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5 Men Get Probation for Years-Old Marcellus Truck Emissions Scam

We finally come to the end of a saga that began nearly three years ago, in Sept. 2018 when six men were charged with conspiring to illegally alter emissions systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines, trucks used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks). All six pled guilty. One of the six did jail time. The other five were finally sentenced last week–to probation.
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Co. Pleads Guilty, Fined $2M for Marcellus Truck Emissions Scam

In September 2018, MDN brought you the news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emissions systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines, trucks used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks). All six eventually pleaded guilty (see Man Pleads Guilty to Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marc. Trucks). The company involved in the scandal, Rockwater, has now pleaded guilty and will pay a $2 million fine.
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Know-Nothing Anti Tries to Scare NEPA Town into Banning LNG Trucks

It might help anti-fossil fuel radicals if they at least got a few of their facts right. Facts are typically missing from their hysterical proclamations. Case in point: An anti addressed the Ransom Township board earlier this week (Scranton, PA suburb) to try and convince the board to pass a resolution against trucks hauling LNG from traveling through the community on the way to Interstate 81. Her wild claims were false.
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New Fortress Energy LNG from NEPA to NJ Truck Route Revealed

Anti-fossil fuelers, like those who write for and edit the Scranton Times-Tribune, are still spitting and sputtering that an $800 million LNG liquefaction plant is going to get built in nearby Bradford County and that LNG from that plant is going to roll through the Scranton area on both rail cars *and* on trucks. New Fortress Energy is building the project, currently on pause until early next year (see Work Paused, Not Canceled at New Fortress LNG Plant in NEPA). The Times-Tribune previously published articles about “bomb trains” rolling through their area. Now they’re doing the same for bomb trucks.
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Trucking Company Sues EQT for Racial Bias, Canceled $66M Contract

Pittsburgh-based IntegrServ, a trucking company partly owned by former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against EQT claiming discrimination against the company as a minority-owned company after it canceled a contract worth some $66 million last year. This is an involved story and of course, there are always two sides to every story (and two sides to every lawsuit).
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Mountaineer Gas Seeks Truck Alternative to Blocked Maryland Pipe

Anti-fossil fuelers are on a holy mission to stop a 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Gas (see Maryland Antis Oppose 13th Pipeline Under Potomac as “Dangerous”). The pipeline, from Maryland on one side of the river to West Virginia on the other side, will be built to feed a larger pipeline project from Mountaineer Gas called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion. Mountaineer Gas is getting desperate for more gas to feed growing customer demand.
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Thigpen & Blue Roads Merging to Form Sapphire Gas Virtual Pipe Co

This is one of those “follow the bouncing ball” stories with lots of names. Bear with us because there is a connection to the Marcellus/Utica region. BP Energy Partners, a private equity firm based in Dallas, TX, invests in (and ultimately controls) a number of companies. Two of their portfolio companies are Thigpen Solutions and Blue Roads Solutions, both virtual pipeline companies delivering CNG and LNG to different types of customers. BP is merging the two into one company and renaming it Sapphire Gas Solutions.
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Jail Time for Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks

In September 2018, MDN brought you the news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emissions systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines, trucks used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks). All six eventually plead guilty (see Man Pleads Guilty to Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marc. Trucks). The wheels of justice grind sloooooowly. The first of the six to receive his sentence happened on Wednesday.
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Man Pleads Guilty to Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marc. Trucks

Last September MDN brought you news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emission systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks). The sixth and final man charged plead guilty yesterday in U.S. Middle District Court in Pennsylvania.
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H&H Bends Over Backwards to Reduce SWPA Well Pad Truck Traffic

Frac sand truck

Shale driller Huntley & Huntley (H&H), headquartered in Monroeville (Allegheny County), PA, leases land and drills in the Pittsburgh suburbs. They’ve picked a tough place to do business. The company works hard to win over residents who live near their shale drilling projects. The latest example is what H&H is doing to reduce truck traffic in Murrysville (Westmoreland County), PA.
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Dela. River LNG Export Dock Will Get Up to 360 Truck Trips/Day

Traffic on the Ben Franklin Bridge (Photo credit: Jeff Fusco, Philly Magazine

The propaganda drumbeat against a proposed LNG dock facility in New Jersey continues by Big Green. New Fortress Energy is building a natural gas liquefying plant in northeastern Pennsylvania. The LNG produced at the plant will get trucked to the bank of the Delaware River on the New Jersey side where New Fortress plans to build a pier allowing two ships at a time to dock and load the LNG. Here’s the latest line of attack against that plan: That loading facility *may* see up to 360 truck trips per day. Which is supposed to enrage area residents against the plan.
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WV Gov. Justice Blames Shale for Bad Roads, Wants Higher Taxes

WV Gov. Jim Justice

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is turning out to be a major disappointment. He’s pro-coal (because much of his personal fortune comes from coal), and increasingly anti-shale. The latest evidence is an attack on the shale industry claiming shale is responsible for the poor condition of roadways in the Mountain State.
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Vermont Considers Banning All New Gas Pipelines, Infrastructure

Must be something in the water in Vermont. They elect people to high office like crazy Bernie Sanders and Pat “leaky” Leahy. And now there is a serious effort to pass a bill that will result in a ban on any kind of new infrastructure that supports natural gas. No more new local gas utility pipelines to new housing developments, no more new hookups for businesses locating in the state, no new hookups for factories, farms–no nothing. The reason? An abject, irrational hatred of fossil fuels. This cancer of irrational thinking has got to stop.
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M-U Transload Facility in OH Getting Gas-Fired Power Plant 2021

Aerial view of the Long Ridge Energy Terminal from the Ohio River

In January 2018 MDN brought you news from the new owners of what is now called the Long Ridge Energy Terminal in Monroe County, OH (transloading facility) that they were moving forward “quickly” with plans to build a 485-megawatt Utica gas-fired electric plant. The plan was to have it online and running in 2020. That’s now been pushed back to late 2021.
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Marcellus LNG Export Plant in NEPA Will Generate Lots of Traffic

Last week MDN brought you the exciting news that New Fortress Energy is planning to build an LNG (liquefied natural gas) liquefaction plant in Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). The $800 million plant will supercool and liquefy locally extracted Marcellus Shale gas and ship it first by truck, eventually by rail, to “customers in the U.S. as well as abroad.” The plant received initial blessing from the Wyalusing Town Planning Commission last week. But not all is butterflies and unicorns. At a planning commission meeting, a New Fortress Energy official revealed that the plant will generate 10-15 tractor trailer trips per hour–24/7/365. That’s a truck turning in to the facility once every 4-6 minutes–call it an average of one every 5 minutes.
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6 Charged with Bypassing Emissions Controls on Marcellus Trucks

We may not always agree with certain rules and regulations, but skirting or ignoring them is not an option. Especially not in the Marcellus industry. A small group of men (six so far) in Williamsport (Lycoming County), PA are accused of conspiring to illegally alter emission systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines. The trucks belong to Rockwater Northeast of Canonsburg, a subsidiary of Rockwater Energy Solutions Inc. of Houston, Texas, used to haul fresh water and wastewater to/from Marcellus Shale wells being drilled. The men “tampered with and removed emission monitoring devices on trucks to reduce repair costs and maintenance down time.” Five of the six have already plead guilty, and a sixth was recently charged in the scheme. They all face jail time and stiff fines. Folks, this is not acceptable behavior for our industry…
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