Tag Archives: Sabal Trail Transmission

Video: Randy Dowdy in VDT 2017-05-05

“We’ve got loss of production for the future that will take not my lifetime, not my kids’ lifetime, but my kids’ kids’ lifetime to recover from,” Randy Dowdy

Daniel DeMersseman, Valdosta Daily Times, 5 May 2017, Farmer: Sabal Trail devastated farm,

QUITMAN — A Brooks County farmer said Wednesday the controversial Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline has ruined his farmland.


“We’ve got loss of production for the future that will take not my lifetime, not my kids’ lifetime, but my kids’ kids’ lifetime to recover from,” Randy Dowdy, interviewed by Daniel DeMersseman, Valdosta Daily Times.

Randy Dowdy is a major corn and soybean producer. In fact, he holds a world’s record for soybean production and a U.S. record for corn production but now he says his award-winning farm is in jeopardy.

Daniel Demersseman (VDT), Randy Dowdy (farmer)
Daniel Demersseman (VDT), Randy Dowdy (farmer), photo by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition

Environmentalists held a press conference this week alongside Dowdy to say their worst fears about the pipeline have been realized.

“Sabal Trail gouged its pipeline through Continue reading →

Record-holding farmer, land destroyed by Sabal Trail, in Valdosta at pipeline safety meeting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Valdosta, May 3, 2017 — U.S. corn production record holder and world soybean record holder Randy Dowdy, whose record-producing fields were severely eroded in rains after Sabal Trail’s pipeline construction destroyed his terraces and caused massive erosion of his cropland, will be at the Rainwater Conference Center in Valdosta 11:30 AM this morning at a pipeline safety exercise to talk about the implications of Sabal Trail’s destruction for pipeline safety and his livelihood.

Randy Dowdy is the 2014 50-year record holder for U.S. corn production and the world record holder for soybean production. Sabal Trail gouged its pipeline through his terraces on the land he used for those soybeans in Brooks County. Despite his warnings, they left that damage unfixed until rains in January caused massive erosion, washing his topsoil into a nearby creek. Beyond immediate damage, this destruction affects Dowdy’s ability to grow such record yields, and the basic productivity of his fields. What further economic damage has Sabal Trail done to other farmers and landowners? Where else will Sabal Trail’s pipeline cause erosion, perhaps in some places exposing the pipe and risking corrosion and breaks?

The event 11:30 AM this morning at Rainwater Conference Center in Continue reading →

Sabal Trail to export through Jacksonville, FL

Let’s connect the dots from Sabal Trail to LNG export through Jacksonville. To cut to the chase: Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy is already exporting LNG from Jacksonville, and is authorized to get LNG from both Floridian Natural Gas (FLiNG) in Martin County at the end of the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain, and from Florida Gas Transportation (FGT)’s Jacksonville Expansion Project from Sabal Trail in Suwannee County to Jacksonville.

600x388 Exhibit F: Compressors and loops; Suwannee, Columbia, and Bradford Counties, Florida, in Jacksonville Expansion Project, by FGT, for SpectraBusters.org, 31 March 2015
KMI FGT TECO JEP

Working backwards, look at Jaxport’s own website, Corporate, Major Growth Projects, Liquifed Natural Gas:

EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES

Crowley-owned Carib Energy has already begun small scale exports of LNG to Puerto Rico and has plans for expansion to a number of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

That JAXport page links to Crowley Maritime’s LNG Overview web page, which brags: Continue reading →

Chicken hatchery coming to Quitman, GA

Update 2017-05-06: More on ownership of Aviagen.

In Brooks County south of Quitman, draining into Piscola Creek and the Withlacoochee River, in the same industrial park where WWALS caught Sabal Trail illegally burning, a poultry breeder will be setting up shop.

News Desk, Area Development, 9 March 2017, Aviagen Plans $18 Million Hatchery In Quitman, Georgia,

Aviagen, a leading broiler breeding company, will create 100 jobs and invest approximately $18 million in a new parent stock hatchery at Brooks County Industrial Park, 17 miles west of Valdosta, in Quitman, Georgia.

The Quitman facility will be Aviagen’s eighth Continue reading →

Charges dropped against Sabal Trail protestors in Suwannee County, FL

How about the state of Florida drop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and get on with solar power in the Sunshine State?

Thomas Lynn, Suwannee Democrat, 30 April 2017, Charges against pipeline protesters dropped,

LIVE OAK — Charges against three Sabal Trail pipeline protesters who were scheduled to be tried in court this week were dropped by the state attorney’s office.

Jeff Siegmeister, state attorney for Florida’s third judicial circuit, said the decision was made for a couple of reasons.

“We made a decision to not give the protesters a platform and not waste the taxpayers money,” Siegmeister said.

How about the waste of taxpayer money on arrests and going this far in those cases? How about the state providing dozens Continue reading →

Steve Nichols, WVGA 105.9 FM, BIG Little River Paddle Race 8:15 AM 2017-04-26

Update 2017-04-26: video of me and Neighbor Steve Nichols on the radio.

After racing or just paddling, you can eat grilled lunch afterwards, while bidding in the silent auction at the Fifth Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park between Adel and Moultrie, Georgia, and you can year about it in your car 8:15 tomorrow morning with Steve Nichols on WVGA 105.9 FM.

When: 8:15AM Wednesday, April 26th, 2017

Where: 105.9 FM WVGA, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia

What: Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols about the paddle race, Wanee, fertilizer runoff, solar power, and yes, I’ll mention the pipeline.

The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, WVGA 105.9 FM

Event: Join the facebook events for Continue reading →

Court suggests FERC is derelict of duty about pipelines including Sabal Trail

Two judges accused FERC of not doing its duty. At stake: shutting down Sabal Trail, and maybe reforming FERC, in oral arguments today on Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and Chattachoochee Riverkeeper v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Case No. 16-1329 in the U.S. DC Court of Appeals.

Lena Moffit, Sierra Club Florida News, 18 April 2017, Sierra Club attorneys argue against Sabal Trail gas pipeline at DC Circuit Court of Appeals,

Judge [Judith W.] Rogers said at one point to the FERC lawyer, regarding their need to assess the full climate impacts of the project, “So, FERC just doesn’t have to do it’s duty because it thinks someone else will?”

Ellen M. Gilmer, E&E News, 18 April 2017, Judge slams FERC’s climate review,

[Judge Thomas B.] Griffith also appeared skeptical of FERC’s position, asking Continue reading →

Ask FL Sen. Nelson to oppose Sabal Trail 2017-04-18-21

When: 9AM-5PM April 18-21, 2017

Where: Call Florida Sen. Nelson’s offices

Event: facebook

Why: Because Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline is unneeded, by FPL’s own admission, and destructive and hazardous. It’s time to get on with solar power for the Sunshine State.

NelsonSabalCalls

Statewide Week of Action: Continue reading →

Protests across Florida against Sabal Trail, which is worse than reporters think

It’s not just two connected pipelines; it’s at least five just in Florida. Audubon Florida did endorse Sabal Trail starting with FPL’s first announcement. And sure, Ms. Grover, your “safety programs are designed to prevent pipeline failures”, but they haven’t actually stopped numerous incidents of corrosion, leaks, explosions, and compressor station blowouts. Other than those things, it’s a pretty good story.

Beth Kassab and Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel, 2017-04-01, Gas pipeline across Central Florida brings cheap energy and protests,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition, which advocates for protection of Florida and Georgia rivers, has staunchly opposed nearly every aspect of Sabal Trail, which crosses under the Suwannee, Santa Fe and many other rivers.


South to Suwannee River, HDD Suwannee County, RoW with pipe already buried, 30.4117310, -83.1566490

Coalition spokesman John Quarterman called the pipeline a profit bonanza for private companies and a boondoggle for utility customers.

Well, I said it’s a boondoggle for the utility, namely FPL, at the expense of its customers. Here’s why I say that, including Continue reading →

Sabal Trail a month late and still sending the press disinformation

No, Ms. Grover, your pipeline is not a job generator for Florida, Georgia, or Alabama, and yes, you’ve slipped your schedule.

“Florida is swarming with protests, like an antbed stirred up by a 600-mile pipeline stick,” John S. Quarterman, president, WWALS Watershed Coalition

You know what would bring economic benefits to the Sunshine State? Solar power, which already employs more people than coal, oil, and natural gas combined, which produced 1 in 20 new jobs last year, and last year solar power produced more new electricity than any other source.

Ms. Grover is paid to picture that fossil-fuel cash-out in the best possible light. Yet once you know the actual facts, it looks more like the Picture of Dorian Gray.


“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” —Dorian Gray, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Joseph A. Mann Jr., FloridaBulldog.org, 23 March 2017, With help from investor-Gov. Scott, Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline looks to open in June, Continue reading →