Representative Rean

Meeting — March 11, 2011 (40:05)

The natural gas companies are drilling new wells. Is that correct? Yes. Across this geographic area. Yes. Okay. So whether we deal with this now or we deal with it later, Arkansas is going to have to deal with the damage to these roads. And right now, we're staring at $324 million. Correct. Okay. I have no further questions, Mr. Chair. President Rice, you recognize.

Meeting — March 11, 2011 (39:33)

Whether we come up with it now or we come up with it later, we've got $324 million in damage that we're going to have to come up with. That's correct. Okay. I've got my arms around that, around the fiscal impact of that. Now, if we do nothing, we've got 812 miles of damaged road. If we continue doing what we're doing, will we have more than 812 miles of damaged road? I suspect we will. Okay. Because we are drilling every day.

Meeting — March 11, 2011 (38:56)

And so far, because of the severance tax, we've collected $35 million. Is that correct? Yes, sir. So we've got $420 million left that we're going to have to try to get to recoup those roads. Is that correct? Yes, sir. And according to these figures here, we're going to collect another $96 million projected over, okay. So that's still going to leave us with $316 million, or I'm sorry, $324 million that we're going to have to come up with.

Meeting — March 11, 2011 (38:25)

so I'm sure these questions are going to be a little bit repetitive, but it's something I'd like to know. These figures I've got sitting in front of me are from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. Are these engineers that are looking at this damage and determining how much it is? Yes, sir. Okay. And currently we've got 812 miles of damaged road. Is that correct? Yes, sir. That's our estimate. Okay, your estimate. And the cost of that damage is $455 million, correct? Yes, sir.

Meeting — March 11, 2011 (38:20)

a question. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Flowers, I'm trying to get my hands around this,