Amid a political climate increasingly hostile to renewable energy, Oklahoma’s public schools could be losing out on a crucial revenue source. Over the past year, the Commissioners of the Land Office have voted down several wind and solar leases on state-owned land, going against the recommendations of their own staff and forgoing millions of dollars that could have directly benefited the state’s education system.
The commissioners went against the recommendations of the agency, which manages a $2.9 billion investment portfolio. Earnings from the investments provided more than $156 million for education in Oklahoma last year.
Gov. Kevin Stitt was outvoted 2-1 in an August meeting when a 55-year lease for a wind project in Woodward County came up for consideration. Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and Agriculture Secretary Blayne Arthur voted it down. Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, who is running for lieutenant governor, were absent.
Commissioners voted 4-0 in December to reject an EDF Renewables solar project in Payne County, citing concerns about the lease’s length.
Developers of the Daily Mill wind project wanted to lease 1,790 acres of school land to connect 13,000 acres already leased from private landowners. If approved, the CLO lease was projected to bring in between $4.1 million and $9.8 million for the state in the first 36 years. The company won a public auction for the lease in February.
Opponents of the lease, including county commissioners in Woodward County, packed a meeting room at the Capitol as land commissioners debated the project. Stitt said he had a fiduciary duty to maximize the leases for the benefit of public education.
“These are complicated decisions,” Stitt said. “You’re either a free-market person, and we’re going to put together the best way we know how to do it, which is a public auction, to let people bid on something. We can’t pick winners and losers.
“We can’t not do it just because we don’t want to look at something or we don’t think this is right,” Stitt said. “We can pass setback rules, and that’s all on the table, but I can’t sit here in good conscience with my CLO hat on and not maximize revenue for the CLO.”
Woodward County District 1 Commissioner Troy White said he and his fellow commissioners were worried about the Daily Mill development limiting Mooreland’s growth. He also raised concerns about what he said could be visual and noise pollution and lowering land values around wind turbines.
“We’re not opposed to renewable energy in Woodward County, but we are opposed to it on school land,” White said. “Farming and ranching is hard enough, and we feel like the landowners can reinvest the money back into the economy better than the government can.”
Eric Crawford, development director for Triple Oak Power, said about 80% of nearby landowners in Woodward County have signed wind leases. The CLO piece was needed to connect 8,000 acres and 5,000 acres already leased from private landowners for the Daily Mill project.
Pinnell, who noted the absence of his fellow land commissioners for the vote, said he would have no problem voting no on a comparable lease for school land that had a 1,700-acre medical marijuana grow project, even if it meant more cash for the CLO.
“It should be about maximizing land for education, but there’s also some projects where I would say, ‘Let’s live to fight another day on this,’” Pinnell said.
In a written statement, Triple Oak Power said one lease doesn’t determine the ultimate success of any wind project. The company noted its disappointment with the CLO decision but said Woodward County, one of the state’s top areas for wind development, will continue to help meet the nation’s growing energy demands.
“Wind farms use only an acre or less per turbine,” Chief Executive Officer Jesse Gronner said in the written statement. “Utilizing state land for wind farms creates a dual-income stream on CLO-managed land, benefiting education across the state while ensuring existing uses like ranching, farming and grazing continue.”
The tensions faced by land commissioners over maximizing the returns of school land echo a contentious lawsuit in the 1980s brought by the Oklahoma Education Association against the CLO. The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down several state laws that land commissioners were using to justify low rents and low-interest-rate loans for land leases it said amounted to a subsidy for farmers and ranchers.
From Tax Incentives to Setbacks
Land commissioners haven’t always been hostile to wind projects. Previous commissioners approved seven wind developments on state school land, with the last one in 2021. Six other wind projects are operational and were approved in 2010, 2014 and 2017. This month, a solar developer canceled a development-phase project that commissioners approved in March 2024.
Stitt, echoing his predecessor, Mary Fallin, has advocated for an all-of-the-above energy portfolio for Oklahoma. But the Trump administration has been overtly hostile to renewable energy, with the president lamenting wind projects for spoiling the view. More than a decade ago, he waged an unsuccessful war against the Scottish government when it approved offshore wind projects within view of one of his company’s golf courses in Scotland. More recently, the federal Interior Department canceled permits for a half-completed offshore wind project near Connecticut and Rhode Island.
In Oklahoma, freshman Rep. Jim Shaw, a Republican from Chandler, has pledged $100,000 to more than 20 grassroots groups under his Save Oklahoma plan. The plan wants GOP candidates to agree to seven pledges for the 2026 elections, including fighting what they call the green energy agenda.
“The so-called ‘green energy’ scam is nothing more than taxpayer-funded corporate welfare that destroys rural communities,” the plan said. “Oklahomans — not unelected bureaucrats — should decide if or where massive wind and solar projects go, and setbacks must protect homes, schools and property values.”
Setbacks for wind turbines were a source of friction between the GOP-controlled House and Senate in this year’s legislative session. Senate Bill 2, by Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston, proposed a turbine setback of a quarter of a mile. But the House amended and passed a version of the bill that had stricter, half-mile setbacks from homes in the eastern half of the state. The Senate declined to take up the amended bill.
In legislative hearings this month, lawmakers heard from wind and solar advocates about renewable energy regulations.
“Natural gas has become the dominant fuel source for Oklahoma’s electric power generation, and renewables are a cheap, close second,” said Jim Roth, an attorney and former Oklahoma corporation commissioner. “That’s a beautiful mix for us.”
Roth walked lawmakers through a series of maps showing the effects of quarter-mile and half-mile setbacks based on distances from homes or structures. He said lawmakers must carefully craft any potential setback regulations or risk lawsuits from landowners.
“One person’s nuisance is another person’s livelihood,” Roth said. “These issues shouldn’t take neighbors to court. We should have clarity around what the law is. Please be the carpenter who measures twice and cuts once. There is not a renewable energy project in Oklahoma today or ever that is not there but for the invitation of that private, Oklahoma landowner.”
Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, said power demand is only going to rise as more data centers get built and more electric vehicles get sold.
“If we’re going to win the AI battle with China, we’ve got to have more power, and it doesn’t matter where it comes from,” Murdock said.
Destinee Weeks, an energy professional and farmer from Seiling, said pitting the eastern and western parts of the state against each other on renewable energy policies was divisive.
“Every single county in Oklahoma has a wind or solar lease filed on record,” Weeks said. “There is somebody in every county in Oklahoma who wants the choice for themselves to decide if they want to participate. These are voluntary.”
Weeks said many social media discussions are dominated by a small group who demonize the wind industry and landowners.
“Who is scamming who?” Weeks said. “The group of opposition working against us has pushed to want to control every piece of our life. We have been called welfare queens, cheap, lazy, indoctrinated. They are pushing for zoning across the entire state. This idea of ‘saving’ Oklahoma by taking our freedoms is a scam. The scam is using farmers and ranchers as a cover to take control of land.”
Mattie Daily of Vinita said she was surprised at the opposition from neighbors when her parents signed a lease for a wind development.
“When people call it greed that drives farmers to sign wind leases, it angers me,” Daily said. “Farmers and teachers aren’t greedy. They’re resourceful. When the wind project is built, our family will still farm, still raise cattle, still live in the house I grew up in. Wind doesn’t erase that, it helps protect them.”
Barry Pollard, who lives south of Enid, said renewable leases can give farmers and ranchers a steady stream of income that acts as a hedge when costs go up for agricultural inputs like fuel and fertilizer. He’s signed leases for solar projects on his land.
“So many of my relatives and friends have offsite jobs just to support the farming habit they have,” Pollard said. “Farming is difficult now.”
