Tag Archives: FERC

Re: Voicemail, I still do not consent to any surveying, mapping, or physical entry onto my unencumbered acreage –Kira Pollock to Sabal Trail 2026-08-25

Update 2026-08-26: Sabal Trail pipeline Easement with Lowndes County Commission 2016-01-26.

Sabal Trail tried to sneak under the radar, as usual.

Received yesterday via email:

Dear Sabal Trail Land Acquisition Team,

[Re: Voicemail, I still do not consent to any surveying, mapping, or physical entry onto my unencumbered acreage --Kira Pollock to Sabal Trail 2026-08-25]
Re: Voicemail, I still do not consent to any surveying, mapping, or physical entry onto my unencumbered acreage –Kira Pollock to Sabal Trail 2026-08-25
Map: her location in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail (SRWT).

I received your voicemail requesting an in-person meeting and property survey.

As stated in my previous correspondence dated August 24, 2026, I do not consent to any surveying, mapping, or physical entry onto my unencumbered acreage. Because our formal objection, structural constraints, and pre-existing water and land infrastructure have already been clearly outlined and filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an in-person meeting will not change our position.

Continue reading →

Denial of Survey Consent, etc., Kira Pollock to FERC about Sabal Trail Expansion Project 2026-08-24

Update 2026-08-26: Re: Voicemail, I still do not consent to any surveying, mapping, or physical entry onto my unencumbered acreage –Kira Pollock to Sabal Trail 2026-08-25.

Kira Pollock is the first to file a complaint with the FERC about Sabal Trail’s plan to gouge a second pipeline next to the one they built a decade ago.

She lives in the middle of Suwannee County, Florida. It’s Accession Number 20260824-5071 in Docket CP15-17-000 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

That’s the old Sabal Trail docket, and nothing else has been filed in it since May 2025. The 2025 activity was just regular reports and a request and grant of extension of time for Sabal Trail Phase III. That’s an old project that was already delayed several years. It was to expand capacity of the old pipeline by a small amount.

This Sabal Trail Expansion Project would approximatly double the amount of fracked methane.

As previously mentioned, The only “economic development” I can see that would cause this is hyper-scale AI datacenters.

[Denial of Survey Consent, Kira Pollock to FERC, about Sabal Trail Expansion Project 2026-08-24]
Denial of Survey Consent, Kira Pollock to FERC, about Sabal Trail Expansion Project 2026-08-24
Map from Suwannee County Property Appraiser.

You can send in your own comments, so nobody can say there were no objections. Just go to ferc.gov -> FERC Online -> Login -> New User and make yourself an account. Then go to FERC Online Home -> eComment and comment in Docket Number CP15-17-000.

Here’s what she wrote:

Kira Pollock, Live Oak, FL.

PARCEL ID: 34-03S-13E-08739-000290 – Denial of Survey Consent, Formal Objection & Structural Constraint Notice – Sabal Trail Expansion Project (Quail Hollow)

Dear Sabal Trail Land Acquisition Team,

I am writing to share some important neighborhood feedback and formally log my concerns regarding the proposed Sabal Trail Expansion Project study corridor as it relates to my property and our immediate neighborhood within the Quail Hollow subdivision in Suwannee County, Florida. I understand that your team is currently in the planning and information-gathering phase, so I wanted to reach out cooperatively to bring some significant physical, structural, and hydrological bottlenecks in our neighborhood to your attention so we can avoid issues down the road.

After reviewing the track of your current 36-inch mainline easement Continue reading →

Sabal Trail wants a second pipeline and bigger compressor stations 2026-08-03

Update 2026-08-25: Denial of Survey Consent, etc., Kira Pollock to FERC about Sabal Trail Expansion Project 2026-08-24.

Sabal Trail proposes to add another fracked methane pipeline alongside the one it plowed under the Withlacoochee, Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee (South) Rivers almost a decade ago, plus bigger compressor stations in Suwannee and Marion Counties, Florida, and elsewhere.

What “economic development” could eat such a doubling of pipeline capacity? I know of only one candidate: hyper-scale AI datacenters, powered by gas plants such as the one rumored in Mitchell County, Georgia, near the Sabal Trail pipeline.

[Sabal Trail wants a second pipeline and bigger compressor stations, 2026-08-03]
Sabal Trail wants a second pipeline and bigger compressor stations, 2026-08-03

The first person to post this letter online was apparently Jodi Brantley, today, August 14, 2026. Others confirm that multiple landowners received this letter. The gist of the letter is on Sabal Trail’s own website:

https://www.sabaltrailtransmission.com/Project

This is not the long-delayed Project Phase III, which was supposed to add 75 million cubic feet per day. That one was originally supposed to be in service May 1, 2021, but got extended until May 1, 2023, and again to May 1, 2025, and most recently to May 1, 2027.

This Sabal Trail Expansion is a new project.

The current Sabal Trail pipeline “is capable of transporting over 1 billion cubic feet per day or more of natural gas to serve local distribution companies, industrial users and natural gas-fired power generators in the Southeast markets.”

So a second pipeline could add another billion cubic feet per day.

Sabal Trail’s excuses are: Continue reading →

Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill 2025-06-14

Your organization can still sign onto this letter to all U.S. Senators:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJYPPq-I7vrVSDmC3qoo4SrN9WwFpOacdMcPkacGpEn-5rwg/viewform

The letter specifically opposes pipeline pay-to-play: the section that would give pipeline companies expedited permitting if they pay the lesser of $10 million or 1% of their expected construction costs, while removing the ability of any state or federal agency to reject such a permit.

The letter also opposes the bill’s prohibition on state regulation of so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations, which consume vast amounts of power and emit noise and pollution.

The latter has already been sent to all U.S. Senators, but they will get updates as more organizations sign on.

[Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play]
Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play

Dear Senators,

The “Big Beautiful Bill” strips states rights, property rights, and turns the United States into a Pay to Play nation whereby big industry polluters can very literally buy the permits they desire, States and regulatory agencies are stripped of the ability to reject damaging projects, and impacted property owners and impacted communities are too often denied their day in court, all in service to advance major fossil fuel pipelines, export facilities and associated infrastructure.

We, the undersigned organizations, Continue reading →

Huge win against LNG: feds require climate analysis; what about Florida? 2024-01-24

Update 2024-07-01: Federal Railroad Administration 281-page FOIA response on FECR LNG by Rail request 2024-06-07.

The president’s decision on Calcasieu Pass LNG (CP2) in Louisiana is a huge win, comparable to the Keystone XL pipeline decision a decade ago. But what does it mean for Florida?

According to the New York Times:

Whatever new criteria is used to evaluate CP2 would be expected to be applied to the other 16 proposed natural gas terminals that are awaiting approval.

…

“This move would amount to a functional ban on new LNG export permits,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

The catch is that there are already LNG export operations in Florida and Georgia.

Plus Florida is a few hundred miles closer than Louisiana to Puerto Rico, which is one of the usual first destinations of LNG, and closer to most of the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America.

And some of the financiers of Louisiana LNG projects are involved in existing or potential projects in Florida.

[Calcasieu Pass LNG in google maps]
Calcasieu Pass LNG in google maps

Here are excerpts from the NYTimes story. Coral Davenport, New York Times, January 24, 2024, White House Said to Delay Decision on Enormous Natural Gas Export Terminal: Before deciding whether to approve it, the Energy Department will analyze the climate impacts of CP2, one of 17 proposed LNG export terminals., Continue reading →

Seattle settles salmon river dam case, hails relationship of mutual respect and consultation with Sauk-Suiattle Tribe 2023-05-02

The city of Seattle will include a program for fish passage around its dams on the Skagit River, as part of a settlement with the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe of a case on behalf of the tribe and of salmon that live in the river.

That program was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as part of the city’s license renewal request for those hydroelectric dams. These are strange times indeed, when FERC becomes the guarantor of river rights.

[Washington dam removal is controversial but may be the best chance for salmon, earth.com 2019-08-20 https://www.earth.com/news/washington-dam-removal-salmon/]
Washington dam removal is controversial but may be the best chance for salmon, earth.com 2019-08-20

There are at least two ways of approaching such cases on rights: rights of nature itself (fish, rivers, etc.), or rights of humans.

Human rights are the subject of the Florida citizen petition for a state constitutional amendment for Rights to Clean and Healthy Water. Florida registered voters, please sign that petition:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/

And then please get your friends and relatives to sign it.

This Seattle case used both approaches, according to the Continue reading →

WWALS response to opposition comments by Eagle LNG about small, inland LNG 2022-10-17

Safety, water, air, and economy are still at risk because of the regulatory gap FERC opened in 2014 and 2015 when it abandoned oversight of small, inland, LNG facilities. That gap has left PHMSA holding the bag for environmental oversight, which PHMSA does not do. It has left DoE FE authorizing LNG export licenses with no environmental oversight.

WWALS supplied much new evidence and developments about the safety, environmental, and economic effects of such facilities in this rebuttal of opposition comments by Eagle LNG. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should take this new information into account in opening a Rulemaking to revisit, reconsider, and possibly revoke its decisions to abandon oversight of such facilities.

[Introduction, Conclusion]
Introduction, Conclusion

The letter

On October 17, 2022, WWALS filed this PDF with FERC as Accession Number 20221017-5134, “RESPONSE of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. to opposition comments by EAGLE LNG under RM22-21-000.”

See also: Continue reading →

WWALS response to FERC on opposition comments of Pivotal LNG about small, inland LNG Rulemaking 2022-10-04

Update 2022-10-26: WWALS response to opposition comments by Eagle LNG about small, inland LNG 2022-10-17.

Today WWALS and seven other organizations rebutted the opposition comments of Pivotal LNG, LLC to the WWALS, et al. petition to FERC for Rulemaking on small, inland, LNG facilities.

[First and last page]
First and last page

If you also want to intervene or comment, here’s how:
https://wwals.net/?p=59062#tocomment.

Yes, the comment deadline has passed, but a FERC attorney told me the Commission usually considers comments filed later.

Thanks to all the co-signers on today’s response: LEAD Agency, Inc., Kissimmee Waterkeeper, Lake Worth Waterkeeper, Peace+Myakka Waterkeeper, Collier County Waterkeeper, Three Rivers Waterkeepers, and Food and Water Watch.

Thanks to all the previous commenters, especially Floridians Against Dirty Energy (FADE), League of Women Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Florida Springs Council, Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Anacostia Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper, Assateague Coastal Trust, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and others too numerous to list here.

Thanks to Maxine Connor for rustling up many of those organizations.

Thanks as always to Cecile Scofield, doggedly pursuing LNG for decades now.

The Response

Filed with FERC 2022-10-04 12:40:32 PM as Accession Number: 20221004-5116, “Response to Opposition Comments of Pivotal LNG, LLC, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., et al., under RM22-21.”

See also Continue reading →

Comment on FERC LNG Export Rulemaking with Florida Physicians for Social Responsibility, 2022-09-20

Update 2022-10-04: WWALS response to FERC on opposition comments of Pivotal LNG about small, inland LNG Rulemaking 2022-10-04.

Florida Physicians for Social Responsibility has invited Suwannee Riverkeeper to talk about the FERC Rulemaking on small, inland, LNG export facilities on the comment deadline day, as FL PSR members and others write comments on that FERC Docket RM22-21.

You do not have to attend this zoom meeting to comment or intervene. Here’s how:
https://wwals.net/?p=59062#tocomment

Please comment or intervene as timely as you can before the comment deadline of 5PM, Tuesday, September 20, 2022. However, a FERC attorney advises us that the Commission usually considers comments filed after the deadline, so if you can’t comment by 5PM, comment anyway.

When: 7 PM – 7:45 PM, Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Register: for zoom

Event: facebook,

[FL PSR & WWALS comment on FERC LNG Export]
FL PSR & WWALS comment on FERC LNG Export

Continue reading →

One week left to comment on FERC LNG Rulemaking, deadline 2022-09-20

Update 2022-10-04: WWALS response to FERC on opposition comments of Pivotal LNG about small, inland LNG Rulemaking 2022-10-04.

Here’s how you can comment or intervene on the FERC Rulemaking on small inland LNG export facilities:
https://wwals.net/?p=59062#tocomment

It’s easy to comment or intervene, so you can do it by the deadline of September 20, 2022. Public Citizen and Food and Water Watch have already intervened. We guess they are preparing comments to convince the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to resume the responsibility it abdicated in 2015, of environmental oversight of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities even when are not located where they can directly load LNG onto ocean-going tanker ships. Instead, those inland facilities send highly compressed and explosive LNG in trucks and train cars down public highways past schools, business, churches, and homes, through counties none of which have adequate emergency plans. And where-ever that gas eventually gets burned, in Europe, Caribbean, or Asia, it adds to the atmosphere more methane, a worse greenhouse gas than CO2, cooking the planet and raising sea levels. You are affected, even if you do not have an LNG export operation near you.

[LNG tanker truck on I-75 turning onto I-10 for Jacksonville, LNG export map by WWALS]
LNG tanker truck on I-75 turning onto I-10 for Jacksonville, LNG export map by WWALS

If you comment or intervene, we will invite you to join us and our co-signers in the series of zoom meetings we’re having with the FERC Office of Public Participation (OPP). You can help find out what OPP is actually doing. At least they’re asking for Continue reading →