Hydrogen fuelling station closed less than one year after opening to government fanfare by Colin Gallant, April 1, 2025, The Pulse TapRoot Edmonton
Alberta’s first commercial hydrogen fuelling station has been shipped back to the United States, its American owner has filed for bankruptcy, and the company’s once convicted former CEO has been pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump.
When it opened in March 2024, the station was described as a “huge milestone” by the provincial government. But Clarence Shields, the owner of Blackjacks Roadhouse, told Taproot the Nikola fuelling station was removed from his Nisku property on Feb. 23.
The station was installed last year in a private deal between Blackjacks and Nikola, in concert with a $4.4-million investment from Prairies Economic Development Canada meant to enable the Alberta Motor Transportation Association and the University of Alberta to work to validate and build access to fuel for hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.
The $4.4 million in funding came alongside contributions from Alberta Innovates, Emissions Reduction Alberta, and industry, PrairiesCan said.
Neither PrairiesCan nor the AMTA gave money to Nikola, both parties confirmed to Taproot. Instead, Nikola built the station as an in-kind investment, with fuel coming from Suncor. The AMTA said Blackjacks nonetheless spent time and money to clear land for the station, while AMTA staff spent working hours on the project.
Government endorsement
In March 2024, Alberta officials said the Nikola station was significant. “The launch of Alberta’s first commercial hydrogen fuelling station is a huge milestone in advancing Alberta as a global energy supplier,” Brian Jean, the minister of energy and minerals, said in a press release on Nikola’s page. “Hydrogen is the next step in our commitment to reducing emissions, and projects like this demonstrate that we have the resources, expertise, and interest in our province to drive innovation and become leading suppliers of responsibly produced clean hydrogen.”
Both Jean and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith attended the opening ceremony for the fueller.
Taproot requested comment from Smith and Jean, but received an email statement from Kevin Lee, the press secretary for the ministry of municipal affairs, in response. “Alberta’s government worked closely with the proponent to try to get this project to completion,” Lee said in the statement. “Unfortunately, as the proponent was not able to provide the required documentation to verify that the equipment was built to Alberta’s safety standards, this project was unable to move forward.”
I think that’s typical UCP bullshit, lies and spin. I bet the company decided there was not enough money in it (I don’t buy the company’s whining about slow approval reported below either). Alberta’s safety standards are shit, companies kill workers with little, if any, punishment; cases that go to court, are beneficially ended by judges or prosecutors. Companies blow up facilities and operations, and spill and leak toxic life threatening products regularly while the AER, our so called regulator, gazes upon them starry eyed blowing kisses. Some companies in Alberta even illegally intentionally frac drinking water aquifers resulting in community water towers blowing up, seriously injuring water managers, putting entire communities and families at risk of also blowing up, are pampered and coddled by authorities and swooned over by politicians.
Nikola filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 19, and on March 24 announced plans to deregister with the Securities and Exchange Commission and therefore delist from the Nasdaq exchange. An investor FAQ page on Nikola’s website said the Chapter 11 filing will allow it to “wind down” the business “while conducting a structured process to solicit interest in the sale of all, substantially all, or a portion of its operations.”
The company, which is based in Phoenix, did not respond to Taproot’s repeated requests for comment.
Nikola had bad press before coming to Alberta
In September 2020, Nikola made headlines when energy giant BP backed out of a hydrogen station partnership deal that would have seen the two create a network of hydrogen fuelling stations. Shortly after, Trevor Milton, Nikola’s CEO, left the company.
In October 2022, Milton was convicted of defrauding investors in a New York court for using false claims about Nikola’s hydrogen and electric vehicles. In December 2023, Milton was sentenced to four years in prison.
The March 2024 press conference that launched the now-shuttered Nikola station came after these facts were publicly known.Wowza!! Typical idiotic corrupt Alberta.
Robert Harper, the president of the AMTA, told Taproot through a communications manager that Milton resigned from the Nikola board back in 2020. “All the dealings with Nikola were post the former CEO’s removal, and the new management was not involved in the former CEO’s fraud,” he said.So what!? That changes nothing
On March 27 of this year, before Milton served a day of the sentence, he announced that Trump had pardoned him.
Trump confirmed this the next day. “They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” Trump told reporters.
Milton donated $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October 2024.
Regulatory challenges
Shields said the Nikola station never worked because it never had the chance to do so. ”(Nikola) had all the stuff that they required to operate in place,” he said. “They were operating and providing hydrogen to some of the vehicles, but it was a cascade system, which means they weren’t using the Nikola refueller. They were just transferring hydrogen from … trailers.”
Harper said the trailers serviced Nikola’s Class 8 hydrogen fuel-cell electric trucks. He cited government approval as a roadblock to making the station operational. “Ten months of delays in regulatory approvals and equipment certification have limited facility operations.”
On regulatory approvals, Shields added that Nikola only received them for the fueller from the Alberta Boiler Safety Association on March 25, more than a month after the company had packed up its infrastructure. He said that regulatory approval was the most onerous part of creating the station, though he added the red tape exists for a good reason.
Hydrogen is a clear, odourless, highly flammable gas. Once lit, a hydrogen fire is difficult to extinguish.
Shields also said that he toured Nikola’s headquarters during the deal-making process, and that he believed the team wanted to “save the company” from the former CEO Milton’s actions.
“They sincerely wanted to see this succeed, because they believed that it would have a significant impact,” Shields said.
“But they were neutered because of this crook.”
Mugglehead Magazine reported that Shields invested a “substantial but unspecified amount” in the station, but Shields did not provide Taproot figures. He said, however, that he and Nikola split costs on a 2,000-amp transformer to power the refuelling equipment.
Harper said his organization has no details on the transaction between Blackjacks and Nikola. “AMTA was not a party to the negotiations or sign off for the agreement between Blackjacks and Nikola, nor does AMTA know what funds were transferred between Nikola and Blackjacks.”
PrairiesCan said the AMTA spent most of the money it provided on hydrogen demonstration trucks, emissions monitoring equipment, and a hydrogen storage tank, which all remain its property.
Region has commercial hydrogen options
Commercial hydrogen fuel is available in the Edmonton region. Air Products has mobile fuellers near the site of its forthcoming net-zero facility and one on Aurum Road that are open to customers. The company plans to replace the former with a permanent version this year. It also plans to eventually build more along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway between Edmonton and Calgary.
Fuellers not available to the public include one at Edmonton International Airport for its fleet of hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirais. There’s another at a Suncor facility in Sherwood Park that supplies a hydrogen bus pilot. However, it is out of service due to “necessary repairs to the supply system,” John McCulloch, the director of transit fleet maintenance for the City of Edmonton, told Taproot. McCulloch said Air Products is supplying the bus fuel for now, and that the city will begin to use a mobile fueller this year as part of an additional pilot.
Commercial stations may have a new client, as KAG Canada announced on March 25 it is successfully operating Class 8 dual-fuel trucks using technology by Innovative Fuel Systems.
Brent Lakeman, who is now the executive director of the re-launched Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB, recently told Taproot he expects further hydrogen activity to happen in the general vicinity of Blackjacks. He said it’s an important area because it’s near the airport and along the main route to Calgary.
Lakeman’s instincts mirror comments by Shields. The latter said the Nikola project yielded some benefits for another run at hydrogen fuel.
“They left my site perfectly prepared for the future,” Shields said. “We’re starting to get interest from other parties (for hydrogen energy projects).”
Ian Weetman:
Not shocking in the least. Hydrogen like fusion is always “just 10 years away” and sold to us by the most ignorant of politicians to distract us from the increasingly important role electric trucks, trains and cars play in our world EVEN in Alberta… Just ask Governator and known adulterer Arnold S about how well his hydrogen Hummer is doing… LOL…
Convicted of bilking investors, Nikola founder and Trump donor gets a presidential pardon by Matt Ott, March 28, 2025, AP
Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle start-up Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year for fraud, was pardoned by President Donald Trump, the White House confirmed Friday.
The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors.
Milton, 42, and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election, according to the Federal Election Commission.
At Milton’s trial, prosecutors say a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway was actually a video of a nonfunctioning Nikola that had been rolled down a hill.
Milton had not been incarcerated pending an appeal.
Milton said late Thursday on social media that he had been pardoned by Trump.
“I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for his courageOh please. You and your wife bribed the corrupt Nazi fucker via donationin standing up for what is right and for granting me this sacred pardon of innocence,” Milton said.Douche! Arrogant sod. I see no innocence in this pardon, I only see criminality, stealing, greed, more greed, more stealing. I see a bulging hideous orange fascist convicted felon who is so stupid he thinks he’s king of the world. And I see a corrupt rich arrogant fucker bribing big money to stay out of prison with zero conscience or soul.
The White House confirmed the pardon Friday, though there was no notice of a pardon on the White House website.
When asked by a reporter in a news conference Friday why he pardoned Milton, Trump said it was “highly recommended by many people.” Trump suggested that Milton was prosecuted because he supported the president.Liar Liar Liar. Just stupidity, lies and rot comes out of that pucker mouth
“They say the the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” Trump said.
Trump went on to say that Milton “did nothing wrong” and that the Southern District of New York’s prosecutors were “a vicious group of people.”
During his securities fraud case, Milton was defended by two lawyers with connections to Trump: Marc Mukasey, who has represented the Trump Organization; and Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi, who Trump appointed as U.S. Attorney General. Slimy Legal Circle Jerk
Also Friday, Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson, just before he was due to report to prison for a nearly 10-year sentence in a financial conspiracy case.
Trump has wasted little time in using his pardon power since beginning his second term. Hours after taking office, he wiped clean the records of roughly 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The next day, Trump announced that he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs.And the orange fucker is working to destroy Canada and her people because of drugs crossing the border?
Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the role of the internet in illegal markets.
Nikola, which was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scandal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
Milton, convicted of fraud, was portrayed by prosecutors as a con man six years after he had founded the company in a basement in Utah.
Prosecutors said Milton falsely claimed to have built its own revolutionary truck that was actually a General Motors product with Nikola’s logo stamped onto it.
Called as a government witness, Nikola’s CEO testified that Milton “was prone to exaggeration” when pitching his venture to investors.
Milton resigned in 2020 amid reports of fraud that sent Nikola’s stock prices into a tailspin. Investors suffered heavy losses as reports questioned Milton’s claims that the company had already produced zero-emission 18-wheel trucks.
The company paid $125 million in 2021 to settle a civil case against it by the SEC. Nikola didn’t admit any wrongdoing.Of course not, they never do when “settling” corporate crimes, and con politicos like Danielle Smith and her party of greed-farmers leap in bragging
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on Milton’s pardon.
At the time of his conviction U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again — on social media, on television, on podcasts, and in print. But today’s sentence should be a warning to start-up founders and corporate executives everywhere — ‘fake it till you make it’ is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price.”But UCP leapt in bragging anyways.
The White House said Trump also pardoned on Thursday cryptocurrency entrepreneurs Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed. The three men founded and help run the cryptocurrency exchange BITMEX, which was ordered to pay a $100 million fine earlier this year after prosecutors said it “willfully flouted U.S. anti-money laundering laws to boost revenue.” Hayes, Delo and Reed pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and were sentenced to probation.
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Alan Suderman contributed.