ShaleComm No Longer Represents D&L Energy
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – ShaleComm, the public relations company that served as the spokesman for D&L Energy Group, announced this morning that it no longer represents the embattled company.
The one-sentence announcement came from ShaleComm’s executive vice president, Vince Bevacqua, who was directed by D&L to release a statement Feb. 7 denying responsibility for the illegal dumping of drilling waste into a storm drain.
The statement, the last public response from D&L, emphasized that company was not involved in the dumping incident, and instead blamed "other companies" that worked at the same location.
The following day it was learned that D&L’s Ceo, Ben Lupo, ordered employees of another company he owns, Hardrock Excavating, to dump the waste. On Monday it was learned that Lupo admitted he ordered waste dumped at least six times since September, putting as many as 250,000 gallons of brine wastewater and mud into a tributary leading to the Mahoning River, according to officials from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Bevacqua declined to comment on the reasons for ShaleComm no longer representing D&L, explaining that his company does not discuss its private business with clients.
ShaleComm is affiliated with the Prodigal marketing and public relations agency; both are based in Boardman.
Yesterday the president of another PR agency, Pecchia Communications of Canfield, posted on his “Nimble Communicator Blog,” a blistering commentary titled “ ‘Other Companies’ Did It: An Oily PR Strategy.”
The post, written by Dan Pecchia, stated the role of public relations “is to sharpen, broaden and improve understanding about what our clients do, and the foundation for doing that most effectively is telling the truth.
“That said,” Pecchia continued, “it’s a little early to dump on Big Vince and Prodigal. It is quite possible that, in the rush to respond to a breaking news development, the PR professionals were themselves deceived.”