Rob:  Well the Oklahoma Corporation Commission regulates Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry, walking that fine line of protecting the consumer while promoting the industry.  Earlier, I visited with the newest member of Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission, Dana Murphy.  So commissioner Murphy how closely tied is the success of Oklahoma with the success of our oil and gas industry.
Dana Murphy:  I think it’s directly and indirectly tied in many ways.  Most people don’t realize that, you know one of seven jobs in Oklahoma comes directly or indirectly from the oil and gas business.  Most people don’t realize that almost a seventh of our budget has been provided by taxes on the oil and gas industry.  It’s just an incredible dynamic of how important the oil and gas industry is to Oklahoma now and in the future as well.
Rob:  And this is very much a natural gas state.  Explain that to us.
Murphy:  Well, primarily, Oklahoma early on in our history, you know oil drilling and producing oil was very important.  We still have oil now; I think in the United States we are the fifth largest producer of oil as far as states go.  Natural gas is really the wave of the future, as far as generating of electricity, as far as looking at it as a transportation fuel, especially considering you know that it’s clean burning, environmentally sound and that we have an abundance of it.
Rob:  Yeah, and it’s been the decline in the natural gas price that’s really been hard on our entire state.
Murphy:  It’s really been challenging.  I think you know the downside of it is our supplies are up so high compared to where they’ve been you know in many, many years that’s caused some of the price to go down.  But the flip side of that, or the good side of that is you know people were talking about we’re running out of natural gas, well we just continue to prove, especially with the advent of horizontal drilling that there are many more reserves than we originally thought.
Rob:  So it certainly sounds like our energy future is definitely ahead of us.
Murphy:  Yeah, I mean it certainly is.  I mean the beauty of Oklahoma, we’re positioned geographically in a good place in the United States for transmission lines and shipping power through to other states as well as developing our own wind, our natural gas resources, we’re still using oil as well here at OSU as well, you know bio fuels and switch grass.  And solar development really hasn’t taken off here in Oklahoma, but that may also be coming in the future as well.
Rob:  All right, Commissioner Murphy, thank you so much for joining us.
Murphy:  Thank you.