{"id":11523,"date":"2014-11-26T10:36:59","date_gmt":"2014-11-26T15:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=11523"},"modified":"2014-11-26T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T15:55:04","slug":"could-contradict-a-recent-statement-by-sabal-trails-andrea-grover-vdt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/could-contradict-a-recent-statement-by-sabal-trails-andrea-grover-vdt.html","title":{"rendered":"Could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover –VDT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nWho exactly is “hard to believe”?\r\n

\r\nJoe Adgie, VDT, today, 26 November 2014,\r\n\r\nResidents share eminent domain letters<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\nLetters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal\r\nEnergy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by\r\nSabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nProperty owners state that these letters contradict a recent\r\nstatement by Grover to the Times that accusations that they had been\r\nthreatened with eminent domain on their properties was “hard\r\nto believe.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I would really disagree with any of those accusations,”\r\nGrover said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nHowever, several property owners shared a form letter that was sent\r\nto them by Sabal Trail, and their representing law firm, Hunton &\r\nWilliams.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\nThe VDT article quotes from\r\n\r\nthe 26 November 2013 eminent domain letter<\/a> from Sabal Trail’s Atlanta law firm \r\nHunton & Williams to local Lowndes County landowner Larry Rodgers.\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“Natural gas pipeline companies such as Sabal Trail are\r\nexpressly granted eminent domain rights under Georgia law,”\r\nCalvert wrote in the letter.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCalvert cited O.C.G.A. 22-3-88, which states that “The power\r\nof eminent domain may be exercised by persons who are or may be\r\nengaged in constructing or operating pipelines for the\r\ntransportation or distribution of natural or artificial gas and by\r\npersons who are or may be engaged in furnishing natural or\r\nartificial gas for heating, lighting, or power purposes in the State\r\nof Georgia.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe VDT article also quotes from\r\n\r\nthe 4 December 203 response<\/a> by Valdosta attorney Bill Langdale on behalf of Larry Rodgers, extracting<\/strong> from this part:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“The code section would appear to require Sabal Trail to actually\r\nfurnish the natural gas in the State of Georgia as a condition of\r\nexercising eminent domain rights in Georgia. As Sabal Trail’s\r\nproposed use does not appear to furnish any natural gas in the State\r\nof Georgia, it is not authorized to exercise eminent domain rights\r\npursuant to O.C.G.A. 22-3-88.<\/strong>\r\nTherefore, even if Sabal Trail obtains and furnishes my client with\r\na Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, it is our\r\nopinion, based on information we currently have, that Sabal Trail\r\nwould not have the right to exercise eminent domain, and any entry\r\non our client’s Property would be an unauthorized entry.<\/strong>\r\n”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\nThe judge at the 10 July 2014 Leesburg, GA hearing about Sabal Trail’s\r\neminent domain assertions and a Mitchell County landowner’s countersuit\r\nfor criminal trespass, while sitting on the bench, repeated to\r\nSabal Trail’s delegation that landowner’s attorney’s assertion\r\nthat O.C.G.A. 22-3-88 does not apply to Sabal Trail.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMore than a dozen opponents from south Georgia and Florida were eye witnesses\r\nto Andrea Grover sitting there at the time, and can attest she\r\nwas one of the leaders of the Sabal Trail team in the courtroom.\r\nI greeted her as the entered the building.\r\nShe was interviewed by WALB TV, as you can see in this screenshot of\r\nher bald face.\r\nYet she claimed to the VDT that Sabal Trail threats of eminent domain\r\nwhere “hard to believe”.\r\n

\r\nThis is hardly the first time Sabal Trail has asserted things that\r\nare not true.\r\nHere are\r\n\r\nsome more examples<\/a>,\r\nall of which the VDT is aware of.\r\n

\r\nNow that the VDT has documented that Sabal Trail, ah, let’s try to be\r\nas delicate as the VDT was, um, asserted something that was at the\r\nvery least misleading given the extensive documentation about the\r\nfacts of the matter, who exactly is “hard to believe”?\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nAnd if Sabal Trail isn’t interested in Georgia eminent domain,\r\nwhy is it trying so hard to come up with a Georgia customer\r\nthat it got MGAG to agree to that\r\n\r\nwithout even contacting\r\nthe local governments Sabal Trail claimed would “need” the gas?<\/a>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who exactly is “hard to believe”? Joe Adgie, VDT, today, 26 November 2014, Residents share eminent domain letters, Letters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,70,20,733,6687,133],"tags":[6967,8073,8074,8704,4615,8728,785,8701,8072,8702,7301,8710,7776,12,7,8799,8075,6076,6597,6966,6,8742],"class_list":["post-11523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-ethics","category-law","category-media","category-pipeline-2","category-vdt","tag-andrea-grover","tag-bill-langdale","tag-criminal-trespass","tag-economy","tag-eminent-domain","tag-ethics","tag-ferc","tag-georgia","tag-hunton-williams","tag-lake","tag-larry-rodgers","tag-law","tag-leesburg","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-media","tag-mgag","tag-pipeline","tag-sabal-trail-transmission","tag-spectra-energy","tag-valdosta","tag-vdt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2ZR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11523"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11533,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11523\/revisions\/11533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}