With the change in the weather, freezing & thawing there have been lots of down trees & slips of mud & rocks into the ditch lines and in the roads. A big rock rolled out of the old quarry in the Germany section of Creston almost blocking the Little Creek road. Atlas & Hercules were both off on some errand so the state road had to bring equipment to move the boulder. No doubt Buddy Bell was glad that the road kept it from coming down near his abode.
Gary Dickens suffered a stroke the other evening and refused immediate medical treatment. The next day a helicopter took him to Morgantown but he did not survive. It was said that he was 63. There will be a benefit for his expenses Saturday March 8 at Shade Tree from noon to 6 P. M. There will be a dip & donate, etc.
The warmer weather in February allowed for a few chickweed flowers & some very tiny jill over the ground blossoms.
A local resident had occasion to attend to business in the Morgantown area and learned that the potholes on I-79 put those on I-77 to shame. One Morgantown area resident who has family in Wirt County noted that she was not going to get new tires for her chariot until they were fixed. It appeared that some of the “imperfections in the surface of the roadway” were being addressed near Clarksburg.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) ruled that Mother Hope can change customers on their gathering lines from natural gas to propane or electric. There are said to be 629 impacted families including a number of Creston residents. The PSC said there would have to be public meetings in 19 counties but there would not be one in Calhoun County. Mother Hope, part of the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire, wants to abandon 1,068 miles of gathering lines including at least two big lines in the Creston area. A hearing on that will be held May14, 2025, starting at 9:30 A. M. At the PSC headquarters in Charleston. At a previous PSC meeting the lines to be abandoned were kept secret. The economic impact of the proposed abandonments would be significant, putting it mildly. At the prior meeting in Grantsville the Hope PR man told about all the woes dealing with the old EQT (Equitable Gas, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, Carnegie Natural Gas/ U S Steel) lines they acquired in other parts of the state. Old Hope men who were at that meeting noted that company biggies were noted for their bloviating skills. The legislature is now in session. Will they speak up and act on behalf of the citizens or will they listen to the slicksters who, in their spare time, sell refrigerators to the Esquimeaux.
Detroit based DT Midstream announced that they would be supplying natural gas to the proposed new power plant in Pleasants County.
It was learned that David Goff passed away. Burial will be at Ground Hog.
On May 21 there will be the Appalachian AI Energy Conference at the Hilton Garden Hotel at Southpointe [Canonsburg, Pennsylvania]. EQT’s Toby Rice says that the lion’s share of energy to run the AI facilities will be supplied by natural gas from Marcellus & Utica wells.
Reflecting the new day in America the congress voted to abolish the “methane tax” promoted by Broadway Joe Manchin & his pal Joe Biden. The tax was to be $1,500/ton.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude dropped to $68.76/bb. With condensate fetching only $50.76/bbl. While Marcellus & Utica light brought $57.76/bbl. While the spot price of natural gas was in the $4 range the Henry Hub January price was $3.044 with DTI (Mother Hope) at $2.602 and TCO (Columbia) at $2.792. Y grade condensate was $32/266/bbl.
