Instead of giving Sabal Trail a five-month extension, FERC should revoke Sabal Trail’s Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, as the U.S. District Court already ordered. Sabal Trail no longer has the customers for 90+% of its gas on which that FERC’s February 2 Order depended, not since Sabal Trail dropped Duke Energy Florida (DEF) from its customer index on New Year’s Day.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) and Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz shake hands during a joint press conference after their meeting in Warsaw on January 27, 2018. / AFP / Wojtek RADWANSKI
It’s time to stop the fossil fuel industry using Sabal Trail as a political tool to undermine the overall energy stability and security of the U.S. southeast for the profit of a few companies from Texas and Canada. Just like the U.S. State Department recommends for Europe, FERC should seek to diversify energy supplies by getting on with solar power onshore and wind power offshore in the Sunshine State, Georgia, and everywhere else.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS on Southwings flight June 21, 2016, of
site of Sabal Trail Suwannee County M&R Station connecting to Florida Gas Transmission (FGT).
What’s that “one additional M&R facility,” Sabal Trail? Is it the one in Suwannee County to feed your fracked gas through Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) across the proposed HPS II phosphate mine site in Union and Bradford Counties in Kinder Morgan’s FERC-approved Jacksonville Expansion Project (JEP) to FERC-permitting Eagle LNG in Jacksonville, where Eagle LNG is involved with JAXport and Crowley Maritime in exporting liquid natural gas, intending to go to all free trade and non-free trade countries?
And why don’t you mention that your “Citrus County Lateral” has at its end Strom, Inc.’s LNG export operation, authorized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, despite FERC shirking its duty of environmental oversight?
Why so shy, Sabal Trail, as not to say what that gas is for? Don’t want to mention LNG export as a reason you used federal eminent domain from that February 2 Order to take land from people in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and to drill under our Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers?
Substitute Georgia for Poland in this news story, and the rest is obvious. The Peninsula Qatar via Reuters, 27 January 2018, U.S. says Russian gas link to Germany hurts European security,
The expansion of Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea, which bypasses a number of east European nations, will allow the Kremlin to use energy as a “political tool,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Warsaw.
Tillerson, speaking to reporters after meeting with Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday, said Europe should seek to diversify energy supplies and that the U.S. saw the contested Nord Stream 2 link as “undermining Europe’s overall energy stability and security.”
NATO member Poland has repeatedly tried to block the deal, saying it would leave countries such as itself and Ukraine vulnerable if Russia decided to shut down the gas pipelines running across its territory to western Europe. Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said Poland wanted U.S. help in stopping Nord Stream 2, which is being built by Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC.
“It’s not a helpful piece of infrastructure to support stability in Europe,” Tillerson said. “We will continue to take steps as we can.”
Shut down this invading gas pipeline running across our territory and under our rivers in the Southeast. Sabal Trail exporting through the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico is no better than Nord Stream 2 exporting under the Baltic Sea. “We will continue to take steps as we can” to enlist U.S. help in stopping Sabal Trail, which is being built by Canadian gas giant Enbridge.
Nom 6 2018-01-26, Nominated Capacity
Apparently Sabal Trail conducted yet another unannounced experiment yesterday, when nominated capacity went from zero to six. Where are you shipping that gas, Sabal Trail? Could it be testing that Citrus County lateral, through your chronically stink-leaking Dunnellon Compressor Station site?
Graph by WWALS using data from
Sabal Trail’s FERC-required informational postings.
Instead of enabling Sabal Trail’s wild swings from zero to above Cap, FERC should shut it down.
2017-11-01 — 2018-01-26, Nominated Capacity
2017-06-14 — 2018-01-26, Nominated Capacity
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
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Sabal Trail FERC filing 2018-01-26
FERC Accession Number 20180126-5092, “Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC submits a request for extension of time under CP15-17.”
January 26, 2018
Ms. Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20426
Re: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, Docket No. CP15-17-000
Request for Extension of Time to Complete Construction of Certificated FacilitiesDear Ms. Bose:
On February 2, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission”) issued an order in the above-referenced docket granting Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC (“Sabal Trail”), among other authorizations, certificates of public convenience and necessity to construct and operate the Sabal Trail Project (“Project”), which includes greenfield construction and a lease of the capacity created by the Hillabee Expansion Project (“February 2 Order”).1 The Project will enable Sabal Trail to provide up to 1,075,000 dekatherms per day (“Dth/d”) of firm transportation service over three Phases.
1 Florida Southeast Connection, LLC, et al.,154 FERC ¶ 61,080 (2016).
Sabal Trail has completed the majority of the Phase I Project facilities. The Citrus County Lateral and related meter and regulating (“M&R”) facility have been completed and a request to place these facilities into service is currently pending before the Commission. The remaining Phase I facilities, the Hunters Creek Lateral, and related M&R, and one additional M&R facility, are anticipated to be completed and available for service on or about April 30, 2018. Sabal Trail will file a request to place these facilities into service upon completion of construction. Phase II Project facilities are scheduled for an in-service date of May 1, 2020, and Phase III Project facilities are scheduled for an in-service date of May 1, 2021. These facilities will provide additional capacity to the Project’s firm shippers pursuant to executed precedent agreements and firm service agreements, as approved by the Commission in this proceeding.2
2 Id. at P 21 (“In Phase II, Sabal Trail will construct the . . . facilities to provide an additional 169,000 Dth/d of firm transportation service, for a total of 999,000 Dth/d, with a proposed in service date of May 1, 2020 . . . .”); id. at P 22 (“In Phase III, Sabal Trail will construct the . . . facilities to provide an additional 76,000 Dth/d of transportation service, for a total of 1,075,000 Dth/d, with a proposed in service date of May 1, 2021 . . . .”); Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, Abbreviated Application for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity and Related Authorizations, Docket No. CP15-17-000, at 5 (Nov. 21, 2014) (“[T]he Project capacity will increase to 999,000 Dth/d with a proposed in-service date of May 1, 2020 (‘Phase 2’) and to 1,075,000 Dth/d by May 1, 2021 (‘Phase 3’).”).
Ordering Paragraph (F)(1) of the February 2 Order requires Sabal Trail to complete authorized construction of the Project facilities and make them available for service within twenty-four (24) months from the date of the order, or by February 2, 2018.3 In order to ensure that there is sufficient time to complete construction and place the remaining approved Project facilities into service, Sabal Trail hereby requests the following extensions of time:
3 Id. at Ordering Para. (F).
- Remaining Phase I Project facilities — Sabal Trail requests an extension of time until August 31, 2018 to place these facilities into service;
- Phase II Project facilities — Sabal Trail requests an extension of time until May 1, 2020, the scheduled in-service date, to place these facilities into service; and
- Phase III Project facilities — Sabal Trail requests an extension of time until May 1, 2021, the scheduled in-service date, to place these facilities into service.
Sabal Trail respectfully requests that the Commission grant these extensions no later than February 2, 2018. Sabal Trail appreciates the Commission’s assistance in this matter. If you have any questions regarding this filing, please contact me at (713) 627-4102 or David A. Alonzo, Specialist I, Rates and Certificates at (713) 627-4957.
Sincerely,
Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
By: Sabal Trail Management, LLC,
Its Operator
/s/ Lisa A. Connolly
Lisa A. Connolly
Director, Rates and Certificatescc: Pamela Boudreau (FERC)
John Peconom (FERC)
All Parties CP15-17
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