By Shane Smith

Without reliable elected leaders to oppose these disastrous boondoggles, this industry will run wild here.

Oklahoma Republicans have held a legislative majority for 16 years, and have occupied the Governor’s mansion since 2011. You’d think that this level of red control of a state would mean the absence of the type of green agenda boondoggles pushed by President Joe Biden and his Green New Deal cronies in our state. But anyone paying attention knows that this isn’t the case, and that the green economy has had almost free reign in our state for years.

Hideous wind farms now blight the horizon, as do solar arrays, and the planned CO2 pipelines and carbon sequestration wells, set the stage for catastrophic environmental disaster. Data centers, lithium battery recycling plants, “green” hydrogen facilities, all are given the green light by our ineffectual Republican legislators, and enthusiastically endorsed by our equally ineffectual governor.

These projects are only halted once the people of Oklahoma rise up, organize, and make enough of a fuss that our legislators reluctantly withdraw their support. Does it really have to come to this, in red Oklahoma? Our state deserves real Republicans, not the slate of green RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) currently selling us out.

By far the most destructive green agenda swindle welcomed into our state by our green RINOs is carbon capture and sequestration. This industry has invaded Oklahoma, with the full approval of the vast majority of Republican legislators as well as Governor Stitt. They’ve rolled out the red carpet, and it seems like our legislators are chomping at the bit to give away hundreds of thousands of acres to companies who will use that land to pump hundreds of millions of tons of highly pressurized, liquefied carbon dioxide underground, to be stored there permanently. It sounds insane – because it is insane – but since our oil and gas industry supports carbon capture, this green swindle gets recast as just another extension of the oil industry that’s been here for decades.

There are currently 33 “class VI” well applications under review in Oklahoma, and if approved, would be used to store liquefied CO2 under our feet for all time. Why? Money. The Inflation Reduction Act of the Biden administration tripled the tax credit for captured CO2, creating a gold rush for carbon capture technology. This industry is going to fill every pore space to the brim with unstable, liquefied CO2, and walk away with their riches while future Oklahomans contend with these wells. This industry has made such inroads in our state due to ignorance of the issue, which appears to be by design. No rational person supports carbon capture once they realize what it is.

“Green” hydrogen has been another favorite of Oklahoma’s Republican legislators. In 2022, our green Governor Stitt tweeted in support of green hydrogen legislation as a way to “compete to establish a regional hub to develop and produce clean hydrogen.” Multiple bills have been filed over the past four years with the support of Oklahoma Republicans to facilitate the growth of the clean hydrogen industry in our state. And just how is “clean” hydrogen possible? With the help of carbon capture. These facilities plan to “capture” the CO2 byproduct, pressurize it, and send it via pipeline to a Class VI well for permanent storage. The green scams all work synergistically. On a positive note, the only large-scale green hydrogen plant planned for Oklahoma has been scrapped. H2OK initially planned to open the facility near Ardmore, but it has been shelved indefinitely.

Solar energy is another Republican-supported green swindle that has become too comfortable operating here. As of October, there are 15 operational solar farms in Oklahoma. That number is dwarfed by the seventy-four solar farms currently in development for our state, that will cover thousands of acres. A planned solar farm that broke ground in April in Grady County, dubbed Rumble Solar Energy Center, will span a mind-boggling 4,000 acres.

A quick Google search tells me that it takes at least ten years for a solar farm to break even. Another Google search tells me that solar panel recycling is still “in development,” meaning that these panels are just thrown into landfills when they’re replaced. Green indeed!

Data centers are also booming in Oklahoma, thanks to the relatively low price of land, and a state government that doesn’t appear interested in stopping them. At least nine “hyperscale” data centers are being planned for Oklahoma as of this writing. Did you know that a large data center, similar to Project Clydesdale planned for Tulsa, can use 5 million gallons of water per day, as part of its cooling system? It also uses around a billion kilowatt hours of electricity on any given day. For comparison, the entire city of Tulsa consumes a daily average of 34 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Considering the enormous energy needs of these data centers, are the brakes even considered being pumped before we plunge headlong into this?

The green energy industry is a joke, and would remain a joke were it not for the taxpayer money doled out to this industry. The real solution lies in eliminating the subsidies altogether. The next best thing is electing real conservatives who understand the danger this industry poses to our state. Without reliable elected leaders to oppose these disastrous boondoggles, this industry will run wild here. They will build facilities that will fail within a decade, and walk away with a government check while we clean up their mess.