Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from James Lykins - Hilliard Lyons
James Lykins - Hilliard Lyons
A couple of questions about Fort Necessity if you could give us any idea about the timing of the negotiations or is there any chance of this moving forward or are you just looking to sell at this point?
Bob Best
We’ve said publicly before that as we’ve looked at our capital needs for the longer term and as Fred outlined this morning we felt like it wouldn’t be with all the other capital requirements we have on our system that it would probably be better for someone else to develop that story.
Secondly we’re not in the storage development business so again thought that it would be better for us to not go forward with the expenditures that we would have to make to develop the storage. We’re continuing to negotiate, we don’t have anything to announce today. We remain hopeful that we would be able to reach agreement and sell the Fort Necessity property.
James Lykins - Hilliard Lyons
I know you can’t comment specifically but if you do go forward with the sale of Fort Necessity are there some other storage projects that you might be looking at or do you think you might focus on pipeline. If you could give us any kind of feel for what type of projects to maybe expect over the next year or so or what the next catalyst might be.
Bob Best
We would not intend to be in the storage development project business. Our focus is going to be mainly on our pipeline, we’d still feel longer term because of where we’re positioned in Texas in the shale area that there’s going to be some good opportunities for project development there. As well as focusing on our other utility business where I think we still feel particularly in the Metroplex in Dallas that as housing industry comes back that we’ll have some good growth in our residential market. Right now its fairly stagnant but we feel confident long term that that will be growth engine for us too.
James Lykins - Hilliard Lyons
Is there anything else out there that you’re looking at now for what could be next with rate design?
Bob Best
Our concentration really for a very long time now has been on insulating our sales from weather and also getting bad debt and our rates to the extent that we’re allowed to and I think we’ve done that to over 60% of our customer base. Also, working on de-coupling and frankly working on mechanisms that allow us. In our three largest states the mechanisms that Fred described to you allow us to make our recoveries on a very timely basis.
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