Elected to the State House on his opposition to wind and solar farm expansion in Lincoln County, Chandler Rep. Jim Shaw says the end of the legislative session, his first year in office, was “disappointing and very eye opening.”
In a statement following Friday’s sine die declaration, the Republican Representative also said he found the experience to be “surprisngly encouraging.”
“The legislature this year has been faced with issues and pressure that as a body they’ve never had to address before, and I believe the actions taken – and not taken – have been scrutinized more than ever before. This sets us up for next session where we’ll have an opportunity to again push hard for conservative legislation that will be important for legislators to be on the right side of in the upcoming election cycle,” he wrote in a statement following the end of the session.
What disappointed him?
“This session, despite good bills being put forth, and a public outcry for them to be enacted:
• We had zero regulations put on the use of humanure on Oklahoma farmland.
• We had zero regulations put on the industrial solar industry as well as battery storage.
• We had yet another show bill passed that does NOT criminalize or deter hostile foreign ownership of our land.”
Shaw said there was one measure that passed that he supported.
“We did get a minor regulation on the wind industry in a light mitigation bill, SB713. While we of course hoped for much more, something is most of the time better than nothing.”
He also urged his followers to watch for the bill number on future mailers during the upcoming “campaign season” because a candidate might claim to have “regulated the wind industry.” Rep. Shaw advised his supporters to check the voting record for his amendment on HB2751 to see who actually voted on the side of grassroots on the issue.
