Thursday before the storm, Suwannee and Flint Riverkeepers updated on Sabal Trail in Live Oak, about the recent court win against FERC, plus LNG export.
WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman explained Continue reading
Tag Archives: Gordon Rogers
Not so Fast, Sabal Trail: Suwannee and Flint Riverkeepers in Live Oak 2017-09-07
Update 2017-09-01: Add #StopETP Day of Action one day early to the same event in Live Oak.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman will show four years of Sabal Fail, and the Three Stooges plumbing in Dunellon. WWALS member Cecile Scofield will talk about LNG export all over Florida. Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers will explain what the fossil fuel industry calls the Great Major Victory by Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and what it means (so far as anyone knows). WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman will lay out what you can do to help stop Sabal Trail and reform FERC. Plus videos.
When: 6:30 PM, Thursday, September 7, 2017
Where: Live Oak Woman’s Club, 1308 11th St SW, Live Oak, FL 32064
Free: There is no admission fee and you do not have to be a member of WWALS to attend. Naturally, we do encourage you to join WWALS today. https://wwals.net/blog/donations/
Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper and Gretchen Quarterman, WWALS Executive Director
This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail –Suwannee Riverkeeper in VDT 2017-08-24
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
“This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail,” Quarterman said, on the front page of the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee Basin, the Valdosta Daily Times.
We got sails no one can see.
Suwannee Riverkeeper Vessel on the Suwannee River protesting Sabal Trail 2017-01-14
As Frank Jackalone says (see below), FERC has been getting away with murder. And now maybe they can’t.
Thomas Lynn, Valdosta Daily Times, 23 August 2017, Court decision to impact Sabal Trail pipeline, Continue reading
Pipeliners spooked by Sierra Club Major Landmark Victory; could shut down Sabal Trail –industry press
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
Update 2017-08-24: Third news roundup: This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail —Suwannee Riverkeeper in VDT 2017-08-24
OilPrice.com calls it “a critical decision yesterday, that could jeopardize the future for pipeline projects across the country”; pipeline companies could be “spooked” and “…the court ruling raises the unsettling possibility that the project may be forced to shut down — after billions were spent putting it in into service.” Other stories say this ‘huge’ win could also affect the Atlantic Sunrise, Penneast, Atlantic Coast, and Rover Pipelines, among others.
(L to R) Lea Fox, 4, Finn Ryder Purdy, 4, and Mason Dana, 7, of Lake
Worth, sit with gas pipeline protesters outside of Florida Power and
Light headquarters on Universe Boulevard in Juno Beach on October
14, 2016. The Sabal Trail Pipeline began supplying FPL’s plants in
June. Groups opposed the pipeline that will start in Alabama and
bring fracked gas through several counties in Florida’s springs and
wetlands. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)
Sad for FPL, Duke, Spectra, and all the other pipeline-building purveyors of fracked methane, maybe, but glad for all the landowners whose land was taken, local citizens who don’t want a 500+-mile IED next to their homes, schools, and waterways, and all people who want clean sun and wind energy, not more polluting fossil fuels.
It’s good the industry press agrees with what I told the VDT: “This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail.”
Here’s a news roundup, in addition to Continue reading
Same day FERC lets Sabal Trail turn on gas, Waterkeeper Alliance passes resolution to oppose FERC 2017-06-09
FOR IMMEDIATE-RELEASE
Salt Lake City, Utah, May June 9, 2017 — Friday morning,
FERC staff granted Sabal Trail’s request to turn on the gas,
saying it trusted the pipeline company to handle
remaining landowner issues and “punch-list” items,
despite
objections from WWALS, Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and many others.
Before noon, the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance passed a resolution to join
the effort to reform FERC; a resolution written by WWALS and Flint Riverkeeper.
Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers made the motion and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman seconded; they also wrote the resolution.
Quarterman explained:
“While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is a U.S. agency, its actions affect the whole world, because much of the gas in the interstate natural gas pipelines FERC rubberstamps is for export.
“Even with Sabal Trail, the fight is not over. The case brought against FERC by Continue reading
Videos: Coal Plant Public Hearing in Albany, GA 2017-05-04
You can still comment by tomorrow, Monday, May 8, 2017
on
Georgia Power’s NIMBY plan for the coal ash it generated,
to send it away from Plant Mitchell to local landfills, maybe yours.
Here are WWALS videos of the GA-EPD public hearing Thursday May 4, 2017 in Albany, GA, which we attended at the invitation of our neighbor Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers, who said at the hearing he is lawyered up, and his attorney Chris Bowers of SELC also spoke.
Comment
You don’t have to hire an attorney; you can send in written comments by tomorrow, May 8, 2017, according to the the GA-EPD announcement of March 31, 2017: Continue reading
Gulf and south Atlantic Waterkeeper Retreat
FERC reform as an initiative was one result of this year’s meeting, this time where Georgia Water Coalition usually meets, of the Riverkeepers and other Waterkeeper members and affiliates from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and beyond as far as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
Front row by himself: Pete Harrison (Waterkeeper Alliance attorney).
Kneeling: Rick Frey (St Marys),
Dan Tonsmeire (Apalachicola),
Laura Jackson (Mobile),
Rachael Thompson (Satilla),
Dale Caldwell (Chattahoochee),
Kemp Burdette (Cape Fear),
Gordon Rogers (Flint)
Standing: Jason Ulseth (Chattahoochee),
Bill Strangler (Congaree),
Casi Callaway (Mobile),
Susan Wendel (Altamaha)
Earl Hatley (Grand),
Elena Fodera Richards (Savannah),
Emily Markesteyn (Ogeechee),
John S. Quarterman (WWALS),
Bart Mihailovich (Waterkeeper),
Bruce Bodson (Galveston),
Krissy Kasserman (Youghiogheny, wearing the blue and gray plaid shirt)
Henry Jacobs (Chattachoochee, wearing the beanie cap leaning against the wall),
Jacob Oblander (Lower Savannah River Alliance Affiliate, right behind Krissy),
Michael Mullen (Choctawhatchee, right next to Jacob),
Rebecca Jim (Tar Creek, right next to Krissy),
Tonya Bonitatibus (Savannah),
Matt Starr (Upper Neuse, right behind Gordon),
Cade Kistler (Mobile, against wall),
Sam Perkins (Catawba),
Lisa Rinaman (St Johns).
Not pictured: Kaitlin Warren, Seth Clark, and Jen Hilburn (Altamaha), Rachel Sliverstein (Miami), Kelly Cox (Miami), Neil Armingeon (Matanzas), Gretchen Quarterman (WWALS), Anna Alsobrook (French Broad), Bill D’Antuono and Harrison Langley (Collier), Misha Mitchell (Atchaflaya), Myra Crawford (Cahaba), John Paul (Caloosahatchee), Kevin Jeselnik (Chattahoochee), Frank Chitwood (Coosa), Hartwell Carson (French Broad), Rob Walters (Three Rivers).
That group picture was taken late after many people had left, and some never arrived, due to hurricane or other reasons. Some of the missing are below in pictures Gretchen took, including one of Altamaha Riverkeeper Jen Hilburn, in whose extensive watersheds we met. And of course FERC reform wasn’t the only initiative: trash, biological contamination, CAFOs, and others are on the agenda.
Bart Mihailovich, Waterkeeper Alliance, 3 November 2016, 2016 Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Retreat Recap, Continue reading
Sabal Trail, Bell Bros, WWALS, Solar in APN 2016-09-12
The Bell brothers, Flint Riverkeeper, and John S. Quarterman of WWALS
all against Sabal Trail in an Atlanta publication.
Come on down to the Suwannee River Tuesday near Jasper, FL
or to the Withlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA 9AM Saturday Sep. 17th to see
for yourself what we’re protecting and to say your piece on video.
Gloria Tatum, Atlanta Progressive News, 12 September 2016, Proposed SabaL Gas Pipeline runs through aquifer, wetlands, sinkhole territory, Continue reading
Ensuring Sabal Trail compliance with LWCF
WWALS signed onto a letter asking for Sabal Trail to be examined for LWCF compliance.
Jonathon Berman, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, 12 April 2016, Conservation groups call for public parks to be put ahead of corporate polluters’ pipeline plans,
Atlanta, GA — Today, seven groups called on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) state liaison officers for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi to ensure that the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, a joint venture by Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, Inc., and Spectra Energy Corp, and Magnolia Extension, owned by American Midstream, does not threaten public parks and recreation areas.
The letter highlights the environmental dangers the proposed Sabal Trail and Magnolia Extension projects pose to at least 11 parks and public recreation areas paid for by the LWCF.
Created in 1965, the LWCF is a federal program that provides matching grants and other federal assistance for public parks and recreation areas. The program has safeguards to ensure that lands purchased with its funds are protected for public outdoor recreation. The groups warn that rapidly multiplying planned pipeline projects do not appear to be compliant Continue reading
Georgia legislature overwhelmingly rejects river easements for Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail fracked methane pipeline
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