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<\/a>\r\nSix minutes before yesterday’s eminent domain hearing in Leesburg, GA was scheduled to start<\/a>\r\nI submitted the letter you see below, noting that Sabal Trail was claiming\r\ncustomers in counties and cities that had passed resolutions and otherwise\r\nsaid they didn’t want Spectra’s fracked methane pipeline.\r\nNaturally Sabal Trail’s attorneys didn’t like that, and asked the judge to\r\ndisregard and strike from the record “the Quarterman letter” because\r\nthey said I didn’t have standing, and you can’t just submit materials a few\r\nminutes before a hearing.\r\nThe judge said he would entertain that motion, but he proceeded to leaf\r\nthrough the attachments, noting resoutions by Lowndes County, by Valdosta,\r\na letter from Spencer Lee (Dougherty County attorney), a resolution by Terrell County, one by Albany, and one by Colquitt County.\r\nThe judge remarked that all this was public record anyway, so striking\r\nthe letter wouldn’t have much effect.\r\n\r\nAnd it was pretty clear, at least to me (and remember I am not an attorney),\r\nthat attorneys for both sides and the judge did \r\n\r\nfind those resolutions\r\nrelevant to the basic question of whether Sabal Trail provides gas\r\n“in the State of Georgia” and perhaps to a 2006 Georgia constitutional\r\namendment<\/a> that may give local elected bodies eminent domain oversight.\r\n\r\nSee\r\n\r\nother post<\/a>.\r\nEvidentiary briefs are being submitted, and amicus curiae are possible.\r\n \r\nHere’s the text of the letter I sent.\r\nI’ve added links to the news stories and resolutions referenced.\r\n John S.\r\nQuarterman Re: Case number 14CV208RS To: Cindy Clark If it please the court,<\/p>\r\n Sabal Trail in its\r\n\r\nNovember 2014 application for a construction permit<\/a> and in various news\r\nmedia (Valdosta Daily Times<\/a>\r\nand WCTV<\/a>) has claimed an\r\nagreement to sell natural gas in Georgia through the\r\nMetropolitan Gas Authority of Georgia (MGAG), and in that\r\nFERC application it said:<\/p>\r\n ‘‘MGAG\r\ncurrently has seven member cities within 15 miles of Sabal\r\nTrailâs proposed pipeline route in southwest Georgia\r\nand has identified Dougherty and Colquitt Counties as having\r\nthe greatest potential to need additional gas supplies in\r\nthe future. Sabal Trail will install a side-tap on its\r\nsystem in each of these counties to help facilitate future\r\ninterconnections. The installation of side- taps during the\r\ninitial construction of the Sabal Trail Project will\r\nfacilitate MGAGâs access to gas supplies without\r\ninterruption to transportation services provided to the\r\nexisting shippers. The exact locations of the side-taps have\r\nnot yet been identified and Sabal Trail will provide that\r\ninformation when determined.’’<\/p>\r\n Yet already in March 2014 the\r\n\r\nColquitt County Commission passed Resolution 2014-R-6<\/a>\r\nobjecting to Sabal Trail’s proposed path through that\r\ncounty.<\/p>\r\n On WCTV 2 December 2014<\/a>, Mayor\r\nBill McIntosh of Moultrie was heard by telephone saying:<\/p>\r\n ‘‘There’s\r\nbeen no discussion about any of the ramifications of whether\r\nwe’d want it, or whether we wouldn’t want\r\nit.’’<\/p>\r\n Already in October 2014 the\r\n\r\nDougherty County Commission passed Resolution 14-019<\/a>\r\nobjecting to Sabal Trail’s pipeline in that county or\r\nanywhere in the state of Georgia.<\/p>\r\n The next day the\r\n\r\nAlbany City\r\nCouncil passed Resolution 14-R 175<\/a> objecting to Sabal\r\nTrail’s pipeline anywhere in its city, county, or the\r\nstate of Georgia.<\/p>\r\n So it appears Sabal Trail is\r\nclaiming customers that do not want its gas. It would seem\r\nits deal with MGAG would not justify Georgia eminent\r\ndomain.<\/p>\r\n In addition,\r\n\r\nBrooks County passed a resolution<\/a> similar to Colquitt’s in April\r\n2014.\r\n\r\nTerrell County passed a resolution<\/a> against Sabal Trail\r\n5 December 2014.\r\n\r\nLowndes County passed a resolution 9 December 2014<\/a>, as did the\r\n\r\nCity of Valdosta 11 December 2014<\/a>.\r\nThat’s a string of all five counties from Terrell\r\nCounty to the Florida line, and the two most populous cities\r\nalong Sabal Trail’s proposed pipeline in Georgia, all\r\nobjecting to Sabal Trail’s pipeline.<\/p>\r\n Sincerely,<\/p>\r\n John S.\r\nQuarterman<\/p>\r\n Attachments: \r\nI also attached the Lowndes, Valdosta, and Terrell County resolutions.\r\n \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sabal Trail asked the judge to throw out my letter to the court yesterday, but the judge said the contents were public record anyway. Six minutes before yesterday’s eminent domain hearing in Leesburg, GA was scheduled to start I submitted the letter you see below, noting that Sabal Trail was claiming customers in counties and […]","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,8,6124,6687,133,177],"tags":[205,1587,1948,206,8704,8701,8702,1953,7776,12,7,8364,8075,1955,562,6076,6597,6966,1958,6,8742,8748],"class_list":["post-12705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia","category-natural-gas-2","category-pipeline-2","category-vdt","category-wctv","tag-albany","tag-brooks-county","tag-colquitt-county","tag-dougherty-county","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lee-county","tag-leesburg","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-metropolitan-gas-authority-of-georgia","tag-mgag","tag-mitchell-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-pipeline","tag-sabal-trail-transmission","tag-spectra-energy","tag-terrell-county","tag-valdosta","tag-vdt","tag-wctv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3iV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12705","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=12705"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12715,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12705\/revisions\/12715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\r\nRe: Case number 14CV208RS\r\n
\r\n Judge Rucker Smith\r\n
\r\n To: Cindy Clark
\r\n Civil Deputy Clerk
\r\n County Courthouse
\r\n 100 Leslie Highway
\r\n Leesburg, Georgia 31763\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
\r\n3338 Country Club Road #L336
\r\nValdosta, GA 31605<\/p>\r\n
\r\nJudge Rucker Smith<\/p>\r\n
\r\nCivil Deputy Clerk
\r\nCounty Courthouse
\r\n100 Leslie Highway
\r\nLeesburg, Georgia 31763<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nColquitt County Commission Resolution 2014-R-6<\/a>
\r\n\r\nDougherty County Commission Resolution 14-019<\/a>
\r\n\r\nAlbany City Council Resolution 14-R 175<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n