The city of Lawton is considering extraordinary means to help fill water supplies. City leaders hope a man with an airplane can manipulate the weather and bring more rain.
Oklahoma Gas & Electric's coal-fired Sooner Plant in Red Rock, Okla.
Oklahoma Gas and Electric — the state’s largest utility — and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt fought the EPA’s new Clean Air Act regulations for years before being left with no choice but to comply.
Now, after being beaten back in court, OG&E is asking the state Corporation Commission for permission to increase customer electricity rates so it has the money it says is needed to convert coal-fired units at its Muskogee Plant to natural gas, and install air scrubbers at its Sooner Plant. Continue Reading →
The Oklahoma House of Representatives on Monday voted 89-0 to approve proposed legislation that would significantly reduce the amount of tax incentives paid to the wind industry.
Sears said the bill in its current form would reduce by about 70 percent the amount of tax credits wind producers receive, although he acknowledged discussions with the industry are ongoing on the final amount. The credits are paid based on the amount of electricity produced by the facilities.
Oklahoma’s 2012 Water for 2060 Act set a goal of not using more water in 2060 than the state used in 2012. To that end, grants are available to communities that want to implement drought mitigation or conservation measures that save water.
The Boise City Public Works Authority will receive $135,000 to save about 1.1 million gallons per year. The Fort Supply Public Works Authority will receive $397,700 that will save about 3.7 million gallons of water per year. The town of Shattuck will receive a $500,000 grant to save about 12.3 million gallons per year.
Austin Holland with the Oklahoma Geological Survey briefs Corporation Commissioners on new earthquake research.
Despite long-held suspicions that the state’s earthquake surge was linked to oil and gas activity, the Oklahoma Geological Survey stayed silent amid pressure from oil company executives, EnergyWire reports. Continue Reading →
Earthquake magnitude estimations often vary wildly between the Oklahoma Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The OGS usually reports smaller earthquakes than its federal counterpart. Since 2010, the OGS reported smaller numbers than the USGS “more than half of the time for earthquakes of magnitude 3.8 and higher,” the Tulsa World’s Ziva Branstetter and Curtis Killman report.
Here’s why:
There are two basic ways to calculate earthquake magnitude. The local magnitude, also known as the Richter scale, is accurate for smaller quakes, while moment magnitude is generally used for larger quakes but is more difficult to compute, according to the USGS.
A panel discussion at the University of Tulsa’s College of Law urged “greater transparency, collaboration and community involvement if the state is to realize its potential as one of the nation’s biggest wind producers,” Paul Monies reports.
As wind farm development has moved from the rural, western part of the state to areas closer to population centers, concerns are arising over siting, noise and the effects on views for neighboring landowners. That’s tended to divide people into pro-wind and anti-wind camps, said Jason Aamodt, assistant dean of online legal education at TU’s law school. “We need to move beyond the rhetoric to real decision-making,” Aamodt said. “It gets into sustainable development, with the triple bottom line of economic development, environmental conservation and social development.”
Tammy and Rick Huffstutlar have spoken out against wind farm development near their home in Calument, Okla.
A bill adding new regulations and oversight of Oklahoma’s booming wind industry passed a House committee on Tuesday.
House Bill 1549, one of several bills filed in the 2015 Legislature that target the wind industry, places limits on where companies can build new wind farms. The proposed measure would prevent new wind farms from being built near schools, hospitals or airports.
The bill was written by Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville. He says landowners and the wind industry were consulted when crafting the legislation. Continue Reading →
Attendees listen as former Missouri state senator Wes Shoemeyer speaks against Amendment 1 at the Missouri’s Food for America sign-making event at Café Berlin Friday, June 27, 2014 in Columbia, Missouri.
Oklahoma voters have at least a year before seeing ads for and against state questions on the ballot in November 2016. But you might want to get used to hearing this phrase now: right-to-farm.
It’s a divisive nationalissue that’s made its way to the Sooner State, one that puts agriculture at odds with environmentalists and animal rights advocates.
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