Investigations

On October 2, 2012, James Richard Giles, a resident of Stockton, California, and former owner of Clean Fuels LLC, a business that transported compressed natural gas in metal cylinders to commercial natural gas users, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Sacramento, California.  The court ordered  Mr. Giles to pay $100,000 in fines and serve five years of supervised release for the willful and unlawful refilling of a compressed natural gas cylinder that was overdue for its five-year requalification and then offering it for transportation.

OIG began investigating the case based on a complaint from one of Mr. Giles’ former employees.  The employee alleged that Mr. Giles was unlawfully refilling metal cylinders with compressed natural gas that were well beyond their required 5-year certification dates. Compressed gas cylinders are highly pressurized containers that store various kinds of gases.  Some of these gases may be relatively harmless, such as carbon dioxide, however others may be extremely hazardous.

Our investigation determined that Mr. Giles used a trailer to transport thirty-eight refilled cylinders of compressed natural gas.  All thirty-eight cylinders had certification dates that had expired months before Mr. Giles transported them from his business in Stockton to Pacific Gas & Electric’s natural gas refilling station on McDonald Island, in San Joaquin County.

OIG conducted this investigation, with significant assistance from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.