city government associations.
Will our local elected officials represent we the people?

Make pipeline companies answer questions



There were

Real questions at the Gilchrist County Commission meeting in Trenton, Florida
Monday.
Two hours of first questions from a citizens committee with
Spectra’s reps expected to answer right there in front of everybody,
then questions from locals and people from many counties around,
including attorneys representing landowners and other county
commissions cross-examining Spectra on the spot. The Chairman of the
Gilchrist County Commission said there was a general opinion among
the populace that they were asking specific questions and getting
only general answers. Congratulations, Chairman, Commission, staff,
Committee, and everyone who asked questions for showing the world
how it’s done, and for exposing Spectra’s evasions to public
scrutiny.



This is in sharp contrast to 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