The American Petroleum Institute convened its annual State of American Energy event, bringing together industry leaders, policymakers and market analysts to examine the forces shaping America’s energy future as demand accelerates at home and abroad. In his keynote address, API President and CEO Mike Sommers outlined the policy choices he said will determine whether …
January 15, 2026 archive
$7 million fiber optics line project half-way completed at Hollis
Sometime early this year, Pioneer Telephone Cooperative anticipates completion of a $7 million, 200-mile fiber line that it started in 2024 in southwestern Oklahoma. The company started working on the fiber optics line in late 2024 around the Hollis area, a project involving 218-miles. The Lawton Constitution reported that as of last week, …
Energy briefs
** A federal judge rules the Trump administration acted illegally when it canceled $7.6 billion in federal grants for clean energy projects in 16 Democratic-leaning states, including Colorado, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. ** Rival carrier T-Mobile piled on as Verizon struggled through a massive nationwide outage on Wednesday, telling customers its own network …
Supreme Court rejects challenge to New Mexico nuclear site
Supreme Court declines challenge to New Mexico nuclear fuel site The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a legal challenge to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensing of a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in southeast New Mexico, ending the latest judicial effort to block the project at the federal level. …
$6 billion data center for Little Rock
A data center project proposed around Little Rock could be the state’s largest economic development project in state history with a price tag of $6 billion. Avaio Digital of Connecticut announced the project will be bilt on nearly 800 wooded acres near Interstate 530 in Pulaski County and construction could begin in the …
Yukon City council approves another step toward data center
A proposed $1 billion data center in Yukon continues drawing questions from residents who again raised their voices at a meeting this week of the Yukon City Council. Some residents again spoke against the project as council members voted Tuesday 4-1 to the creation of a new class in the city Code of Ordinances …
Governor criticizes AG’s poultry pollution lawsuit settlement
Oklahoma’s Governor used the settlement by Attorney General with one of the firms sued over the poultry litter pollution of the Illinois Water Shed to suggest the AG should have done it years ago. “I am glad to see Attorney General Drummond’s first settlement reflects the guardrails I put in my letter to him on …
Google behind another Arkansas data center
Google Accelerates Data Center Expansion in Arkansas, Near Oklahoma Google is moving aggressively to expand its data center footprint across the central United States, with major projects advancing in Arkansas while new developments also take shape just across the Oklahoma state line. The expansion comes the same week it was confirmed that Google plans to …
Coal ash still in dispute from coal-fired power plants
EPA Move Reignites Coal Ash Disposal Controversy While Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality is in charge of coal ash from the state’s coal-fired power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to let 11 coal plants around the U.S. dump toxic coal ash into unlined pits for the next five years. The EPA decision …