Layoffs at the National Weather Center
Employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Norman were informed of the layoffs Thursday afternoon.
Probationary employees with organizations under NOAA, including the National Weather Service, were terminated Thursday afternoon, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. That anonymous source couldn’t confirm the number of employees fired at the Norman facility.
The federal agency is the country’s authority on weather and climate research, housing decades of data. The National Weather Service issues near-constant weather updates across the U.S. NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce.
The layoffs could continue through Friday evening according to reporting from The Hill. The Guardian reported that hundreds of personnel were impacted nationwide.
The firings also potentially impact the National Severe Storms Laboratory, which is in charge of researching forecasting, weather warnings and radar technology. Other organizations working in Oklahoma include the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations and more.
*This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
The FAA to ‘Supercharge’ Hiring Efforts
Amid a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers, there’s only one place to train civilians for the job: the F-A-A academy near Will Rogers International Airport.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy visited the facility Thursday to announce new efforts to “supercharge” hiring.
Over the next month, the academy's trainees will receive a 30-percent pay bump and a streamlined hiring process.
Duffy also says he plans to ask Congress for money to upgrade technology in air traffic control towers across the nation. He says he expects the cost to be in the billions.
New Members Attend State Board of Education Meeting
The Oklahoma State Board of Education advanced new academic standards for social studies and science by a 5 to 1 vote at its Thursday meeting.
The new standards for social studies balloons mentions of Christian themes from two to more than 50. Walters has also previously called the standards “pro-American exceptionalism.”
Walters announced in July he was tapping conservative figures to head the executive review committee for the standards, which included Dennis Prager of PragerU; Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation; and David Barton of the Christian Nationalist organization, Wallbuilders.
Controversy over the standards ramped up in September, when Oklahoma City television news outlet Fox25 was denied entry to a review committee meeting. Members told a reporter the set of standards they had worked on for months was thrown out and replaced with a new set with content that made one committee member say they wanted to “throw up.”
The presentation of the standards at Thursday’s meeting was void of any mention of the controversy surrounding the development process.
Three new interim board members joined the meeting Thursday. The new members were appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, who cited the board’s “needless political drama” and objected to the board’s passage of a proposed administrative rule requiring schools to count immigrant students and families. The new members replace the three former members who had voted to pass the administrative rules.
The rules are now being considered by the legislature.
New board member Ryan Deatherage requested extra time to review the proposed social studies standards but was voted down. He was the lone dissenting vote in approving the standards. The standards now go to the legislature for approval.
Earlier this week, Walters requested an opinion from Attorney General Gentner Drummond on whether a Trump executive order would pull federal funding from undocumented students. If the rule were to apply, it would appear to require schools to collect citizenship documentation.
During Walters’ opening comments at the board meeting addressing that request, new member Chris Vandenhende asked for a pause on the related administrative rule the board approved last month. Vandenhende was denied because the discussion wasn’t on the agenda.
Later in the meeting during “New Business,” Deatherage requested to alter the process for agenda-writing so board members — and not just the superintendent — could add items to the agenda.
He cited a recent article from The Oklahoman that reported an instance in which board member Nick Archer asked for a report to be presented at an April 2024 meeting detailing the state department’s slew of employment vacancies. The item was not placed on the April agenda.
For the agenda policy to change, it would have to be done through an administrative rule. But, to start that process, an item would have to be added to the agenda.
New member Mike Tinney grilled legal counsel about how the board can add items to the agenda. Vandenhende agreed.
“Part of the board’s responsibility is oversight of the Department of Education,” Vandenhende said. “If we don’t have the ability to add items to the agenda that we think are important to that oversight responsibility, we cannot perform that function.”
Vandenhende asked which statute or rule gives Walters the final say on the agenda. The board counsel answered there were statutes that said that but did not provide specifics.
“Why am I here?” Deatherage asked.
The board counsel then shut down the conversation, saying it was beyond what could be talked about in “New Business.”
Oklahoma Lawmakers Consider Requiring State Permits for New Renewable Energy Facilities
The Oklahoma legislature is considering a measure that would require more state oversight for renewable energy facilities. The bill passed its first legislative hurdle Tuesday, gaining unanimous approval from the House Utilities Committee.
House Bill 2155 would require new solar projects, wind projects and battery storage facilities to apply for a permit through the Oklahoma Corporation Commission before beginning the process of building the facility.
Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene, who authored the bill, said the permitting process isn’t meant to be restrictive. It’s similar to the one required for new oil and gas projects.
“It's not designed to keep any of these new projects from coming,” Dobrinski said during the Utilities Committee meeting. “It simply allows notification and public knowledge of them, we hope, in a quicker fashion, just so that everybody knows what's going on in their neighborhoods, in their counties.”
As of now, Dobrinski said, the only regulation on new wind facilities is FAA approval to occupy airspace. Solar projects don’t face state regulation.
Generation projects do go through an application process through the Southwest Power Pool, the regional grid that includes Oklahoma and 13 other states. But Dobrinski said that process can take years, and the companies often start working on deals with landowners in the meantime. Those deals often include non-disclosure agreements.
“Some of these things are 3 or 4 years in the works before people find out about them,” Dobrinski said.
His bill would require the company to get a permit through the Corporation Commission before “commencing any such activity.” The company would provide a description of the project and contact information for the facility operator. The Corporation Commission would be able to charge them a fee up to $40,000 based on the size of the land or the generation capacity of the facility.
The energy company would also be required to notify people whose land would be directly affected and anyone else with land in a half-mile radius of the project at least 60 days before beginning any development.
An earlier version of the measure would have put the same regulations on distribution lines and transmission projects, but Dobrinski took that out with the committee’s approval.
“That amendment was brought to me by some folks in the distribution and transmission business,” Dobrinski said. “My intent with the bill is to bring new generation facilities under regulation, and I do not wish to include the transmission folks.”
Dobrinski said larger transmission projects are already regulated by the Southwest Power Pool and sometimes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Distribution lines, he said, aren’t planned without a power purchase agreement in place.
“That means a utility in the area — somebody in that neighborhood needs the power and will connect to the power,” Dobrinski said. “Those utilities are already regulated by the Corporation Commission. We know who they are, we know where they’re operating.”
HB 2155 can now go before the House Committee for Energy and Natural Resources Oversight before advancing to the full floor.
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