The next confrontation over a pipeline may take place in Florida: the Sabal Trail Pipeline. Take Today I received a change.org petition concerning the matter. Newsweek via Fusion already has coverage:
The Bells are just one of many families in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida who are being impacted by the Sabal Trail Transmission, a $3 billion project with the goal of beginning service by May 1, 2017. The 515-mile pipeline would help power Florida’s growing energy demand—more than 60 percent of the Sunshine State’s utilities are reliant on gas.
Behind the project are Spectra Energy Corp, NextEra Energy, Inc., and Duke Energy; the natural gas will be provided to Florida Power and Light, owned by NextEra and Duke. …
In a letter written to the Federal Environmental Regulation Commission by four Georgia Democratic congressmen last October, the officials expressed concerns over “serious environmental justice issues” with Sabal Trail, as well as possible health problems that residents in its vicinity could encounter:
Sabal Trail’s proposed pipeline and compressor station will further burden an already overburdened and disadvantaged African-American community in this area. Sabal Trail’s proposed route will go through Albany and Dougherty County and will run through low-income African-American neighborhoods. The proposed industrial compressor station facility would sit right in the middle of an African-American residential neighborhood comprised of two large subdivisions, a mobile home park, schools, recreational facilities, and the 5,000-plus member Mount Zion Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American congregation.
For the environmental justice community, the location of heavy industry near low-income and minority neighborhoods isnothing new.
In March, the Georgia House of Representatives voted 128-34 against a bill that would have given the pipeline project power to seize property.
“This does not serve our citizens,” Republican Rep. Regina Quick told the Georgia Report, a news outlet covering Georgia politics. “I will not be complicit in this scheme for the federal government or anyone else.”
To add to the controversy, Florida Gov. Rick Scott owned $53,000 in Spectra Energy stock in 2013, the same year he signed into law two bills designed to speed up permitting for the Sabal Trail Transmission, according to The Miami Herald. While the stock was part of a blind trust, Florida’s ethics laws historically prohibit public officials from owning stock in businesses subject to their regulation.
There must be some irony that the “Sunshine State” isn’t powered by sunshine, but by natural gas. I’d be tempted to propose giving the state a new nickname, except it’ll eventually become The Drowned State, sadly enough. There have already been arrests in the matter, as WCJB reports:
30 days ago 14 protesters at the Sabal Trail Pipeline were arrested in Gilchrist County. Saturday, two more arrests were made.
An arrest at the Sabal Trail Pipeline in Gilchrist Co. Saturday had protesters stirred up.
“This past Saturday I hosted an event, an educational caravan tour to try to educate people about the Sabal Trail,” said long-time protester and tour organizer Karrie Ford.
A video shows what happened when a Gilchrist County Deputy pulled over Katherine Cavanaugh, one of the tour guides.
“KC is just in her vehicle, and she’s asked by the police officer to step out of the vehicle and she asks why am I being arrested and he wouldn’t really tell her anything,” said Ford.
This comes just 30 days after more than a dozen protesters were arrested. Ford was one of those protesters, who said in reference to her arrest last month, “The arrests were unexpected. A lot of us were out there carrying signs and just, not even yelling or chanting or anything.”
No doubt the local cops are trying to nip this in the bud.
