THE OHIO VALLEY DIGEST — Thursday, May 7, 2026

Your daily news brief for the Ohio Valley.

The day in one paragraph

Two days after Tuesday's primary, the dust is settling and the bills are coming due. AEP's CEO told analysts Tuesday that the company is openly considering leaving the regional grid operator that sets the floor for everyone's electric bill — and that for new West Virginia data-center loads, AEP may build power outside the regulated rate base entirely. Diesel is hovering near six dollars a gallon, and school superintendents at Union Local in Belmont County, in Ohio County, and in Marshall County are quietly drawing up which field trips get cut next year if the pump price doesn't ease over summer. The Trinity-to-UPMC handoff in Steubenville is now formal — the definitive agreement was signed Monday, and roughly 200,000 patients will move to a Pittsburgh-based system this fall. Wheeling starts the final paving on its long-running downtown Streetscape project Monday. And in Belmont County, voters made history by 27 votes — Union Local Schools' first new-money levy since 1989 squeaked through.

What happened this week

AEP says it might leave PJM — and might build the next round of West Virginia power outside the regulated rate base. On Tuesday's quarterly earnings call, AEP CEO Bill Fehrman told analysts the company is reviewing its options for staying in PJM Interconnection (the regional grid operator that sets the floor for retail rates across eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia) — and "those options include leaving." Fehrman said new data-center demand in AEP's footprint reaches 63 gigawatts by 2030, with 16 gigawatts of that in PJM. For new West Virginia loads, he said AEP is also considering an unregulated "genco" model — building power for hyperscaler customers outside the public utility commission's ratepayer-protection framework. AEP's residential customers across the region are already projected for about 3.5% annual rate increases through 2030. PJM separately published a structural-reform paper Wednesday acknowledging the system is in "disequilibrium" — one of three reform paths it laid out would, in the document's own language, build a framework that differentiates between customers who can and cannot be cut off.

Six-dollar diesel is putting pressure on every school bus garage in the Valley. The Intelligencer's Brent Polen got the bus-garage story straight from Union Local Superintendent Zac Shutler, Ohio County operations director David Crumm, and Marshall County shop foreman Nate Lilley: tank capacity, contract pricing through Belmont-Carson Petroleum and BFS Petroleum, and the conversation about whether reward field trips survive next year. National retail diesel averaged $5.64 a gallon last week; Ohio's average is closer to $5.84; some Mahoning Valley stations have already crossed six dollars.

Trinity Health System will become UPMC this fall. CommonSpirit Health and UPMC signed a definitive agreement Monday transferring Trinity West, Trinity East, the Trinity St. Clairsville Neighborhood Hospital, Trinity Twin City Medical Center in Dennison, and the outpatient and physician network. Closing pending regulatory review. UPMC's first Ohio expansion. Mayor Ralph Petrella welcomed it.

Wheeling starts the last paving on its Streetscape project May 11. Triton Construction of St. Albans, West Virginia is laying the final coat on 16th, Eoff and Chapline streets between the post office and Stone Center — a project originally bid four years ago at $31.9 million and now carrying a $38.27 million price tag.

A Mingo Junction man was sentenced to four-and-a-half years. Tyler Vannest, 35, got the maximum from Judge Joseph Bruzzese for a May 2024 incident in which his ex-wife and another family member jumped from a second-floor window to escape after he threatened to kill everyone in the house and went to retrieve a gun. Prosecutor Jane Hanlin told the court the response likely prevented a murder-suicide. A Jefferson County grand jury also indicted seven people Wednesday, including a Dillonvale man on rape and sexual battery charges and a Steubenville man on weapons-under-disability charges from a March 28 incident outside Enzo's.

Bridgeport readies for America 250. Mayor Norma Teasdale will close South Lincoln Avenue from the fountain to Hall Street on July 5 — food trucks, music from 3:15 to 10 p.m., fireworks at dusk. Lisa Hertler, an Erb Electric employee and 18-year resident, volunteered eight hours to repaint the fountain blue.

What might cost you more (or less) this week

Diesel. $5.84 statewide average in Ohio, with stations hitting $6.15 in spots. Refining issues in the Great Lakes region are the main driver. Trucking, contracting, school transportation, and grocery costs all flow through this number.

Electric bills. PJM, the regional grid operator that sets the floor for what Ohio Edison, AEP Ohio, and Mon Power can charge, told the press Wednesday it is considering three options for handling the data-center demand surge — including possibly shrinking its capacity market and creating a tier of customers "that can be cut off." Whatever PJM picks at its next auction shows up in your bill the following year. The same week, AEP told analysts it might leave PJM altogether (see above).

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday that AEP doesn't have to refund the $74.5 million it collected from ratepayers under the HB 6 coal-plant subsidies. That money is gone. The active fight now is over a $1.1 billion AEP–FirstEnergy joint transmission project at FERC.

Names to know this week

• Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) won re-nomination in Ohio's 96th House District; faces Democrat Charrie Foglio in November.
• Mike Rulli (R-Salem) won the OH-6 GOP primary; Democrat Elizabeth Kirtley of New Philadelphia won a six-way Democratic primary that surprised the room.
• Stephanie Lang, a former Fort Frye school-board member, defeated incumbent Eddie Place 4,296 to 3,020 for the Republican nomination for Washington County Commissioner.
• Kevin Flanagan, the Belmont County prosecutor, won the Republican Common Pleas judge nomination over Michael McCormick of Bethesda 3,095 to 1,050; he will replace retiring Judge John Vavra.
• Josh Meyer ousted incumbent Belmont County Auditor Cindi Henry by 511 votes.

This weekend in the Valley

• Saturday — West Liberty University commencement. First graduating class of the Doctor of Education program (eight doctorates). Stephanie Shaw of IHG keynotes; student speaker Ryan Zumpano of Shadyside graduates with a 4.0.
• Saturday — Bethany College commencement. Bob Orr addresses graduates and receives an honorary degree.
• Tonight — "Night of Hope" at St. Clairsville High School. One-man volleyball world-record-holder Bob Holmes plays student athletes; Dr. Scott Pauley speaks. The St. Clairsville district has lost four students to suicide in the past four years.
• Today — Belmont County Courthouse hosts the National Day of Prayer at 11:45 a.m.
• Save the date: July 5 — Bridgeport's America 250 celebration on South Lincoln Avenue.

In the longer view

A short ProPublica podcast called Trillion Dollar Time Bomb got significant column space in the Harrison News-Herald this week. The episode lays out a startling statistic: about 96% of the roughly 3 billion gallons of oilfield wastewater produced daily in the United States goes to injection wells. Some Ohio communities are pushing for moratoriums on those wells because of contamination concerns. Harrison County is in the heart of the Utica/Marcellus injection-well belt — the fact that the local paper is running it as straight feature coverage is itself news.

Got a tip, an obituary, or something we should know about? Reply here or send an email to tips@ohiovalleydigest.org — it goes straight to Jeremy.

The Ohio Valley Digest covers Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison, Columbiana, Monroe, Noble, Morgan, Guernsey, and Washington (OH) counties; Marshall, Wetzel, Ohio, Brooke, and Hancock (WV).