Lightkeeper's Journal: Eminent Domain

05/14/2015

Spectra Energy: Like a Bull in a China Shop

Article by Curtis Beaird

Spectra Energy is a Fortune 500 company based in Houston, Texas. They say that they are one of North America’s leading natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil infrastructure companies. Their claim to fame — It builds pipelines to ship natural gas. It builds storage facilities to hold natural gas. It distributes natural gas.

From their website, they are proposing the Sabal Trail Pipeline Project:

Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC (Sabal Trail), a joint venture of Spectra Energy Corp and NextEra Energy, Inc., is an interstate natural gas pipeline project that will be able to transport over 1 billion cubic feet (per day) of natural gas over an approximate 500 mile distance between Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Transportation services for FP&L’s power generation needs will begin in May 2017. In addition, Sabal Trail and Duke Energy of Florida (“DEF”) have executed a precedent agreement for Sabal Trail to provide transportation services to DEF’s proposed new power plant to be located in Citrus County, Florida.

Spectra Energy also sues landowners. Yes, not only is ditching and welding, pipe and shut off valves necessary to Spectra’s construction process, suing landowners is part of the mix.

But wait, let’s hear from Spectra Energy. On their spiffy website, sporting a wonderful picture of a Pronghorn, they are clear about how they thrive. Please note. Spectra looks beyond success. They intend to thrive. And, they tell us right up front how they plan to do it. “By achieving the right balance among, economic, environmental and social considerations to stakeholders like you.”

What they failed to note. What they didn’t even mention about thriving and balance and social considerations — they gladly sue farm families in Georgia. One Spectra Energy generated trial begins on May 28, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. at the Courthouse Annex in Moultrie, Georgia.

Why?

Why would a $15 Billion Dollar energy company sue a farm family?

The answer is painfully simple. This family, clearly outside the Spectra’s understanding of stakeholder, is in Spectra Energy’s way. They refuse to do what Spectra wants them to do. They have taken issue with Spectra’s plan to claim, for its use, a 100 foot wide strip of land through their farm. This farm family has no interest in having their land ripped up to accommodate a 36” natural gas pipeline. Clearly, they have not warmed to the idea of living in close proximity to a pipeline that could be a threat to their safety; or worse, a potential ticking time bomb.

So, Specta Energy is suing this family. The company’s understanding of “balance” is clear. Give Spectra what it wants and there is balance. Refuse the energy company and they will turn your well-ordered life into a chaotic mess.

If you think this energy company isn’t serious about their version of thriving and their brand of balance, they have not only sued this one Colquitt County farm family, they have sued “another dozen landowners". Another dozen!

A bull is rampaging in a china shop.

Spectrabusters is actively opposing the Sabal Trail Gas Pipeline. Please support this organization in their efforts as they oppose the pipeline, proposed to run from Alabama to Florida. This pipeline would feed an FPL power plant in Florida for no benefit to citizens of Alabama or Georgia, while tearing a 100 foot wide right of way through all three states.

Links:

Sabal Trail Transmission Documents Filed with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Sign the Petition to Stop the Sabal Trail Pipeline

Hazards of the Sabal Trail Pipeline

Organizations that DO NOT Support the Sabal Trail Pipeline

Natural Gas Pipeline Accidents, Leaks and Explosions (just a few):

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - Pipeline Accident Report Since 1996

Secret Lists Hide Natural Gas High Risk Service Areas

List of Natural Gas Pipeline Explosions 2000 - 2011

2000 Ten New Mexico Campers Die in Natural Gas Pipeline Blast

2010 Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion in San Bruno, California (Video)

San Bruno Residents Remember Those Killed in Pipeline Explosion

PG & E Fined 1.4 Billion in Penalties for 2010 Gas Pipeline Explosion

2011 Allentown, Pennsylvania Pipeline Explosion Revives Natural Gas Worries

2012 West Virginia Gas Explosion Burns Homes, Shuts Down I-77

2013 Sedalia Explosion: Gas Pipeline Ruptures in Missouri

2014 Norwestern Minnesota Gas Pipeline Explosion: "It was just hell on earth."

2014 Explosion on Kentucky Natural Gas Pipeline Under Investigation

2015 Mississippi Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion Picked Up By Radar

2015 Pipeline Explodes in West Virginia, Sending Fireball Shooting Hundreds of Feet in the Air

2015 Natural Gas Blast Destroys Home, Injures 15 in New Jersey

Posted at 01:17 AM in Conservation, Eminent Domain, Environment, Natural Gas, Spectra Energy | Permalink | Comments (0)

05/06/2015

Palmetto Pipeline: Questions That Must Be Answered

Photography by Norma Beaird

Article by Curtis Beaird

Palmetto Pipeline: Questions that Must be Answered.

Palmetto Products Pipe Line LLC (a Kinder Morgan company) filed for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity in January 2015.

1. Why were the first six public meetings managed by representatives of Palmetto Products Pipe Line with the public response going to their corporate lawyers?

2. Why, only after a public complaint, did the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) sponsor its first public hearing?

3. Why does Palmetto Products Pipe Line, a for-profit corporation, think it has a right to Eminent Domain in Georgia?

Please note - understanding Eminent Domain is critical. The origin of Eminent Domain is from ideas developed by a Dutch jurist, Hugo Grotius, in 1625.

"... The property of subjects is under the eminent domain of the state, so that the state or he who acts for it may use and even alienate and destroy such property, not only in the case of extreme necessity, in which even private persons have a right over the property of others, but for ends of public utility, to which ends those who founded civil society must be supposed to have intended that private ends should give way. But it is to be added that when this is done the state is bound to make good the loss to those who lose their property."

4. Why would the state of Georgia align itself with a corporation and against its citizens by granting that corporation; in this case, Kinder Morgan, the severe powers of Eminent Domain?

When I spoke with the Governor’s office, why was the Palmetto Pipeline project described as:

“a collaboration between a private company and the Georgia DOT”.

Collaboration?

Collaboration as defined at Wikipedia is the “process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals.” Shared goals?

5. Has the Georgia DOT already decided to grant Eminent Domain to Palmetto Products Pipe Line while using the public hearings as little more than window dressing?

6. Why has Palmetto Products Pipe Line failed repeatedly to demonstrate and document the need for the pipeline?

The burden to prove need rests with Palmetto. Think about it. No evidence has come to light to date that the citizens of Georgia approached Kinder Morgan concerning the construction of a pipeline. No evidence to date has come to light indicating that the landowners along the proposed route approached Kinder Morgan concerning the construction of a pipeline.

No evidence has come to light that the government of Georgia approached Kinder Morgan expressing a need for a pipeline. The pipeline is Kinder Morgan’s idea. Why do they refuse to demonstrate need?

7. Why does the Georgia government persist in ignoring the fact that Kinder Morgan has not demonstrated a need for the pipeline?

Palmetto Products Pipe Line uses general, abstract and undocumented statements to do little more than describe the project. But, when it comes to money, like rate structures and documentation, arguing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s jurisdiction related to denatured fuel ethanol or the rehab of the Belton, South Carolina site pipeline, the documentation runs on for over 100 pages.

8. Again, why no demonstration of need for the pipeline?

Kinder Morgan only supports its financial needs.

9. Why, even before the Georgia DOT makes its decision, has the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted approval of the Palmetto Petition for Declaratory Order?

Download FERC PDF File Order on Petition for Declaratory Order

According to the FERC personnel that I spoke with, states rights govern the approval of the actual “siting” (their word) of a pipeline. Yet, upon reading the FERC document, they have clearly given defacto agreement to its construction. (See paragraph 33 of the FERC approval)

Governor Deal is on record and states on his website that “…we will continue to promote stewardship to ensure that Georgia retains its pristine environment for future generations…”

10. Why has there been no environmental impact studies in relationship to the pipeline construction? Where is the “stewardship of Georgia’s pristine environment reflected in any of the DOT proceedings to date?

The Governor's office number is 404-656-1776.

Why not call and ask?

Websites, blogs and newspapers that DO NOT support the Palmetto Pipeline. The following links support the conservation and environmental concerns of the state of Georgia, to include the issue of Eminent Domain:

Push Back the Pipeline

Center for a Sustainable Coast

100 Miles Georgia

WWALS Watershed Coalition

SpectraBusters

Link to our article:

Why Georgia Doesn't Need the Palmetto Pipeline: Our Filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

Posted at 03:32 PM in Birds, Conservation, Eminent Domain, Environment, Georgia, Nature, Palmetto Pipeline | Permalink | Comments (0)