THE BEARD COMPANY                                             News Release
Enterprise Plaza, Suite 320
   5600 North May Avenue                                Herb Mee, Jr., President
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112
(405) 842-2333  OTCBB: BRCO
     www.beardco.com

                               starpay.com, l.l.c.
                               FILES SUIT AGAINST
                     VISA INTERNATIONAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION
                                  AND VISA USA


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Friday, May 9, 2003

     Oklahoma City Oklahoma --- The Beard Company  (OTCBB:BRCO)  today announced
that its 71%-owned subsidiary, starpay.com(TM),  l.l.c., has filed a suit in the
U. S.  District  Court for the  Northern  District  of Texas,  Dallas  Division,
against Visa International Service Association and Visa USA, both doing business
as Visa.

     starpay and VIMachine,  Inc., have filed the suit as co-Plaintiffs  against
Visa. starpay is the holder of one U.S. Patent and has three patent applications
pending which cover various Internet payment methods and security  technologies.
VIMachine is the holder of a U.S. Patent (the  "VIMachine  Patent") that covers,
among other things, an improved method of authenticating the cardholder involved
in an Internet payment transaction. The suit seeks damages and injunctive relief
(i) related to Visa's willful  infringement of the VIMachine Patent;  (ii) under
common law and  statutory  doctrines of  misappropriation  or theft of starpay's
intellectual  property and/or trade secrets;  and (iii) related to Visa's breach
of certain confidentiality agreements.

     Marc Messner,  starpay's  President,  developed a contractual  relationship
between  starpay  and  VIMachine  to  pursue  business  opportunities  involving
cardholder  authentication for Internet payments. As stated by Messner, "It just
made sense for us to combine  our strong  intellectual  property  portfolios  to
pursue common interests in providing security technologies to eliminate consumer
repudiation of Internet  payment  transactions and potentially save the industry
billions of dollars."

     During the first quarter of 2000  starpay's  technology was relayed to Visa
verbally,  in  face-to-face  conferences,  telephone  calls,  in e-mails  and in
regular  correspondence.  The  suit  alleges  that,  after  receiving  starpay's
technology and ideas,  Visa filed a provisional  patent  application in April of
2000 using  information  supplied by starpay.  The suit also alleges that Visa's
payer authentication service ("VPAS") infringes the VIMachine Patent. From early
2000 until recently, starpay tried on several occasions to enter into meaningful
negotiations with Visa to resolve their intellectual property concerns. Visa has
continually  denied their  infringement  of the  VIMachine  Patent and starpay's
assertion that Visa has appropriated  starpay's  technology.  "As a result, Visa
left us no  alternative  but to file this  litigation  in order to preserve  our
rights in this matter," Messner concluded.

     In November of 2000 Visa  publicly  announced  that it was testing VPAS. In
September of 2001 Visa stated that,  once rolled out globally,  it expected VPAS
to reduce Internet  payment disputes by at least 50%.  Plaintiffs  allege in the
suit that, based upon Visa's  transaction  volume of about $2 trillion per year,
this could easily  result in savings of $100  million or more per year.  VPAS is
the payment system currently being widely  advertised as "Verified by Visa" with
Emmit Smith as a spokesperson.

     The Beard Company's  common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under
the  symbol:  BRCO.  Its  operations  consist  principally  of coal  reclamation
activities,  carbon dioxide (CO2) gas production, the construction of composting
plants in China,  and its  e-commerce  activities  aimed at developing  business
opportunities to leverage starpay's  intellectual property portfolio of Internet
payment methods and security technologies.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Edward L. White
Edward L. White, P.C.
Email:  ewhite@resourceful.com
Telephone:  (405) 810-8188