Monthly Archives: August 2018

FERC rubberstamps Sabal Trail time extension before filing it 2018-08-03

FERC filed its rubberstamp approval before filing Sabal Trail’s request for more time to finish its Suwannee County connection to FGT’s Jacksonville Expansion Project, which leads to Eagle LNG in Jacksonville, which can export liquid natural gas through Crowley Maritime. There’s no rubberstamp like the FERC rubberstamp.

FERC approval before Sabal Trail request, Docket CP15-17

FERC did delete the last “unpredictable” clause in this Sabal Trail sentence:

This coordination must occur while taking into account existing scheduled gas flows on each party’s respective system during the high demand of the summer cooling season, which makes the certainty by when this can occur unpredictable.

Since high seasonal demand has been touted as an excuse for this pipeline boondoggle, maybe FERC didn’t want to think about summer cooling season, “which makes the certainty by when this can occur unpredictable.”

We already saw last winter Sabal Trail couldn’t keep the gas flowing when it was so cold snow fell on Florida. Now Sabal Trail can’t finish construction because of summer heat.

You know what works find in the summer and winter sun? solar farms such as the one FPL is building right now 25 miles due north or that Duke already built about 55 miles northwest, both in Suwannee County, both by partners in Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC. Neither of those needed a FERC rubberstamp, because they didn’t need eminent domain. Continue reading

FPL Echo River Solar Energy Facility, Suwannee County, FL

Let me echo a local resident: “I’m just saying where … is Echo River?” FPL’s new solar farm in Suwannee County just north of I-10 east of Live Oak actually straddles Rocky Creek, which runs north across I-10, through this FPL solar farm, and on into the Suwannee River just downstream of I-75.

Artist impression by FPL, Maps

Jamie Wachter, Suwannee Democrat, and Valdosta Daily Times, 18 May 2018, FPL plans for solar farm off I-10,

LIVE OAK, Fla. — An 800-acre property that once grew timber alongside Interstate 10 in northeastern Suwannee County may soon sprout solar panels.

This 2016 aerial map from the Suwannee County Property Appraiser does show Continue reading

Florida Waterkeepers United visit FDEP 2018-08-01

Seven of the fourteen Florida Waterkeepers visited the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to express our serious concern and a sense of urgency to protect and restore Florida’s rivers, coast, bays, estuaries, lakes, springs, and aquifer, especially about resiliency after hurricanes, harmful algal blooms, BMAPs, and phosphate mines. I congratulated Noah Valenstein on his meteoric rise: only two and a half years ago he was just starting as head of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), and now he’s the head of FDEP.

L-R: Andy Hayslip (Tampa), Georgia Ackerman (Apalachicola), Marty Baum (Indian), Jen Lomberk (Matanzas), Drew Bartlett (FDEP), Whitney Gray (FDEP), Rick Frey (St. Marys), Lisa Rinaman (St. Johns), Noah Valenstein (Sec., FDEP), Shannon Blankinship
L-R: Andy Hayslip (Tampa Bay Waterkeeper), Georgia Ackerman (Apalachicola Riverkeeper), Marty Baum (Indian Riverkeeper), Jen Lomberk (Matanzas Riverkeeper), Drew Bartlett (Deputy Secretary for Ecosystem Restoration, FDEP), Whitney Gray (Administrator, Florida Resilient Coastlines, FDEP), Rick Frey (St. Marys Riverkeeper), Lisa Rinaman (St. Johns Riverkeeper), Noah Valenstein (Secretary, FDEP), Shannon Blankinship (Advocacy Director, St. Johns Riverkeeper), John S. Quarterman (hat, Suwannee Riverkeeper), Tom Frick (back, Director, Division of Environmental Restoration, FDEP); Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS

Press Release: Florida Waterkeepers Unite at FDEP

Continue reading