Business

CANADIAN—Ed Hedgecoke, financial advisor, and Kinsey Burrus, associate financial advisor, both with Ameriprise Financial, recently changed the name of their practice to Hedgecoke and Burrus Financial Advisory Group, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, located at 123 N. 3rd St. in Canadian.

AUSTIN—During the pandemic, Texans headed back to nature in record numbers, with more people visiting state parks, hunting, fishing, and boating than ever before. A new congressional proposal aims to tap that exploding interest by investing more than $50 million per year in Texas for wildlife recovery and related public education and recreation, a move expected to boost the state’s already booming nature-based economy into overdrive.

AUSTIN—In another move to take advantage of improvements in technologies, the Railroad Commission this week launched its new Pipeline Inspection Permitting Evaluation System (RRC PIPES). RRC PIPES is a centralized cloud-based portal, which streamlines agency processes and provides a valuable tool for RRC’s pipeline safety staff and operators to upload documents, including inspection and incident reports, and complaints, while automatically making more documents available to the public.

President Joe Biden signed a new executive order on Friday that could have broad impacts on agriculture and corporate business, covering competition in various industries. While the executive order covers a wide range of industries, specifically to agriculture, a fact sheet [see link below] from the White House says the order:

AUSTIN—The Texas Railroad Commission issued a total of 739 original drilling permits in June 2021, compared to 312 in June 2020. The June 2021 total includes 638 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, seven to reenter plugged well bores, and 84 for recompletions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for original drilling permits in June 2021 is 171 oil, 37 gas, 501 oil or gas, 24 injection, and six other permits. RRC staff processed 507 oil, 158 gas, and 128 injection completions for new drills, reentries, and recompletions, compared to 1,031 oil, 300 gas, and 371 injection completions in June 2020. Total well completions processed for 2021 year-to-date for new drills, re-entries, and recompletions are 4,155 compared to 7,930 recorded during the same period in 2020. In the Panhandle area, 10 permits to drill new oil/gas holes were issued and seven new gas completions were reported during the month. Detailed data on drilling permits and well completions can be found online at www.rrc.texas.gov.

AUSTIN—Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today he will send cities, counties, transit systems, and specialpurpose taxing districts $893.2 million in local sales tax allocations for July, 20 percent more than in July 2020. These allocations are based on sales made in May by businesses that report tax monthly.

COLLEGE STATION—“A feverish demand for land, accompanied by a dearth of listings for sale, propelled Texas prices up a remarkable 16.29 percent in the second quarter,” says Dr. Charles Gilliland, a land expert for the Texas Real Estate Research Center (TRERC) at Texas A&M University.

A warm welcome is extended to Madison Campbell who has been hired as an assistant family and community health agent for Hemphill County. She is a native of New Braunfels and a recent graduate of Texas Tech University, with a degree in animal science. Hemphill County was selected by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service as a training site for new Extension agents. This site selection was based on current productivity, results of programing, and the experience of our Hemphill County Extension agents, Tanya and Andy Holloway. Campbell’s position is being funded by the state through Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Her primary training focus will be on 4-H and adult, family, and community health programming. Campbell will be in training for a period of six months to two years, as she prepares to go into a county as a full-time agent. “I am extremely excited and blessed to be the new assistant Extension agent in Hemphill County,” she said. “I look forward to serving and working with this community.”

AUSTIN—Crude oil and natural gas production as reported to the Railroad Commission of Texas for April 2021 came from 166,794 oil wells and 85,647 gas wells. The RRC reports that from May 2020 to April 2021, total Texas reported production was 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil and 10.0 trillion cubic feet of total gas. Crude oil production reported by the RRC is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate, which is reported separately by the RRC.

WASHINGTON—More than $1 billion in payments will be released over the next several weeks, starting June 15, for agricultural producers with approved applications for the Quality Loss Adjustment (QLA) program and for producers who have already received payments through the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+). These U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs provide disaster assistance to producers who suffered losses to 2018 and 2019 natural disasters.