In push toward top 10 status, Stitt takes Cabinet on tour to tout early successes

Stitt introduced his Cabinet members at Tulsa Tech’s campus in Owasso. Before each member split off for individual listening sessions, the audience heard of a rosy present and future in the areas of energy, agriculture and commerce.

Ken Wagner, secretary of energy and environment, said Oklahoma is one of only four states that gets more than 40% of its energy from renewable sources. Oklahoma is top 10 in all major energy production categories: No. 3 in wind, No. 3 in natural gas and No. 4 in oil.

The state also has reduced emissions since 2011 at a rate nearly double the national average. He said sulfur dioxide has been reduced by 56%, nitrogen oxides by 69% and carbon dioxide by 37%.

“We’ve done that without any job-killing mandates, without any regulatory action or any radical legislation mandating that we have clean energy by 2030 or 2040 or 2050,” Wagner said. “We’ve done it in 2019 because it’s the right thing to do, and we have the natural resources to do it.”

Oklahoma exports 28% of its power generation to other states, he said, and every time wind or natural gas energy is transmitted elsewhere Oklahoma is shipping emissions reductions.

“But what I’m most proud of is we are No. 1 in the country in affordability for electric costs,” Wagner said.

Wagner based his statistics and rankings on U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur highlighted the state’s diversity of producers in the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Information.

Oklahoma is No. 3 in female agricultural producers and No. 3 in producers under the age of 35.

There’s a lot talk about the aging population of farmers and ranchers across the U.S. — an average age of 57 — but Arthur says the state has reason for optimism over the next several decades.

“In Oklahoma, we’ve got a lot of young producers who are coming back to the family farm,” Arthur said. “And those young producers are bringing a lot of innovation and technology and new ways of doing things on the farm.”

Arthur said her agency is working to better promote products made in Oklahoma. She said if there are two products on the shelf she wants to know if one is from Oklahoma and chooses it.

“Here at the Tulsa State Fair we will have the first-ever made-in-Oklahoma restaurant,” she said. “So it’ll be the Made in OK Cafe that will be at the Tulsa Fair this year.”

Arthur noted that her department has added a farm-to-school coordinator to help producers find another market for products in cafeterias and provide healthier options daily to students.

Secretary of Commerce Sean Kouplen said his department found that Oklahoma has the country’s second-best GDP growth in the two most recent reportable quarters.

Kouplen highlighted 44 announcements of new companies or expansions this year.

He explained that his priority is to take care of Oklahoma’s own businesses and self-employed individuals. But his agency has identified the top 5 “bad business” states — California, New York, Illinois, Washington and Colorado — and is sending direct mail and telemarketing calls to try and lure some businesses here.

“We are focused on recruitment, but we put much more resources toward taking care of our own and growing our economy that way,” Kouplen said.

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