Special Session Begins Tuesday
Oklahoma lawmakers are headed back to the Capitol for a special session Tuesday.
They're answering a call from Gov. Kevin Stitt to swiftly and deeply cut taxes.
It's unclear if anything will even get done.
House Speaker Charles McCall has filed five so-called shell bills about tax policy. But because of their nature of having little to no explanatory language, details are scant.
Senate leaders also appear hesitant to do much. Pro Tem Greg Treat has asked Stitt to appear before the Senate Appropriations Committee to explain his tax-cutting plan.
In a live television interview, the governor told KOCO that the sides are still talking about that. But such testimony would be unprecedented.
Site Selected For New Oklahoma County Jail
It appears the site of a new Oklahoma County Jail is set. County commissioners approved a site just north of Will Rogers World Airport.
Oklahoma County Commissioners on Monday decided on the city-owned property just north of the airport after narrowing the choices of location over the last several months.
The city and county still have to settle on a price. The new jail is expected to cost $300 million. It will replace the current, deeply troubled Oklahoma County jail downtown, where detainee deaths are common and health and safety concerns continue to pile up. Seven inmates have died there just this year, most recently in September.
Transportation Commission Approves $9 Billion Road, Bridge Improvement Plan
The Oklahoma Transportation Commission approved both a four-year asset protection plan and an eight-year construction plan to maintain and improve Oklahoma's roads and bridges.
Twenty years ago, more than 1,100 Oklahoma bridges were considered structurally deficient. After decades of progress, these new plans address the last remaining 15. They’re among 800 aging bridges ODOT plans to replace or rehabilitate between now and 2031.
Commissioner James Grimsley represents southeastern Oklahoma. He says credit goes to the state legislature for funding these improvements.
I think we're going to have to embrace a whole lot more of this type of creative thinking in the future because as we know, we have a road network that's many, many years behind in all sorts of ways," said Grimsley.
The newly approved plans also call for thousands of miles of pavement resurfacing, construction of road shoulders on two-lane highways and other safety improvements. In total, the projects are expected to cost about $9 billion.
Plugging Orphaned Oil Wells
Red Dirt Energy is working with the Kiowa tribe and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to plug orphaned oil wells on tribal land and at the Deep Fork Wildlife Refuge.
Over seventeen thousand wells are abandoned in the state of Oklahoma according to a list published by the state.
Orphaned oil wells can leak toxins into the environment. According to the US Department of the Interior, abandoned wells across the country also emit 7.1 million metric tons of CO2 a year.
Scott St. John is the chief operations officer for Red Dirt Energy. He says 21 wells will get plugged at the Deep Fork Wildlife Refuge.
“States and the federal government are also implementing some rules to sort of prevent this in the future. Wells are getting plugged, and things are getting cleaned up," St. John said.
St. John says the wells are getting plugged through federal grants and Oklahoma’s orphaned well program.
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