Tag Archives: NextEra Energy

Solar grows in Georgia and Florida

Georgia Power, local electric cooperatives, Duke Energy, FPL: all are spending on solar power. However, Georgia and Florida remain behind New Jersey and Massachusetts in deployed solar megawatts. It’s an election year, and this should be an issue.

FPL is making a big show of solar power in Florida, but are it and sibling utilities actually moving ahead very fast? Jay Koziarz, miami.curbed.com, 30 July 2018, City vote clears path for retractable ‘solar halo’ atop Bayfront Amphitheater: The urban installation will be one of the largest of its kind in the country

Solar halo atop Bayfront Amphitheater
Bayfront Park Management Trust

Miami city commissioners have backed a move to construct a Continue reading

FERC and Sabal Trail admit Sierra Club won 2018-07-03

One week after losing a jury trial in the U.S. Middle District Court of Georgia, the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and its purveyor of federal eminent domain, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), declined to appeal their huge DC District Court loss of last August.

Sierra Club, Press Release, 3 July 2018, Fracked Gas Pipeline Company and Federal Regulator Will Not Seek Supreme Court Review of Landmark Ruling: Existing Decision Means FERC Must Consider Downstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions,

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Neither the builders of the fracked gas Sabal Trail Pipeline nor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will ask the Supreme Court to review a landmark ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from last year. That decision required FERC to consider the effects of downstream greenhouse gases when deciding whether to approve proposed pipelines that transport gas.

In response, Sierra Club Staff Attorney Elly Benson released the following statement:

Elly Benson, Sierra Club Attorney
Elly Benson, Sierra Club Staff Attorney

“We are glad to see FERC accept its responsibility to consider greenhouse gas emissions from burning transported gas at downstream power plants. These dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary pipelines pose a threat to our communities and climate. They should not be proposed, much less built, at a time when clean, renewable energy sources are abundant and affordable. We will continue to monitor the pipeline permitting process to ensure the law is followed.”

The pipeline industry press was not thrilled. Charlie Passut, Natural Gas Intelligence, 5 July 2018, FERC Declines to Appeal Landmark GHG Case to Supreme Court, Continue reading

Landowner wins over Sabal Trail in jury trial, jsq on Scott James radio 2018-06-29

The just compensation for property takings required by the Fifth Amendment is not “just” compensation, said Scott James. And a jury of peers of a landowner told Sabal Trail to pay up five times what it offered for an easement for its fracked gas pipeline.

“…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
—Fifth Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Scott said this jury award was big news and asked if it was just compensation. I said yes, front page in the Valdosta Daily Times.


VDT front page

And five times is more just than before. But how is a one-time payment Continue reading

Sabal Trail offers barely-investment-grade bonds

I’ve wondered whatever happened to Andrea Grover since she no longer has landowner “stakeholders” to try to sell on her pipeline. Diagram, Moodys Bond Ratings Turns out she’s selling debt bonds for Sabal Trail now, according to a press release of Monday.

The notes were issued in three tranches as follows (collectively, the “Notes”): $500 million principal amount of 4.246% senior notes due 2028, $600 million principal amount of 4.682% senior notes due 2038, and $400 million principal amount of 4.832% senior notes due 2048.

Those sound like good interest rates, especially that 4.832%. But why is it listed on the Berlin Stock Exchange, and what about that Baa1 Moody’s bond rating? That is eight steps from the top and three steps above “Non-Investment Grade” aka junk bonds.

I wonder what happens if Sabal Trail doesn’t make its FERC-extended construction deadlines? Somebody remind me, what assets does Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC have, as in what recourse would a bond-holder have if the issuer decided to cancel them?

Two months (2018-04-01 -- 2018-05-03), STT Graphs
Graph: by WWALS, from Sabal Trail’s FERC-required Informational Postings.

Or maybe, unlike the amount of gas Sabal Trail is pumping (see above graph), SEP’s stock price will stop dropping and Continue reading

Strom, Inc. LNG export from Sabal Trail, Crystal River, FL via German Glauben Besitz LLC to Latin America

On its website stromsolutions.com since 2014: “Strom, pronounced with a long O (Ström) is the German word for current…. Strom is a proud Florida based corporation that intends to be a strong corporate partner to the State of Florida.” So why German?

LNG World News, 19 May 2015, Strom files for non-FTA export authorization with DOE
Photo: LNG World News, 19 May 2015, Strom files for non-FTA export authorization with DOE.

Strom, Inc. CEO Michael Lokey

The CEO of Strom, Inc. listed on various filings with the Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Fossil Fuels (FE) is Michael Lokey, who his LinkedIn profile went to Clemson University and has been involved in various ventures in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area Continue reading

Flash in the pan, Sabal Trail? 2018-01-06

Where did that gas go for that one day, Sabal Trail? You didn’t do a very good job of demonstrating customers by dropping back to less than 2% Nom/Cap today. Did you break something? Again? Explain to us, FERC: why is this pipeline needed?

January 2018, Operational Capacity
January 2018

Also, FERC, if you did your job, we wouldn’t have to draw graphs like this. The best way to do your job would be to shut down Sabal Trail. Continue reading

Informational Postings: Transco, Sabal Trail, FSC, FGT, Gulfstream

Here are links to the FERC-required daily informational postings of the parts of the Southeast Markets Pipeline Project (SMPP), Transco, Sabal Trail, and FSC, plus the other two big natural gas pipelines into Florida: FGT and Gulfstream. Can somebody point me at any Duke Energy Florida (DEF) power plant that is not being fed by FGT or Gulfstream, now that DEF is no longer listed by Sabal Trail as a customer? And since FSC only lists its Martin County power plant, where are all those coal plants supposedly already- or to-be-modernized?

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has a web page for Required Filers, which has a spreadsheet of Interstate Pipelines under the Natural Gas Act XLS updated 11/28/2017, but it’s incorrect, with the listing for Florida Southeast Connection going to the home page for NextEra Energy Resources. So, as usual, it’s necessary to do FERC’s job.


Transcontinental Pipeline Company (Transco)

Informational Postings and map.

Transco, Maps

Operationally Available. Perhaps most interesting is Continue reading

Sabal Trail admits Duke not customer, ramps up gas anyway 2018-01-04

Duke Energy Florida is no longer in the Customer Index in Sabal Trail’s FERC-required Informational Postings, as of January 1, 2018. Only Florida Power & Light is listed, still for 400,000 dekatherms per day. So what we’ve been saying since November appears to be true: Duke Energy Florida is no longer a Sabal Trail customer, which means there’s no excuse for Sabal Trail to have a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity, and FERC (or the D.C. Circuit Court) should revoke that permit.

Update 2018-01-05: Duke previously said it did NOT need Sabal Trail for the Crystal River power plant Duke is building, and in any case it could get the gas from Gulfstream or FGT if Sabal Trail failed, then Duke bought part of Sabal Trail, then Sabal Trail’s uncommitted capacity dropped by the same amount Duke was supposedly wanting, and now Duke is missing from Sabal Trail’s customer list. Plus most of Duke Energy Florida’s operational gas-fired power plants are being fed by FGT or Gulfstream, and apparently none from Sabal Trail.

Recent ramp in Sabal Trail gas, Postings

Yet Sabal Trail today just ramped up nominated capacity above operationally available capacity. Where’s that gas going, Sabal Trail? Continue reading

Motion to reject FERC DSEIS, to take Sabal Trail out of service, and to revoke its permit: WWALS to FERC 2017-12-29

reopen the whole basis of the FERC 2016 Order, Filing FERC, if it follows its own rules, should reject the DSEIS, stop Sabal Trail, and revoke its permit, says a motion filed today with FERC by Suwannee Riverkeeper.

Followup blog posts will feature major sections and arguments from these 20 pages with their 93 footnotes. The basic arguments are summarized on the first page:

WWALS argues that no SEIS can be complete without accounting for GHG from Liquid Natural Gas (“LNG”) exports, nor without comparing natural gas to solar power, according to precedents already set by FPL, FERC, and others, which also reopen the whole basis of the FERC 2016 Order.

FERC may not care, but the D.C. Circuit Court may, or candidates for office, or the voting public.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!


Filed with FERC today as Continue reading

Still low: Sabal Trail gas six weeks later 2017-12-27

Sure you didn’t break something, Sabal Trail? Or did you lose one of your only two admitted customers? If not, why are you still only shipping less than 10% of your stated capacity six weeks after you went to zero for seventeen days? And how can FERC justify eminent domain for taking people’s land and risking our water for a pipeline your own figures persuasively now argue is not needed?

Nom still less than 10% of Cap, 2017-12-27

Nom still less than 10% of Cap, 2017-12-27

Remember, on November 14, the same day Sabal Trail’s gas dropped to zero, its uncommitted capacity also dropped by 300,000 Dekatherms per day, which is exactly the same as what Duke Energy Florida said it would buy, with “Contract Primary Term Expiration Date” of “10/15/2017.” That’s thirty days before the gas stopped flowing on November 14, 2017. And there’s been no change in Sabal Trail’s uncommitted capacity since then.

Uncommitted still down 300,000 DTH/Day., 2017-12-27

Continue reading