Delivered to the Lowndes County Commission Tuesday 12 April 2016 on paper and then by email
(PDF, plus
1-page Suwannee County, FL request to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and
28-page
WWALS invitation to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers),
following up from two previous addresses to the same Commission.
See also the Carter Way item in that same Commission meeting, also related to Sabal Trail. Continue reading
Sent this morning to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners. They meet 6PM tonight, 5 April 2016, at the Suwannee County Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley St. SW, Live Oak, FL, and Sabal Trail is on the agenda.
Dear Chairman Bashaw and Commissioners,
Thank you for coming to see with your own eyes at Suwannee River State Park and Falmouth Spring some of what Sabal Trail did not tell FERC. As you know, after that site visit, the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inviting them to come see for themselves, as well.
Despite what Sabal Trail and FPL will tell you, pipelines are not inevitable.
As you may be aware, Continue reading
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
Here’s who voted which way when Sabal Trail lost in a landslide against its easements to drill under our Withlacoochee River and Okapilco Creek and other rivers and creeks in Georgia.
Thanks to Bentley, Harden, Houston, Pirkle, Powell, Rynders, Sharper, Shaw, Spencer, and Watson for voting Nay against that pipeline river-drilling boondoggle.
And Carter, Corbett, and LaRiccia, well, thanks for listening, I guess.
I’ve added Continue reading
Update 2016-03-22 10:30PM: The vote tally.
As reported by Georgia Sierra Club:
Thank you to everyone who contacted a legislator about SR 954 and their concerns about the Sabal Trail pipeline easements. The house voted down the bill 128-34 this afternoon!!! CONGRATULATIONS!
Thanks to everyone, especially Georgia Water Coalition, Georgia Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, everybody else who helped, and of course all WWALS members and everyone else who called their state reps.
There still more you can do to stop Sabal Trail. See the op-ed blog post of today. Continue reading
Update 2016-02-22: We all won by a landslide in the Georgia House! There’s more to do tomorrow until Sabal Trail is ended for good; see below.
Please call your Georgia state representative and ask them to vote No today on SR 954 that would give Sabal Trail easements to drill under our rivers. Here’s why:
John S. Quarterman, VDT, 2016-03-22, Still possible to keep Sabal Trail out,
After two years going to Sabal Trail open houses and FERC scoping meetings, filing e-comments, guiding them to the river crossings and a legal hearing in Jasper, FERC still tells us customers for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas, constitute a need that outweighs local property rights, environmental destruction, and hazards to our Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers and the Floridan Aquifer, and to taxes, life, and limb.
Yet Georgia is the fastest-growing U.S. solar market, while solar Continue reading
Your calls are working!
Sabal Trail’s allies failed three times to whip up
enough votes to pass this travesty.
Now please keep calling your state legislators and ask them to stay strong voting against SR 954 until Sabal Trail and Transco easements are taken out of it. It’s currently postponed until next Tuesday, March 22nd, so there’s time to call them through the weekend.
If Georgia Power, the EMCs, and GDOT want their easements, they should also be helping us strip Sabal Trail and Transco out of this bill. A fracked methane pipeline drilling under Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee, Ochlockonee, Flint, and Chatthahoochee Rivers is no advantage to anybody in Georgia. Or the Suwannee River in Florida: if you’re in Florida, you probably know somebody in Georgia you can ask to call their Georgia legislator.
Update 2016-03-17: Your calls are working! Please keep calling: details.
You can help stop Georgia eminent domain easements for Sabal Trail from passing the statehouse! (PDF handout)
Photo: TONY CASSADY, 31 May 2015, in Arkansas River pipeline blowout occurred on Sunday morning, cause still unknown, by Benjamin Hardy, Arkansas Blog, 3 June 2015
Sabal Trail (a project of Houston-based Spectra Energy) is a methane frack-gas pipeline that would run from east central Alabama to south-central Florida. Multiple route choices exist. The company has chosen one, despite massive amounts of public objection, that maximizes the public and private impact. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted a permit for the particular one the company wants, one which that places a large number of Georgian’s private property under threat of (federal) eminent domain, for private profit. The FERC permit process is under appeal by property owners and advocacy groups. The pipeline still does not have several major state and federal permits (water quality, air, and wetlands).
Yet the Deal Administration seeks Continue reading
Sent today to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners (PDF):
Dear Commissioners,
It’s good to see you have a workshop about Sabal Trail’s proposed river crossings on the agenda for tonight. WWALS, including its members in Suwannee County, continues to oppose any such crossings of the Suwannee River or the Santa Fe River, or anywhere in the fragile karst terrain of central Florida and south Georgia containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer.
Here’s more evidence that solar and wind can make coal go away with no need for natural gas. A new study shows adding interstate high-voltage DC electric power lines to load-balance across the U.S. would enable a very rapid shift to solar and wind power, dropping CO2 emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2030, five years from now. Florida needs to do its part by deploying solar power for local production during sunny days, rather than wasting $3 billion on yet another natural gas pipeline.
“Better power lines would help U.S. supercharge renewable energy, study suggests,” by Continue reading
Update 2016-01-17: Report with pictures.
This Saturday, 11AM to 1PM, come to Suwannee River State Park for an educational and organizational meeting about why and how to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and to promote solar power instead, hosted by Suwannee-St Johns Group, Florida Sierra Club. At 1PM the media are invited to a hike to the river with signs!
Do we want
a fireball like a mere 4″ FGT spur made in Bell, Florida in 2012 when a tree fell on it?
Sabal Trai would carry 80 times as much fracked methane.
Or like FGT’s 2009 explosion between the Florida Turnpike and I-95, flying a 104-foot piece of 18-inch pipe through the air, shutting down both roads, and fortunately missing a high school?
Or like
Spectra’s pipeline blowout under the Arkansas River in Little Rock last May?
The same Spectra Energy that wants to drill a 36″ pipeline under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers.
The same industry that’s caused Los Angeles County and the state of California to declare a state of emergency after four months of the Porter Ranch fracking well blowout causing sickness and evacuations near Los Angeles.
When: 11AM-1PM, Saturday, 16 January 2016
Where: Continue reading