 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The federally mandated "fast time" has started already which means that biological clocks will, once again, have to be reset to please the rulers in Washington, Dee Cee.
Rev. Keith Belt filled his regular appointment at the Burning Springs M. E. Church. Rev. Carlos Nutter will bring the message next Sunday.
Charles Russell is doing well after undergoing a skin graft at the West Penn Burn Center in Pittsburgh. Charlie has won the hearts of the entire crew in the burn unit. His brother Euell reported that he had contracted pink eye but was undergoing treatment.
While the local area had rain and minor flooding spring continues to march along. Local residents as well as folks all over the world are shocked at the death & destruction caused by the powerful earthquake in Japan which sits on the "ring of fire" The coastline was moved 8 feet in about two minutes which caused a devastating tsunami. One thing for sure, there are certain advantages to living far away from the ocean in the protecting hills of the Little Kanawha valley. It is apparent that the nuclear power plants there were not designed for an 8.9 quake on the Richter scale followed by a deadly tsunami. Apparently American nuclear plants are designed for earthquakes in the 6 to 7.5 range. The Richter scale is logarithmic which mens that the next higher number is ten times stronger.
War & bloodshed continue in Libya where the dictator there has strong ties to one of Madame Hillary's closest advisors as well as Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the big eared one's spiritual advisor for over 20 years and Nation of Islam leader Calypso Louie Farrakhan. Now, even the Arab league wants him out but the U. S. is still studying, talking and considering sanctions. The war there has increased the price of crude. North Sea crude has been in the $112 - 120 range while West Texas Intermediate, the basis for local crude price has been about $10/bbl less for "hard to explain" reasons as well as the moribund U. S. economy, political speech aside. Presently local Pennsylvania grade crude is $97.25. At the same time the price of gasoline continues to march to the "magic" $4/gallon marker with some anticipating $5. Professor Chu, the big eared one's energy secretary, has said he wants gasoline to go to $8/gallon to depress consumption and force automobiles off the road and change the way Americans live.
As a result of the federal moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico many of the drill rigs there went to other nations including Brazil where deep ocean drilling for oil is being financed by a "loan of a few billion" from American taxpayers. Of course George Soros is a big investor in the Brazilian state run oil company. Closer to home folks are trying to produce oil domestically. The big success story is the Bakken shale in North Dakota and now it seems that some of the deep Utica shale may yield oil. Lawrence H. Wickstron, Chief of the Ohio Geological Survey calculated that there might be 1.9 billion barrells of recoverable oil in the Utica just in the state of Ohio along with 3.75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. While Wood County, W. Va. has the Utica it apparently is not present in Wirt, Calhoun, Gilmer & Roane Counties but is present in northern Ritchie County and counties to the north and east. The Utica is on top of the Trenton and thus, in West Virginia would, very likely only produce gas.
Range Resources has a Utica well in Pennsylvania that makes 4.4 million/day and Chesapeake's horizontal well in Ohio is presently being fracked. Consolidation Coal (the outfit that purchased part of the assets of Mother Hope) was drilling a disposal well in Ohio and ended up with a natural in the Uitca that makes 1.5 million/day. Because of the glut in natural gas the price of gas is not following the historical trend of reflecting the price of crude. When converted the present crude oil price would indicate that natural gas should be $15/mcf instead of $3 -$4/mcf.
While the wizards in Washington try to plan for us and make us "go green" it should be noted that, in spite of all the hype, renewable energy, that is to say wind, solar and "organic waste" amount to 0.2% [two tenths of one percent] of America's energy. Nuclear power's percentage is down as is oil but presently coal has taken up the slack although, at least in W. Va. the Big Boss who is now the Big Eared One's yes man senator had the legislature vote to reduce coal use by 25% which is to be made up with "non-traditional" sources of which natural gas can only be 2.5%. Perhaps he had in mind the able bodied who draw SSI turning hand cranks to make up the difference.
Former Wood County prosecutor Harry Dietzler brought a "class action" lawsuit against Junior Hildreth and certain of his companies although those who were impacted by the suit were completely unaware of the suit. Royalty owners who elect to participate in the class action will share $210,500 and then one can never sue Junior again over the "green thief", lack of metering of gas wells, meters that intentionally read incorrectly, etc. The suit is styled Groves vs Roy G. Hildreth & Son, Inc. No. 2:08-cv-00820 in Judge Joe Bob Goodwin's court in the Federal Court for Southern West Virginia. Judge Joe Bob interceded in the class action suits against Equitable and Dominion (Mother Hope) to protect his long time friends and political allies, the large out of state corporations.
As best as can be determined locally the "Marcellus shale bill" didn't make it through the august body that was meeting in regular session down at the Mouth of the Elk. Existing law in West Virginia is ill equipped to deal with the consequences of horizontal drilling on 10-15 acre well pads with immense ponds, etc.
| 
