In today’s Sunday April 10th 2016 Valdosta Daily Times:
The Georgia House on March 22nd by an unprecedented 34 ayes to 128 nays rejected easements for Sabal Trail
to drill our Withlacoochee and other Georgia Rivers. This was a historic victory by the Georgia Water Coalition, including Georgia Sierra Club, WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, plus SpectraBusters, and thanks to all of you who called their state reps.
That same day, Continue reading
Other counties in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama can follow this example from Hamilton County, now emulated by Suwannee County. Coming on the heels of the historic 34 aye to 128 nay defeat of Sabal Trail river easements in the Georgia legislature, this invading Spectra Energy pipeline has run into some hard shoals, with sinkholes ahead.
Commissioner Wesley Wainwright proposed to send the letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
asking them to come see for themselves and do an indepedent report,
pointedly adding he still supports the pipeline, but he thinks
the discrepencies revealed by
the gelogical report by local Practicing Geologist Dennis Price
were worth asking the Corps to investigate.
Wainwright was the only Suwannee County Commissioner who did not
go on the 18 Febuary 2016 hike led by Chris Mericle.
Nonetheless he reiterated in the meeting, as he had told the Suwannee Democrat,
that through his own investigations he had also determined there were sinkholes
far closer to Sabal Trail’s proposed pipeline path than Sabal Trail had said.
Wainwright asked for only Commissioners to speak, saying he didn’t want to get into another session like the previous extensive citizen discussion, apparently referring to the December Commission meeting in which the future of energy was discussed.
Yet Florida law requires citizens to be able to speak, and Continue reading
Sent this morning to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners. They meet 6PM tonight, 5 April 2016, at the Suwannee County Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley St. SW, Live Oak, FL, and Sabal Trail is on the agenda.
Dear Chairman Bashaw and Commissioners,
Thank you for coming to see with your own eyes at Suwannee River State Park and Falmouth Spring some of what Sabal Trail did not tell FERC. As you know, after that site visit, the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inviting them to come see for themselves, as well.
Despite what Sabal Trail and FPL will tell you, pipelines are not inevitable.
As you may be aware, Continue reading
Sent 5 April 20156. PDF.
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Continue readingPipeline invaders go home to Houston, signed, Georgia legislature.
Georgia Sierra Club’s Neill Herring and Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers at WWALS Watershed Conference in Tifton, 24 August 2013.
Kristi E. Swartz, EEnews, 28 March 2016, PIPELINES: Ga. lawmakers move to block 2 interstate projects,
Continue readingATLANTA — Georgia may be friendly to its own electric utility and natural gas companies, but the state Legislature sent a strong message last week to outside corporations that their pipelines are not welcome here.
Update 2016-03-28: “It’s the most votes I’ve ever gotten on anything.” —Neill Herring of Georgia Sierra Club.
Tuesday and today, Georgia’s elected legislators stood up for the people against a fracked methane pipeline invader:
Y’all! We don’t win votes on the House floor every day, and the effort to keep the state easements for the Sabal Trail pipeline was truly a joy to watch. R’s, D’s, lawyers, community folk, everyone pitched in and it “went down in flames” 34-128 — AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] reporter’s words, not mine! Congrats to all the Georgia Water Coalition….
That’s how Georgia Sierra Club’s Colleen Kiernan summed up what happened Tuesday to the river drilling easements for Spectra Energy’s fracked gas Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline. Yes, the same Spectra of the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project, PennEast, Atlantic Bridge, South Texas Expansion, the West Coast Pipeline in British Columbia, and far too many other unnecessary pipeline invasions throughout North America.
Georgia Water Coalition organized this excellent result, including Continue reading
Here’s who voted which way when Sabal Trail lost in a landslide against its easements to drill under our Withlacoochee River and Okapilco Creek and other rivers and creeks in Georgia.
Thanks to Bentley, Harden, Houston, Pirkle, Powell, Rynders, Sharper, Shaw, Spencer, and Watson for voting Nay against that pipeline river-drilling boondoggle.
And Carter, Corbett, and LaRiccia, well, thanks for listening, I guess.
I’ve added Continue reading
Update 2016-03-22 10:30PM: The vote tally.
As reported by Georgia Sierra Club:
Thank you to everyone who contacted a legislator about SR 954 and their concerns about the Sabal Trail pipeline easements. The house voted down the bill 128-34 this afternoon!!! CONGRATULATIONS!
Thanks to everyone, especially Georgia Water Coalition, Georgia Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, everybody else who helped, and of course all WWALS members and everyone else who called their state reps.
There still more you can do to stop Sabal Trail. See the op-ed blog post of today. Continue reading
