Category Archives: History

Stop failed Big Bet on nuclear Plant Vogtle and go solar: WWALS to GA-PSC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, Georgia, July 27, 2017 — On Monday, WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to take Southern Company (SO) CEO Tom Fanning up on his suggestion that the PSC could affect the SO board’s August self-imposed deadline about the two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle: to go ahead despite the bankruptcy of Toshiba, or not. WWALS also asked the PSC, like it did four years ago, to require Georgia Power to buy more solar power.

Legacy --crowd reaction

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman wrote to Georgia PSC: “The Mississippi Public Service Commission in June refused Continue reading →

Sabal Trail starts stagecoach line in an electric car world 2017-07-05

Let me fix some typos in Sabal Trail’s PR of yesterday, Sabal Trail Transmission Project Placed In-Service: New Pipeline System Increases the Reliability and Diversity of the Southeast U.S. Natural Gas Infrastructure.

Corrected headline: Sabal Trail starts stagecoach line in an electric car world.


Apologies to the 1877 Omaha Herald and True West.

Adding a third natural gas pipeline merely makes Florida even more than 60% dependant on natural gas, as Sierra Club Alabama, Georgia, and Florida pointed out three years ago. The people of Florida voted for solar power twice last year. Yet Sabal Trail is wasting $3 or $4 billion on Continue reading →

Videos: Sewage at Valdosta City Council 2017-03-09

Two citizens spoke about sewage overflows at the Valdosta City Council Thursday 9 March 2017, including about the seven downstream Florida counties passing resolutions calling on the Florida governor to step in. Here are LAKE videos of what they said and the mayor’s answers. Also, George Boston Rhynes told a droll tale about a dead cat and turkeys.

Valve Turners and fossil fuel divestment

What’s more effective than valve turning or tower toppling? Divestment.

WWALS Watershed Coalition advocates non-violent opposition to the unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. As an organization, we do not participate in property damage, either. (Individual WWALS members may of course do whatever they like, as long as they don’t say they’re doing it on behalf of WWALS.) Among many other reasons, I think there is a more effective tactic: fossil fuel divestment. I think this because of the history of the anti-nuclear movement and because of how fast fossil fuel divestment is going compared to earlier divestment movements.


Photo: Ken Ward, EcoWatch, 6 March 2017, The Climate Data That Led to a Hung Jury

This reminds me of something long ago. Steve Liptay, Vimeo, 16 October 2016, SHUT IT DOWN TODAY, Continue reading →

Resolution in Support of National Water Trail Designation of The Suwannee River in Madison County 2016-10-12

Madison BOCC passed a Resolution unanimously, with the same wording as the resolution by Suwannee BOCC.

SRWT Upper and Middle Suwannee River In the MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2016:

Upon a motion by Commissioner [Wayne] Vickers, seconded by Commissioner [Justin] Hamrick, the Board voted unanimously (5-0) to approve the Consent Agenda (1. Agreement between the County and the North Central Florida Planning Council for Monitoring Hazardous Waste Generators for Fiscal Year 2017; 2. Resolution 2016-10-12A; Support of National Water Trail Designation for the Suwannee River).

Resolution

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail dispenses misinformation even in response to a shooting death

The Palm Beach Post heard of the shooting and did a story, in which Sabal Trail claims their construction is “on target” when clearly it is not.

Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post, 3 March 2017, Sabal Trail pipeline shooter killed by law enforcement in Citrus County,

The $3.2 billion natural gas pipeline is slated to begin bringing fuel to Florida Power & Light’s South Florida plants by June. The pipeline has been the subject of numerous protests by people who say its construction and presence will harm the environment and threaten the water supplied from the Floridan Aquifer, but this is the first death known to have occurred in connection to pipeline opposition.

And the opposition has never killed or injured anyone.

Bell Lago, 14130 SW 121st Court, Dunnellon, FL 34432,
Bell Lago, 14130 SW 121st Court, Dunnellon, FL 34432, 29.0170900, -82.3227090
Photograph by Continue reading →

Resolution in Support of National Water Trail Designation of The Suwannee River in Suwannee County 2016-12-06

They passed a Resolution and wrote a Letter.

Thanks to Eric Musgrove, Clerk, Suwannee BOCC, for the PDF.

Resolution

RESOLUTION NO. 2017-16

A Resolution in Support of National Water Trail Designation of I

The Suwannee River in Suwannee County

WHEREAS, the benefits of designation of the Suwannee River in Suwannee County as a National Water Trail include Continue reading →

Norman Bay resigns, leaving FERC without a quorum 2017-01-26

After Trump bumped LaFleur over his head today, former FERC Chairman Norman Bay resigned from the Commission this same day. That leaves FERC with only 2 out of five Commission slots occupied. I would guess that means no quorum, although what does it matter? The FERC Commissioners only ever rejected one pipeline in thirty years.

His resignation letter is a six-page pat on his own back that never once mentions solar power, eminent domain, landowners, water, river, aquifer, or environment. His biggest brag is: Continue reading →

Cheryl A. LaFleur again FERC Acting Chairman 2017-01-26

President Trump just brushed aside FERC Chairman Norman Bay, one of the few FERC Commissioners to show any reservations about FERC’s rubberstamping of pipelines, and put Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur back once again as Acting Chairman. This while FERC has only three Commissions, when it’s supposed to have five, probably indicates FERC is going to be pushing ahead all pipeline projects. Of course, that’s not much different from what we’ve seen for years with Sabal Trail.

Johnathan Crawford and Jennifer A. Diouhy, Bloomberg Politics, 19 January 2017, Trump Picks LaFleur as Chairman of U.S. Energy Regulator, Sources Say, Continue reading →

International coverage of Sabal Trail opposition and Suwannee River water protectors –The Guardian 2017-01-24

For once a news story gives the last word to local water protectors, and it plays up our land and our water.

Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, 24 January 2017, Why a protest camp in Florida is being called the next Standing Rock: At first glance the quiet town of Live Oak seems an unlikely venue for a stand against Big Energy. But in recent weeks it’s become a centre of opposition,

A north Florida river that attracted the state’s first tourists a century before Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse is emerging at the centre of a fight against a contentious 515-mile natural gas pipeline that many are calling America’s next Standing Rock.

One section of the so-called Sabal Trail pipeline is being laid beneath the crystal waters of the Suwannee river, whose pure mineral springs were once fabled to cure anything from marital strife to gout.

The story quotes Continue reading →