Facts about the Palmetto Pipeline project
The pipeline
The Palmetto Pipeline would extend 360 miles from Belton, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. It's part of the Kinder Morgan company's overall plan to move refined petroleum products from the Gulf of Mexico through Belton to Savannah and Jacksonville.
If it's approved, a portion of the pipeline will pass through 12 Georgia counties. Kinder Morgan is approaching landowners in those counties for permission to survey their land.
The pipeline will carry between 150,000 and 167,000 barrels of fuel per day, the company says.
If approved, construction will begin next spring, and the pipeline would start moving fuel in July 2017.
A number of state and federal agencies have to approve the project for it to begin. Those include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the South Carolina and Georgia Departments of Natural Resources and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The Georgia Department of Transportation also is involved.
The company
Kinder Morgan owns and operates the Plantation Pipe Line Company in the Southeast, and its pipeline is one of the biggest in the United States, delivering more than 600,000 barrels of fuel products through more than 3,100 miles of pipes. These connect to 130 terminals in eight states, and its customers are refiners, markets, the military and commercial gas users.
Plantation was founded in 1940 and is headquartered in metro Atlanta.
The company already operates 3,000 miles of natural gas and petroleum products pipelines in 85 counties in Georgia.
Must show need
As opponents point out, Kinder Morgan will be required to show there's a need for the pipeline for the Georgia DOT to approve the company's bid for the right to use eminent domain.
Kinder Morgan claims a need exists, saying the pipeline will be the first to metro Savannah and the Georgia coast and that it will foster competition. It also will help ensure energy independence, the company maintains.
The company says it already has customers lined up to move gas through its lines if the project goes through. It has not said who those customers are.
Kinder Morgan doesn't say whether that additional gas will lower prices in the area, noting that is up to those who own the fuel it moves through its ports. It points to competition, however, as a reducer of prices.
The company claims at least half of the fuel it moves through the Palmetto Pipeline will stay in Georgia. Terminals will be set in North Augusta, South Carolina; Richmond Hill; and Jacksonville.
Benefits
Kinder Morgan claims the pipeline will employ up to 1,200 construction jobs at its peak. It's expected to cost around $1 billion.
The company will hire construction contractors to build the pipeline. It's unclear, however, how many will be local. Kinder Morgan says the workers will spend money locally on such things as meals, lodging and gas.
Environment and safety
Opponents have decried the company's safety record and the pipeline's potential impact on the region's marshes and waterways, and a simple Internet search reveals the company has had a number of issues with its pipelines over the years.
But proponents say pipelines are the safest way to move fuel, and Kinder Morgan claims it is one of the safest operators in North America in an industry in which more than 99 percent of the fuel moved through pipelines gets safely to where it is intended to go.
Kinder Morgan also invites the public to look at safety reports on its website, www.kindermorgan.com.
Using existing right of way?
The company says it expects to "co-locate" about 83 percent of the planned pipeline on existing pipeline or other utility easements. In Georgia, that's 86 percent.
Finally, Kinder Morgan maintains none of the petroleum products will be exported outside the United States.
- JEFF WHITTEN, Bryan County News
RICHMOND HILL - Allen Fore, Kinder Morgan's vice president of public affairs, was the first to speak at a public hearing inside the Richmond Hill City Center regarding the company's proposed Palmetto Pipeline project.
That was the last positive spin the 360-mile pipeline got for most of the night.
Speaker after speaker stood up before a packed room to voice opposition to the pipeline and Kinder Morgan's application to the Georgia Department of Transportation for a certificate of necessity and convenience.
The DOT said 528 people came to the hearing, and the agency plans to hold another hearing
May 7 in Waynesboro. It also would take written comments through May 15.
If granted, the certificate would allow Kinder Morgan to use eminent domain to force property owners along the pipeline route to sell the company easements if they do not first come to a negotiated agreement.
That's something the company rarely uses, Fore said, and even then, landowners are compensated.
But even as he was speaking, it was clear this wasn't Kinder Morgan's night.
Many of those who spoke Tuesday, including Richmond Hill resident Roy Hubbard, railed against the company behind the pipeline after asking why Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurray is the only person to decide whether Kinder Morgan will get the certificate.
"I have every respect for Commissioner McMurray's long service for the Georgia DOT," Hubbard said. "In my opinion, he should not be shouldered with the responsibility in deciding whether or not to apply such an invasive and potentially damaging rule such as the rule of eminent domain. There are 14 members on the DOT board. At the very least, they should be involved in the process. And certainly our elected representatives should be involved in the process."
Kinder Morgan and Enron
Hubbard went on to link Kinder Morgan chairman and CEO Richard Kinder to failed energy-trading company Enron, where Kinder once was chief operating officer. Hubbard also ran through a list of lawsuits Kinder's current company is facing, but not before blistering the application process itself.
"We are talking about Georgia government officials jumping through hoops for a Texas billionaire who wants to take private property from Georgia citizens for his own personal gain, and the idea is actually being considered," said Hubbard, one of more than 30 to speak against the project.
One speaker was Billy Morris, the founder, chairman and CEO of Morris Communications Co., which owns the Savannah Morning News, Augusta Chronicle and Florida Times-Union, among other newspapers.
He was against it.
A number of those who spoke against the pipeline were environmentalists, and Riverkeepers for just about every river on the coast stood up to speak. Others didn't identify themselves as such, including St. Simons resident Lisa Norton, who said she had attended a previous meeting on the pipeline sponsored by Kinder Morgan.
Norton said the company initially provided maps that didn't have some of the area's rivers on them, and she thought the company should disclose who will be using the pipeline.
But she saved her strongest words for the company's attempt to push the pipeline through and fired a shot at public officials as well.
"My interpretation of this is legal thievery," Norton said. "We may not be able to sue the state under sovereign immunity, but by God, those public servants are liable, and I hope they hear what we've got to say today because they're fair game if the people of Georgia don't start being represented in this democratic process."
Distrust in Kinder Morgan's aims almost seemed to go hand in hand with a similar distrust of government.
Opposition from landowners
Landowners also spoke out against the pipeline, among them Effingham County resident Janice Bevill, who said her family has been on its land since getting a king's grant when the colony of Georgia was founded.
She said there already are pipelines and power lines running through her property, but she's concerned about liability now.
"If someone goes on that property and damages one of their pipelines, am I responsible for it? And if so, do I need to put all my property in an LLC to protect what little I do have left?" Bevill said, before asking the DOT to study the application carefully.
"Here's another big thing being put on public officials, and many of the people here will be watching in the future as to how you handle this decision for us," she said.
Apart from Hubbard and his wife, Peach, who is president of the Dolphin Project, few who stood up to speak Tuesday were from Bryan County, but former County Commissioner Jimmy Henderson was one of those who got up to oppose the project.
"There's a bunch of people here," Henderson began. "If I'd been Commissioner McMurray, I would've been here."
That drew cheers.
"I'm not going to go over all the issues that have been brought up, all good points," Henderson continued. "I'll just say I have a gas line that runs through my property, has for as long as I can remember. All I can do with it is sit and watch the weeds grow; can't plant anything on it, can't build anything on it, but I do get to pay the taxes on it. Please say no to this pipeline."
Love's Seafood owner Fulton Love also spoke against the pipeline.
"I live in Chatham County. I'm a business owner and a property owner," Love said. "I agree with everything that's pretty much been said here today. One thing that Kinder Morgan brought up that they didn't finish on: They told you they're going to generate 20 jobs in Atlanta to handle the oil flow going through this pipeline. They didn't tell you how many people they're going to put out of business - the local truck drivers and watermen that help move the product up and down the waterways. This is something we don't need. These people already are doing a great job moving this stuff. We aren't having a problem with major spills."
The only speaker in favor of the project was Darrell Turner. He spoke briefly.
"I've sat here tonight and heard some very eloquent speeches, and I know they're all from the heart," Turner said. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not a lawyer, not a professional speaker. But I do represent several hundred highly skilled workers in the states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. I represent the people who will build this pipeline, and I represent people who pay taxes in South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, and I'm here to tell every one of you ... I'm going to do everything I can to provide these workers of mine with jobs. Thank y'all very much."
Turner was booed.
Final word
The only currently serving elected official to speak against the pipeline was Chatham County Commissioner Tony Center.
"I just want to lend my minuscule voice against the pipeline, and there's an environmental concern. People much more educated and erudite than I am have spoken about that," Center said, before firing at Kinder Morgan's co-founder. "If Mr. Kinder really wants to help people, he can use the $12 billion he gained from lying, stealing, and cheating in Enron to pay back the thousands of people who lost their life's savings due to Enron."
During a meeting with reporters afterward, Fore said he understood the concerns of those opposed to the project, but he said there is a lack of information and blamed the company for much of it.
"We can do a better job of informing the public," he said.