The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being sued by an environmental group for not moving quickly enough to offer more protections for the lesser prairie chicken that exists in Oklahoma, New Mexico and other states. The Center for Biological Diversity was critical of the government agency for not declaring the bird “endangered” in the …
Category: General
Crude oil rose on Wednesday after oil drawdown in US
A steeper than expected drawdown in U.S. crude stocks led to a slight increase in crude oil prices on Wednesday. Some Oklahoma energy stocks responded with strong trading for the day. Crude went up 1.5% after Wednesday’s six-month low. Analysts suggested the drawdown outweighed worries about increased Russian output and exports. West Texas …
Franchise tax issue on winter storm bonds to be considered
Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners might consider a vote Thursday morning on the issue that hundreds of millions of dollars in local and state taxes won’t be collected because of the bond securitization used by ONG, OGE, PSO and Summit Utilities in covering their 2021 Winter Storm Uri costs. The commission’s Public Utilities Division raised the …
Report contends U.S. including Oklahoma will get much, much hotter by 2053
Southern Oklahoma will suffer under event hotter weather in the coming decades with at least two counties in the southeast part of the state to endure more than 80 days of summer temperatures 100 degrees or greater. That’s according to a new report from First Street Foundation, a New York-based non-profit research and technology …
Political news group critical of Oklahoma Gov. Stitt over opposition to IRA
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has been accused of being one of a handful of Republican governors critical of the President’s Inflation Reduction Act while their states gain benefits from the measure signed into law on Tuesday. POLITICO suggested Stitt might be “hypocritical” about the IRA although the news organization known for its political coverage …
Laredo Petroleum divests some holdings around Big Spring, Texas
Laredo Petroleum, Inc. announced the $110 million sale of some of its properties in the Permian Basin, where the Tulsa Company has carried out its operations. The company said it divested itself of certain non-operated properties in Howard County and the sale is subject to customary closing price adjustments. Laredo expects to close the …
More energy bureaucrats coming our way
If you thought the addition of 87,000 more IRS agents was the growth of big government, consider what happened in the U.S. Energy Department in recent days. The Biden administration, even before the President officially put the IRS growth into effect with the Tuesday signing of his Inflation Reduction Act, had already implemented the …
Will recommendations from Presidential board end rail strike threats?
The possibility of a strike by workers at the railways serving Oklahoma and the rest of the nation remains, even after a special board named by President Biden came up with recommendations of pay. The board, appointed to intervene in the stalled railroad contract talks said this week that the 115,000 rail workers should …
Wind farm subsidies still with us—even in Oklahoma
It wasn’t but a few years ago when Oklahoma ended its wind energy subsidies after a fiery battle between the wind industry and oil and gas operators. But with President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday, federal wind energy tax credits will be extended through 2025. It doesn’t mean there isn’t …
Judge sends Oklahoma lawsuit challenging Biden’s oil lease pause back to court
A court’s decision in support of the lawsuit filed by Oklahoma, Louisiana and several other states that fought the Biden administration’s 2021 pause on new oil and gas leasing on federal land was vacated Wednesday by a U.S. circuit judge. The ruling means the challenge to President Biden’s key piece of his climate change …