Shadow Valley Oil

10/03/2026

Ok here's the scoop .

No were not out of business . Trust me I wasn't sure for a min .

Our lovely fmcsa decided to roll out a new system called Motus . And a new log in verify id crap back in mid May .

At the same time.

We have some family medical stuff pop up unexpectedly and the owner of the house I was supposed to buy and move the business to fell ill and to this day still waiting on courts and stuff to be able to buy and build a shop and move the business here .

So what happened was my mcs150b was due before May. So what happened in May when motus opened ? Well my dot numbers went inactive .......and I had no idea . No email . No mail .......nothing . Just had a road side inspection in March and all was good then .

So I try to log into motus .

Federal or state ID

Take a pic

Selfie

Rejected ! .........wtf

Retry .........rejected ......wtf ......

Again ......rejected ......WTF !

after 2 weeks ....... I finally get in ...... phew .

Umm ok I have no DOT Numbers to attatch to my account ...I couldnt link . (Remember this )

Let's open up a chat and call the feds and see who answers first , at the same time i open up a Google ai search and boy did I just Crack the surface of the problems that would consume me for over 2 months now .

Let me tell you daily this was my day . Chat window open call . 7 plus hrs on hold on the phone . Chat window is optimistic im 800 in que with a 3 hr wait(7plus hr phone was a 47 min wait , chat refelected the same 3hr wait is more than a working day hence why the fmcsa hired a pile of help and are now open till like 10 or 11 pm . You know its August...... my stress was like ehh its summer not really a big deal right . .......right ? .........right !

Sept 1 comes around I've at this point opened and submitted a ticket back in August to update a manual scanned copy of my MCS150B as I can't access it thru motus .

Open ticket . Works kinda good as I can email vs sit on chat . But chat wasn't reliable so id usually call and im a stubborn ass so id sit on hold and at about the 8 hr mark of hold music you start going crazy right ....im not crazy the dot made me this way .

So understand this please . I'm a human being . I'm a grandson a son a husband and a father im also the only person for this business that doesn't all the paperwork , repair the trucks , and work the trucks .

So here I am stressed only about 120% I have hold music on repeat looping in my head while I sleep . I'm up anywhere between 1 and 3 am and cant sleep checking for any updates . Just to start the chat and call que at 8 am like a good responsible crazy truck owner .

3 weeks go by and finally I was able to claim my dot number ......... but wait ..... something isnt right . 1 my number is inactive still even after submitting my mcs150b well over a month ago . And 2 I dont even see my account on motus at all . I have to search my dot number just like you could .

I finally get someone helpful on the phone . So 8 am I believe my wife had just gotten home when I was on the phone so about 5:30 ish when I connected this day . But she stated type this ..
Type that
Nope . Ok there is an computer or software issue in motus and IT is working on it . If it was working you could self certify and go to work the next day . (This was 2 weeks ago now currently) so I didnt have access to the stuff I needed online to fulfill the damn email responses of go to motus ....update update update . I couldnt do any of it . So we had to manually submit another ticket . In the mean time im learning some work around or trying to . Like attempting to contact concord nh fmcsa office that won't frigging answer their phone or return emails . So jump over their heads and try to contact the regional dept especially around hazmat in Maryland........ emails get returned even cc nhmc so they got the jist stating im an nh business and grounded over a motus rollout error and to manually approve this so I can go back to work .

So being hazmat has a few challenges its not easy even being a private carrier is easier but then when you cross state lines its another ball of wax and being hazmat its required i have dot numbers period . And also because of this no generic fmcsa helper can approve me . So it has to go to a supervisor and under review and look over all my stuff before they will switch me to an Active status .

So as you can imagine my brain ..... was MAXED out for a bit . What should have been a quick and easy thing turned into over 2 almost 3 months of my summer and fall dealing with an issue I never saw coming.

For my sanity I had to shut things out and stay focused on the goal which was an active dot number . And the results of that were out of my control . I just couldnt give up . And I couldnt possibly have a timeline because our lovely fmcsa had me grounded .

So that being said guess what happened ......... were now ACTIVE . So I can now drive again .

However due to this there is some issues I need to address. 1 is I didnt feel comfortable renewing state assistance vendor contracts without an active dot number to be able to satisfy a contract . I'm going to work on that but im not sure what they can do . 2 . The phone have been messed up and me being on my cell all day nothing rang thru from vonage and once I was off the phone and saying goodnight to my little girl my brain was smoked like bad bad . And it would immediately spike my stress to a breaking point . So without having any timeline and cost of product ( because I couldn't drive to buy it ) like I said I had to stay focused and all my energy went into the fmcsa and motus issue was priority.
I didnt know rita was having issues even logging in on her end so Sunday im taking my computer to her house and going to fix that and I have 103 voicemails I need to listen to and generate a list for deliveries .

Emails and fb messages I just gotta clear my head to be able go through all of it . (Remember im just 1 guy wearing many hats )

And I understand because of all of this it was the perfect storm and we have lost a fair amount of customers . Those numbers at this time im not sure of but im betting 30 or more .

All I can say is . I'm sorry im doing my best and I understand there was a issue with communication and to be honest I couldnt mentally spare any extra until I had answers myself . Because if not im having 20 calls a day explaining the same things of unknown while trying to fix it it would have pushed me to the breaking point . I just had to put it in a box and set it aside for a bit to stay focused without giving up . ( not that I would have given up but I was 2 min from starting a 2nd business and I still may ) .

So this is my plan of attack today im going to get my head on straight . Tomorrow Sunday im going to work with Rita and get phones back online for both of us . And then ive gotta listen to all voicemails and im sure its going to be angry and telling me off . Its ok i understand .

But this next week ill be out getting caught up . And for those of you that stuck around ....thank you . For those we lost ..... were still here if you change your mind .

Wishing you all the best sincerely and lets hope for smooth sailing going forward .

We will be intouch throughout this next week as I field the calls and work as fast as I can .

John

02/25/2026

Hate to be that guy ........ but im not the one to lay on my belly in a snow bank to reach your fill pipe. Grab a shovel please and keep your fill pipes clear . It's becoming a bit of an issue with all this snow I get it . But who wants to be soaked all day ........not this guy . Thank you for your attention. And train your plow guys to leave a hole for your friendly oil man . Climbing over a 6 foot tall snow bank with hose in hand is troublesome.

If u call to order ........ clear a path .

Thank you
SVO

02/05/2025

"Hey John ! This is Carroll Bean ....... how's Rita ? Haha , going to need some oil . Thanks John " . Every damn time he would ask about Rita lol .
Rest easy young man . It was my pleasure to have known you . To the family our condolences .

Share Memories and Support the Family.

12/24/2023

From our family to yours , we wish you all a Merry Christmas.

11/23/2023

Happy Thanksgiving.

03/25/2023

Stumbling Into Battle Against Climate Change

John McClaughry

The Vermont House is struggling to deliver a Clean Heat Standard bill to comply with a carbon dioxide emission reduction mandate that the legislature itself declared in 2020.

In that year, in the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), the legislative majority mandated that Vermonters take large, painful steps to drive down their carbon dioxide emissions by eighty percent just 27 years from now. That reduction would be Vermont’s share of the global reductions enthusiastically agreed to by President Obama and 193 other nations in Paris in 2016, to combat “climate change”.

In December 2021 the GWSA- created Vermont Climate Council – our climate government within the government – produced its Climate Action Plan. It proposed urgent steps to drive down emissions from transportation and heating, that together constitute around 75% of emissions.

The 11-state Transportation and Climate Initiative was supposed to tax gasoline and diesel fuel to stimulate people to switch to electric vehicles. That grand scheme soon collapsed when the governors involved learned that businesses and motorists would not accept a hefty and rising carbon tax on motor fuel.

The climateers then turned to the heating sector. The obvious way to drive down heating fuel emissions is to levy a punitive and steadily increasing carbon tax on heating oil, propane, natural gas, and kerosene. But most voters want nothing to do with carbon taxes on their heating fuel (or anything else).

So the Vermont Climate Council rolled out the Clean Heat Standard. Instead of an actual tax, this ingenious scheme relies on extracting millions of dollars through higher prices paid by heating fuel users, to subsidize people to replace heating fuel with electric heat pumps and pellet stoves. The bill requires heating fuel distributors to somehow identify and protect lower income customers from the higher fuel prices.

Vermont Gas Systems, a regulated monopoly, supports CHS because its customers’ rates are set by the Public Utility Commission chaired by an outspoken climate warrior. Green Mountain Power supports it because of all the electricity to be sold to heat pump purchasers. Both are pleased to see over a hundred Vermont-owned heating fuel distributors take the heat for the CHS-imposed higher fuel prices required to buy the PUC’s credits or pay a “noncompliance penalty” of four times any shortfall. Both VGS and GMP are owned by energy giant Energir of Montreal.

The climateers weren’t clear how this complicated PUC credit system would work, but they pushed CHS to a vote last May. Gov. Scott vetoed the bill. When his veto was sustained by a single vote, the disappointed climateers vowed to go all out to win in 2023.When the Senate took up the CHS bill last month, its members were swamped by disapproving phone calls and emails.

Nonetheless the Democratic leadership and its majority on the Vermont Climate Council continue to drive the CHS through, after relabeling it the “Affordable Heat Act”. (That was so obviously fraudulent that the now Senate-passed CHS bill bears a new 22-word title).

Live-streamed deliberations in the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee revealed that the members had little grasp of how the intricate CHS could be made to work in practice, or where the skilled workforce could be found to install new equipment and upgrade electrical circuits.

As independent reporter Rob Roper observed, “the labor force does not exist in Vermont to perform the work on the timeline required by this law. The social equity requirements in the bill protecting low income Vermonters are unsupported and unenforceable. The guidelines for creating a financial market for establishing and managing ‘Clean Heat Credits’ are wildly unrealistic and ripe for fraud and abuse.”

On March 3 the Senators approved the CHS 18-10 and sent it to the House. The one salutary amendment was a “checkback” provision that requires a recorded vote by legislators before this mighty engine of fuel price inflation can be launched in 2025. Their House counterparts may not be so responsible. That provision may well be the crucial issue in play when the two chambers meet to reconcile their different versions of the measure.

Gov. Scott has now gone well beyond observing that no one clearly understands how this complicated credit scheme can be made to work. In a March 1 news conference he said “we cannot ignore the fact that there are significant upfront costs which could be regressive and harmful to low-income Vermonters.” He might well have included the vast middle class.

Even veteran environmental activist Annette Smith, head of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, has taken to describing this stumbling, heedless rush to cut emissions, no matter what the cost, as the work of “a religious cult…. the Statehouse is populated by a climate claque whose only villain is carbon emissions. Nothing else matters to these true believers. They are driven by the fear that if the monster of fossil fuel emissions is not vanquished, the world will end.”

No, the world won’t end, but if they can override a likely Scott veto, the Democratic legislative majorities will commit to extracting over $2 billion tax dollars from Vermont’s heating fuel customers, to advance an unworkable scheme that even its advocates can’t explain – unless thousands more emails and phone calls jolt them back to reality.

303030

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute (www.ethanallen.org)

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02/02/2023

Temps are going to be extremely cold this weekend . Plan ahead . Any outside tanks I've delivered to this week I've overtreated ( typically treated as recommended gets you to -20 protection ) . Can use power service diesel 911 ( red jug ) available at most parts stores and maybe Walmart ( anyone with an outside tank should always have a bottle on hand anyways ) and avoid an emergency call to the service guys . Just a cold snap for 48 hrs then back to unseasonably warm temps next week .

If you have any problems reach out to myself or any one of our locally supported independent service guys ( if your already a customer of theirs )

Bill Nunn rygate
Derek and Ken at the oil boys haverhill
Alex Fogg at Fogg plumbing and heating Thompson vt
Tyler Wight heating down here in hartford
And John Hathaway for the old school bradford customers that he services .

Thank you all and stay safe and warm .

12/26/2022

From our family to yours , we wish you a Merry Christmas

10/28/2022

This is a huge problem!

Fox News host Tucker Carlson weighs in on the energy crisis stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' Subscribe to F...

08/29/2022

We are now a VHAP utility provider , for homeowners . Look it up and see if you qualify. If you plan on utilizing the vhap program to help with past due oil deliveries you need to let me know beforehand and send verification that you are eligible before I deliver . You can text me (John) @ 6032532763 make sure you send me a screen grab or verification. And who the number is texting.

Visit https://vermonthap.vhfa.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=search_vthap&utm_term=homeowner_assistance&gclid=CjwKCAjwx7GYBhB7EiwA0d8oey0WXlRz3y69kumemlpUpSNICJR0Dodo45urTB-cHFZwVID9eGL5nRoCpF0QAvD_BwE

Online application
Or call (833)221-4208
They said any family member can help out some of our senior customers without computer access ( I secretly envy you few ) .

I'm still working on the verap program but not getting anywhere.