Author: jeff

Oct. 30—NANTICOKE — A Texas-based energy company on Friday announced plans to build a $6 billion manufacturing facility on the site of a former coal mine that will produce gasoline made from natural gas and renewable natural gas and is expected to generate thousands of jobs.

Work on the facility proposed by Nacero Inc. for ex-mine land in Newport Township and Nanticoke is expected to begin within the next two years and will take four more years to complete.

State Sen. John Yudichak, who hosted a press conference about the project in his Nanticoke office, said there will be 3,500 construction jobs available to build the masive facility, with all building trades involved. Once completed, Yurdichak said the Nacero facility will employ 450 high-tech jobs that will pay $85,000 per year.

“And, it further represents an environmental transformation of Newport Township and Nanticoke City through the reclamation of mine-scarred lands to pave the way for a revolutionary manufacturing facility that will change the global market for gasoline by reducing the carbon footprint in the transportation sector by 50%,” said Yudichak, I-Swoyersville.

“This is big news,” he added.

The facility’s competitively priced, zero sulfur gasoline will be usable in contemporary cars and trucks without modification, officials said.

“We will give everyday drivers zero sulfur, 100% domestic, low- and net zero-carbon gasoline for use in their existing vehicles without modification,” Nacero CEO Jay McKenna said. “Our affordable and accessible products will clear the air and reduce global warming.”

Founded in 2015, Houston-based Nacero is bringing a new gasoline to market made from natural gas and renewable natural gas rather than crude oil, according to its website. Nacero recently broke ground on a facility in Odessa, Texas.

‘Game-changing opportunity’

Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Kingston, said more than a generation ago, energy in the form of anthracite coal helped Northeastern Pennsylvania lead the Industrial…

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NANTICOKE — Marc Heissan, director of strategic development for Nacero Inc., said the company has been working on building a strong understanding on what it will take to develop the chosen location in Luzerne County for the past two years.

“There is still a lot of work to be done, but we will know more once we start construction on our Texas facility next year,” Heissan said.

The Texas-based company on Friday announced plans to build a $6 billion manufacturing facility on the site of a former coal mine that will produce clean gasoline made from natural gas and renewable natural gas and generate thousands of jobs.

The company said the project will bring thousands of jobs and produce tens of thousands of barrels per day of low and zero life-cycle carbon footprint gasoline made from natural gas and renewable natural gas.

Sen. John Yudichak Friday said Nacero’s decision to invest $6 billion and create nearly 4,000 new jobs represents the single largest economic development investment in the history of Luzerne County.

“And, it further represents an environmental transformation of Newport Township and Nanticoke City through the reclamation of mine scarred lands to pave the way for a revolutionary manufacturing facility that will change the global market for gasoline by reducing the carbon footprint in the transportation sector by 50%,” said Yudichak, I-Swoyersville.

But the process is just in the early stages, Yudichak said, noting that much work remains to be done to get the project up and running.

Heissan said the financial markets are looking for large scale projects like Nacero’s that involve a proven technology, have a ready market and meet an important need.

“Our affordable gasoline will be usable in today’s cars and trucks without modification, and we are…

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[co-author: Kathryn Isted ]

Discovery

Return of Privileged Materials Required Due to “Callous Disregard” of Federal Prosecutors

Kathryn Isted

In Harbor Healthcare System, L.P. v. United States, 5 F.4th 593 (5th Cir. 2021), the court of appeals ruled that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to exercise its equitable jurisdiction over a healthcare provider’s motion for return of property, in which the provider sought the return of privileged materials seized by the United States during a pre-indictment criminal investigation led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas. On May 18, 2017, the government executed search warrants on Harbor Healthcare System (Harbor), seizing hundreds of boxes of paper records and 3.59 terabytes of data contained in multiple computers, hard drives, mobile devices and email accounts. The materials seized included the computer, email account, iPhone and paper documents of Eric Sprott, Harbor’s general counsel and director of compliance, and consequently, contained substantial information protected by the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine. The government assembled a “filter team” from “another division of the Eastern District” to review the seized materials for privileged information. After Harbor repeatedly sought the return of its privileged documents from the government to no avail, Harbor initiated an action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 7, 2018, and filed a motion for the return of property under Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

In that action, at the district court’s insistence, the parties proposed a “privilege-screening plan.” During the test phase of that plan, Harbor identified 3,843 emails from Sprott’s account as privileged and discovered that “a significant number of privileged documents” had already been transferred from the government’s filter team to its civil and criminal investigators. Meanwhile, the government moved to…

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