Flurry of activity during second week of legislative session

The second week of session got started with a flurry of activity, as usual. We have yet to hear any bills on the House floor, but committee meeting agendas are full of bills moving through the system. My certified meats bill will be heard in the Agriculture Committee this week, and others are ready to be heard. Next week will be more committee meetings, then I anticipate full speed ahead on the floor.

Last Friday, I attended the Oklahoma Hospital Association’s southeast regional meeting in McAlester. Many items were discussed including Medicare reimbursement, managed care and a host of other topics. The main issue facing our rural hospitals is the ability to cope with the rising cost of everything, mostly personnel as they compete for staff to operate their facilities.

I had a very good impromptu meeting with the field representative of Red Earth Energy. The field rep allowed me to ask a number of questions on a wide array of subjects but mostly on the formation of several windmill farms in and around our district. Their role is to secure landowner leases for the possible placements of wind turbines in an area from Kiowa to Haileyville. This is the first step in a multi-phase project, with the next step being conducting environmental and air space impact studies to determine if these windmills are even possible and feasible. This should take no longer than five years to complete. The rep specified that more often than not these farms do not come to fruition. I do believe that regardless of a particular farm coming online or not that some of this activity will be present in southeast Oklahoma in the future.

As always, thank you for allowing me to serve you. I can be reached by telephone at (405) 557-7381 or by e-mail at jim.grego@okhouse.gov.

Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Latimer County and parts of LeFlore and Pittsburg counties.