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State Ag Secretary Says Pruitt’s a Good Pick to be EPA Chief
Add Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Jim Reese to the list of those supporting Donald Trump’s nomination of Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next leader of the Environmental Protection Agency. Reese issued a statement this week saying the ultra-green environmental groups won’t get the Armageddon they predict “It won’t be Armageddon, but a major dust …
Senators Targeted to Block Pruitt’s EPA Nomination
Donald Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt promises to be one of the more controversial confirmation hearings in his new administration and opponents have already laid out their plans. For instance, the Sierra Club has started a five-figure, online ad campaign in a bid to convince seven Republican and three moderate Democratic Senators …
Smithsonian Magazine Targeted by Greens
Environmentalists aren’t just critical of oil and gas and coal operations in Oklahoma and across the country, but now one group has targeted Smithsonian magazine. It’s considered one of the nicest slick-magazine productions in the country. But Green America contends Smithsonian’s 19 million magazines produced a year should be printed on recycled paper, a move …
Bribery Fight Takes Another Step at Supreme Court Level
The fight over a 1989 bribed Corporation Commission vote took another step late Friday as ATT filed a motion with the State Supreme Court to suppress some 4,000 pages of documents that detail the bribe by a late Southwestern Bell Telephone company attorney of a sitting Corporation Commissioner and of corporation commission staff. ATT filed …
City of El Reno Sells Airpark Mineral Rights for $4.8 million
The city of El Reno recently raked in $4.8 million over the competitive bidding for the three-year lease rights to minerals on the City’s Airpark. Haggard Land Company based in Oklahoma City cast the winning bid offering $15,000 per acre and a 20 percent royalty on any oil or natural gas it pulls from beneath …
Rig Numbers Soar Nationally but Slip in Oklahoma
National rig counts soared in the past week, climbing by 27 while the number of active oil and gas rigs in Oklahoma slipped by one, according to the last information from Houston-based Baker Hughes Company. The national count swelled to 624 including 21 more oil rigs to reach a total of 498. The number of …
US House Passes Water Bill that Includes Settlement of Oklahoma Water Fight
The Water Bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House included the Oklahoma Water Rights Settlement between Oklahoma City, the state of Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation. It was a deal reached earlier in the year and announced by Gov. Mary Fallin. The measure, formally known as the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation …
Pruitt Faces a Tough and Likely Dirty Battle Ahead to Be Confirmed as EPA Chief
“A full-fledged environmental emergency.” “A professional climate denier.” “This is a four-alarm fire.” Those are comments from Democrats in the U.S. Senate in describing Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and his nomination to be the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. But as E and E News reported in its recent Climate Wire, Republicans …
No Letup in Drilling Requests for Oklahoma’s STACK
Interest has yet to wane in Oklahoma’s STACK as the number of requests for permits to drill in the three-county area totaled 30 over the past week. A review of the permits as published by OK Energy Today shows the heaviest interest is in Kingfisher county where 14 permits were requested of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in the …
Pruitt Promises Rule of Law to be Respected Under a new EPA
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s already giving an indication of the changes coming at the Environmental Protection Agency if and when he is confirmed to be the new chief administrator. In a Thursday morning interview with Radio Oklahoma Network affiliate KWON, Pruitt explained his fight with the EPA is based on overreach. “It’s this view …