As we prepared to put in at US 84 to paddle up the Withlacoochee River to the proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline crossing, WCTV interviewed us, and indeed she picked out the main point.

Update 2015-08-31: I’m told people did see this story live on air on WCTV.

Winnie Wright, WCTV, 28 August 2015, WWALS Watershed Coalition Files Petition Against Pipeline,

Hamilton County, FL—WWALS Watershed Coalition filed an amended petition Friday, opposing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s intent to issue a building permit for a 36-inch natural pipeline under the Suwannee River in Florida.

“The combination of all this opposition, what we of course want to do is to stop the pipeline”, says John Quarterman, with WWALS. “There’s no need for this pipeline. Solar power is what we should be doing.”

Some of the other opposition I referred to was the opposition to the Sabal Trail application for an air quality permit from GA-EPD for a compressor station in Albany, GA. So that’s two permits Sabal Trail has to get in two states or no pipeline can be built. And that’s not all the state and local permits and the opposition extends far beyond just permits. Plus Georgia is now the fastest-growing U.S., solar market, while Florida is poised to pass a solar financing law like the one Georgia passed this year. Southern Company is building big solar farms now only in Georgia, but also in the Florida panhandle through Gulf Power. Hawaii’s governor just said no to LNG import and aimed straight at the sun. Even Georgia’s governor came out against Kinder Morgan’s petroleum products Palmetto pipeline and the Georgia Department of Transportation denied it a permit.

Building more pipelines in 2015 is like building gutters for horse manure in 1915 as automobiles were taking over. It’s time to go straight to solar power.

Here’s the WWALS press release she was responding to, and here’s the amended petition WWALS filed later that same day.

-jsq

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