Rev. Kevin Gillespie filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. Church.
There was a big crowd on hand Sunday afternoon for the Creston Community Easter Party (held on Palm Sunday). Among those present were the Rev. Wm. Delmas Stutler who told the Easter & Palm Sunday story, the local circuit judge & her son and the Easter Bunny. There was an Easter egg hunt for the little ones, a meal for all and baskets full of goodies for those who met with the Easter Bunny.
The spring Creston ATV poker run will be Saturday, April 26 with signups ending at noon. The “run the route” to clear the route will be Saturday, April 19. Be at the building with your chariot & tools circa 8:30 A. M. Connie Mollohan was to go but she fell and badly hurt her wrist. As they say, “Some folks will do anything to avoid work”.
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Walker recently returned from a trip out to southern California along the “southern route”. They stopped at a border patrol check point to get a photograph with the border patrol men and their patrol vehicle. When asked about how it was that now Trump is president the response was, “Well before the new administration we had about 300 encounters with illegal aliens each day and now we might have three.”
A number of Creston & Brooksville residents attended the SOOGA (South East Ohio Oil & Gas Association) which is also the group for small West Virginia operators. Winnie Sinnett who lives on Yellow Creek is the president. Of key interest to local folks is the status of Mother Hope’s proposed abandonment of 1100 miles of gas gathering lines. After the “tense” meeting in Ellenboro all the additional meetings were cancelled. It is now understood that the Rockefellers are not going to give away, abandon or sell their “red lined” gas lines but that they are going to keep them and include them in the new rate case the utility intends to file later this month with the PSC (Public Service Commission). In other words, “Stay tuned”.
There was a talk about the Biden methane rules under 0000b [Quad OB] and Ohio producers must comply as undoing federal EPA rules is difficult and some of the RINO US Senators demand that all the green new deal programs be kept. Under the new rules snitches can turn in “violators” but presently the only approved snitch is Carbon Mapper, Inc. and presently they only operate in California. Locally producers intend to sell their natural gas, not vent into the atmosphere as is done in third world countries. A special guest at the meeting was SOOGA the new blood hound that is a deputy dog for the Washington County Ohio Sheriff’s Department.
Braiden Ferrell was one of three from the Little Kanawha Christian School who qualified for the state spelling bee in Lewisburg. Another was Morgan McFee. There are only 20 state wide.
Jacques Frost made a call in the Creston area and, among other things, killed the Japanese knotweed that was already quite high. Trilliums, sessile trilliums, toothworts, spring beauties, blue bells and other spring ephemerals are beautiful now and morel mushrooms should be up for those who are able to find the patches.
The Appalachian Regional Commission which is now run by Broadway Joe Manchin’s wife gave a $1.3 million taxpayer grant to Virginia Tech to develop “turquoise hydrogen,” whatever that might be. Discussions elsewhere make it clear that “hydrogen as the solution to pollution” has seen better days
There was an announcement that there might be a gas fired power plant & data center between Thomas & Davis up in Tucker County. The electric plant would generate 1656 mega watts. The proposed operation in Indiana County Pennsylvania would be a 4.5 gigawatt power plant. Along those lines Microsoft said that their proposed data centers in Columbus Ohio suburbs have been put on “pause”. There has been talk of such a facility in Wirt County.
The Appalachian AI Conference will be held May 21 at the Hilton Garden Hotel in Southpoint Pennsylvania. Tickets for the event can be ordered on line. Among the speakers is the fellow whose firm builds the data centers. It was noted that because of this there will be a 50% increase in electric demand by 2050 and it was noted that it took 8 years to build the Utica fired electric generating Guernsey power plant along I-77. Toby Rice who runs EQT, the Pittsburgh oil & gas giant noted that it would take 1800 additional horizontal wells to pull this off.
There had been some talk about Wishguard taking oil & gas leases in Wood & other counties. It was noted that there was no green stuff [even at 10 cents on the dollar] and that those who signed might get paid in four months. Firms that are drilling wells are offering leases with very bad terms where, when wronged, the property owners are not allowed to go to the courts for relief. It should be noted that the State of West Virginia presently receives a 20% gross lease with no deductions and for world class oil & gas fields this is low.
Local Pennsylvania grade crude is $60.50/bbl. With condensate fetching just $42.50/bbl. And Marcellus & Utica light bringing $49.50/bbl. WTI (West Texas crude is $62.40 and Brent (North Sea crude) is $64.76.bbl. Natural gas [elsewhere] is $3.53.
