Energy Executives Pushed Gov. Fallin for More Love in Public Remarks, Emails Show

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma

Gov. Mary Fallin speaking at the 2013 Governor's Energy Conference in Tulsa, Okla.

Executives of oil and coal companies pushed Gov. Mary Fallin to “pay more attention” to their industries in public remarks, according to state emails obtained by Greenwire.

The emails, obtained through the Oklahoma Open Records Act, detail internal discussions as Fallin’s prepared for the 2013 Governor’s Energy Conference, Manuel Quiñones and Mike Soraghan report.

Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm thought Fallin “wasn’t giving oil enough attention,” while Alliance Resource Partners CEO Joe Craft thought the governor “wasn’t focusing enough on coal”:

Fallin told policy adviser Andrew Silvestri that Continental Resources Inc. CEO Harold Hamm thought she wasn’t giving oil enough attention. And Alliance Resource Partners LP CEO Joe Craft thought she wasn’t focusing enough on coal.

Both Hamm and Craft, a native of eastern Kentucky, are prolific donors to political campaigns. Both gave money to Fallin’s election effort, state records show.

“Harold [H]amm felt like we don’t give oil its attention and [J]oe felt we give coal no attention,” Fallin wrote. “On coal I mention it on national terms as a mix of the energy resources.”

Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said the purpose of the conversation was to ensure her remarks reflected the philosophical balance of her “all of the above” plan for energy production, Greenwire reports:

Fallin has maintained the message. At the conference last year, Fallin said, “We are producing a lot of American-made energy here in our state. We’re also doing something some other states, maybe a majority of states, aren’t doing, and that is talking an all-of-the-above energy strategy.”