Amid the farm fields of northwest Oklahoma City, a place where high-voltage power lines converge has attracted interest from two data center developers, each seeking to build at the western terminus of a new $72 million transmission project.

The Mathewson Substation, a nondescript complex of power lines and equipment on NW 248^th Street near Piedmont in southeastern Kingfisher County, has become a highly sought-after location to tap into Oklahoma’s power grid.

“That’s one of the strongest points on the electrical grid in the state of Oklahoma,” said Aaron Bilyeu, chief development officer with Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure, one of the companies seeking to build a large-scale data center for artificial intelligence in Piedmont.

For years, electrical grid planners worried about a problem most Oklahomans never knew existed. Power flowing into the western side of the Oklahoma City metro area could become congested during periods of heavy demand or when transmission resources are unavailable.

The solution identified by planners at the Southwest Power Pool, the regional organization responsible for coordinating the electric grid across a 14-state region that includes Oklahoma, was a new 345-kilovolt transmission line connecting the Mathewson Substation with the Redbud Energy Facility near Luther.

Today, that corridor and the adjacent areas are attracting the attention of a different group entirely.

In addition to Cloverleaf, Atlanta-based Beltline Energy, a renewable energy and industrial development company, has proposed data center projects in multiple communities, including Piedmont, Yukon, Oklahoma City and Luther. Company materials describe Beltline as a developer with expertise in utility-scale energy projects, including industrial real estate and electrical transmission analysis.

While Cloverleaf executives agreed to interviews for this story, Beltline Energy declined repeated opportunities to discuss its Oklahoma plans. Requests for comment sent to the company and its legal representatives were not returned.

Each proposal has generated its own local debate, and the clustering of the projects has raised a broader question: Why are multiple developers interested in the same part of Oklahoma?

The answer appears to be rooted in the electrical grid. In some places, the connections are better than in others.

Bilyeu described his company’s approach to that of a shopping center developer. The company looks for a location to build and will later find someone to occupy the facility once it is constructed. The ultimate user could be a company like Google, Meta or Microsoft. Or it could be someone else entirely. But just like a developer of retail space, Bilyeu knows the key to success is location.

“And from an electrical engineering perspective, that really is a great place for a data center,” Bilyeu said. “Which is why we’ve optioned the land that we have directly adjacent to it.”

Data centers have always required large amounts of electricity, but artificial intelligence is changing the scale.

The newest generation of AI-focused facilities can consume hundreds of megawatts of power. The largest projects can require as much electricity as a small city.

“There’s not many locations on the grid that can actually serve them without triggering massive transmission upgrades,” said Jonathan Abebe, chief technical officer with Cloverleaf.

Abebe said companies first look for locations connected to robust high-voltage transmission systems capable of supporting large electrical loads. New transmission projects can take years to permit and build, making existing infrastructure especially valuable.

For Cloverleaf, the search for a place that met all their requirements led to the Mathewson Substation.

Multiple 345-kilovolt lines converge at the site, creating a major node on the regional grid. To developers searching for large amounts of reliable power, those connections can be as important as highways, rail lines or waterways were to earlier generations of industrial development.

The transmission infrastructure drawing developers today was not originally designed for them.

Seth Blomeley, senior communications strategist for Southwest Power Pool, said the Mathewson-Redbud project emerged from the organization’s transmission-planning process years before data centers became a major factor in their planning.

“This line will provide a path for load to also be served from the east,” Blomeley said. “That additional transmission source will greatly benefit the customers in the area, especially during times of stress in the system.”

In May 2025, SPP selected Transource Oklahoma to construct the approximately 38-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line. The project is expected to enter service in 2027.

Michael Harris, a Transource Oklahoma outreach specialist, said relieving congestion effectively gives grid operators more options to move electricity around the system when demand spikes, equipment fails or severe weather disrupts normal operations.

“By adding capacity and improving network resiliency, projects like Mathewson-Redbud give the grid more flexibility to serve growth while maintaining reliable electric service,” Harris said in a written response.

While projects such as Mathewson-Redbud are planned primarily to meet reliability needs, Harris acknowledged that stronger transmission infrastructure can also affect economic development decisions. Reliable transmission service is an important consideration for large industrial and technology projects with significant electricity requirements, he said.

The relationship between transmission investment and economic development can be difficult to separate.

Oklahoma State University industrial engineering professor Sunderesh Heragu compared the phenomenon to building a new highway, where new infrastructure often attracts additional activity and investment.

“It is very likely that new transmission corridors will attract more customers requiring more energy, until the supply-demand finds an equilibrium,” Heragu said.

Abebe said transmission planners generally anticipate that growth when designing major projects. Utilities and regional grid operators evaluate projected demand as part of the planning process, he said, helping to ensure new infrastructure continues to serve its intended purpose even as additional customers arrive.

The story unfolding between Piedmont and Luther is part of a much larger shift occurring across the central United States.

In its 2025 Integrated Transmission Planning Assessment, Southwest Power Pool identified accelerating load growth as the largest driver of future transmission needs across its 14-state service area.

For decades, annual growth in electricity demand was relatively modest. Then came a wave of new large-load customers.

Projects that replace older systems with electric ones, new manufacturing facilities, and data centers began seeking service at a pace that outstripped the traditional timeline for building transmission infrastructure.

The surge in demand is also changing how planners think about the transmission grid itself.

For nearly two decades, Southwest Power Pool expanded a regional network built around 345-kilovolt transmission lines, creating a backbone that today serves Oklahoma and a region that stretches from Montana to portions of New Mexico and Arkansas. But planners now argue that projected growth is large enough to require another leap forward.

The latest planning assessment concludes that continuing to rely primarily on 345-kilovolt construction would be increasingly costly and inefficient as demand accelerates.

“Continuing down the path of building only 345 kV transmission would require four to seven times more infrastructure to deliver the same capacity as 765 kV,” the report states.

SPP compares local transmission lines to city streets, while higher voltage lines, such as the 345-kilovolt lines that intersect at the Mathewson Substation, are like highways. The proposed 765-kilovolt system would serve as an interstate network capable of moving much larger amounts of electricity over long distances. As demand rises, planners argue, simply adding more lower-voltage lines would be akin to widening local roads when an entirely new interstate highway is needed.

“The best path forward to address the challenges the SPP members are facing is to invest in new extra-high-voltage ‘expressways’ — a 765 kV backbone capable of carrying large amounts of power quickly and reliably across the footprint,” the report states.

Without those investments, SPP warns that growing electrical demand could lead to increasing congestion, reliability concerns and higher costs for consumers.

SPP projects demand within its region will nearly double over the next decade. National forecasts point in the same direction. Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that electricity consumption would continue rising through 2027, driven largely by AI-related data centers and broader electrification trends.

The result is a scramble for locations that already possess the infrastructure necessary to support major electrical loads.

Oklahoma officials said access to electricity has become one of the state’s strongest selling points as communities compete for data center investment.

Jay Shidler, director of business recruitment for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, said power availability is often the single most important factor in site selection decisions.

“Electricity is number one,” Shidler said. “It’s the driver. The availability of power and the 345-kilovolt lines are the driver in the site selection process.”

Shidler said companies typically evaluate electricity first, followed by land availability and workforce considerations.

“It drives economic demand, not only in just the data center industry, but multiple industries: manufacturing, aerospace, and defense.”

He said Oklahoma’s competitive advantages include relatively low electricity costs, available generating capacity and a regulatory environment that allows companies to scale their power needs over time.

Electrical infrastructure is not the only factor developers consider.

Heragu said developers typically evaluate power availability, water resources, telecommunications connectivity and land.

“All are necessary conditions,” he said. “None by itself is sufficient.”

Telecommunications infrastructure also factors into site-selection decisions. Information provided by Lumen Technologies described fiber networks as foundational infrastructure for AI data centers, alongside power and land. The company said AI workloads require unprecedented volumes of data movement between cloud regions, data centers and computing clusters, increasing demand for high-capacity fiber connectivity.

However, fiber can be laid relatively quickly while electrical transmission capacity can take years to develop, making existing grid infrastructure particularly valuable and helping explain why multiple developers can independently arrive at similar conclusions about where to build.

Not everyone views the prospect of large-scale data center development as an opportunity.

Residents in several communities along the corridor have raised concerns about the size of proposed projects, their potential impact on water resources, noise, traffic and local character. Public meetings in Piedmont, Yukon and Luther have drawn residents seeking more information about developments that could consume hundreds of megawatts of electricity and occupy hundreds of acres.

In both Luther and Yukon, disputes over transparency became part of the debate. Residents in Luther criticized city officials for signing a nondisclosure agreement with a developer during preliminary discussions about a proposed project. In Yukon, residents questioned city leaders after Mayor Brian Pillmore confirmed the city’s former manager signed a nondisclosure agreement with Beltline before the project was publicly disclosed. Some residents characterized the process as a “backroom agreement” and said too much information had been withheld from the public.

Others questioned whether communities were prepared for projects on that scale and whether sufficient information had been provided about potential impacts on water use, electrical demand and future development.

Meanwhile, landowners along the proposed Mathewson-Redbud transmission route have expressed concerns about the 110-foot transmission structures planned for the project and the impact new easements could have on their property.

State and local officials have also begun examining how existing regulations apply to data centers. Oklahoma City and Edmond both recently adopted a temporary moratorium on certain new data center applications while city staff review potential zoning and development standards. Piedmont officials have likewise wrestled with questions about where such facilities should be located and what conditions should apply.

The prospect of increasingly large electrical loads has also attracted the attention of state policymakers.

Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, said lawmakers approved House Bill 2992, the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act, to ensure that large-load customers such as data centers pay the infrastructure costs associated with serving their projects rather than shifting those costs onto residential customers.

“We’re not trying to stop economic development,” Boles said. “What we do want is to make sure that Oklahoma consumers and families aren’t bearing the cost.”

HB 2992 is intended to protect residential and small-business utility customers from bearing the costs of electrical infrastructure built to serve large-load users, such as data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. The measure requires those customers to pay their share of generation, transmission and other infrastructure costs and directs regulators to ensure those expenses are not shifted to other ratepayers. It also requires advance public notice and community meetings before certain large-load developments acquire property for proposed projects.

The law also requires financial assurances if those costs are recovered over time, so that utility customers are protected if the user defaults before the costs are fully recovered.

“It was considered probably the most aggressive ratepayer protection bill in the country this year, and Oklahoma’s leading the way on that,” Boles said.

Boles said lawmakers were responding to voters worried that utility bills could increase if the costs of serving large data centers were spread across the broader consumer base.

“All the members in the legislature, they’re hearing from their constituents and they’re hearing the same concerns,” Boles said.

The measure was one of two passed in recent legislative sessions to address concerns over data centers and other large energy users.

In 2025, lawmakers approved Senate Bill 480, known as the “Behind the Meter” law, allowing businesses to develop and operate their own electric generation and power facilities. Supporters said it would encourage investment by large manufacturers, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities while reducing pressure on the electric grid by allowing some projects to generate their own power.

The Mathewson-Redbud transmission line was designed to solve a reliability problem.

However, before construction is complete, it has already helped transform the area into one of the most sought-after locations for data center development in Oklahoma.

Although it’s unknown if all the proposed projects will ultimately move forward, it is clear that access to electrical infrastructure has become a deciding factor in the competition for AI investment.

For developers, planners and policymakers alike, the future of economic development increasingly runs through the power grid.

Stephen Martin is an Oklahoma City-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at smartin0170@gmail.com.

The post A Transmission Line Built to Fix Grid Congestion Has Become Oklahoma’s Hottest Data Center Address appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma produced 2.9 times more energy than it consumed at 4,393.8 trillion Btu in 2023, ranking eighth in the nation in energy production.

The industrial sector accounted for 40% of energy consumption, while the residential and commercial sectors accounted for 15% and 14%, respectively.

Natural gas accounted for the vast majority of the energy produced in Oklahoma at 76%, followed by crude oil at 20% and renewable sources at 3%. Oklahoma generally produces three to four times as much natural gas as it consumes; the excess is either stored in in-state storage fields or transported interstate.

Natural gas and wind energy accounted for 50% and 41% of Oklahoma’s electricity production, respectively.

Despite an unusual rate of electricity bill increases, Oklahoma residents are protected from further increases directly caused by large data centers, per a recently passed law.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• U.S. Energy Information Administration Total primary energy production and total energy consumption estimates in trillion Btu, 2023
• U.S. Energy Information Administration Table P2. Primary energy production estimates in trillion Btu, 2023
• U.S. Energy Information Administration Oklahoma – Analysis
• Oklahoma Watch Have Oklahoma electric bills increased at a proportionally higher rate since 2020 than neighboring states?
• Oklahoma Watch Did Oklahoma recently pass a law that requires any new data center using 75 or more megawatts to pay their own infrastructure costs and give 60 days notice before buying land?

The post Does Oklahoma produce nearly three times more energy than it consumes? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

In a unanimous ruling on one of two actions stemming from Hursh v. State Farm, a bad-faith case that has come to represent hundreds of virtually identical cases across the state, the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s effort to intervene but invited an independent action that could result in criminal charges against the insurance giant.

In December, Oklahoma City District Court Judge Amy Palumbo was unequivocal in ruling that Drummond had the right to intervene.

“I understand what State Farm wanted me to get distracted by, but I do not find it to be on point or relevant,” Palumbo said at the time. “Having given it extensive thought, I believe the law does allow the AG to intervene.”

Nevertheless, the Court ruled that Palumbo exceeded her authority and that the AG’s intervention, calling on laws more typically associated with organized crime, changed the nature of the proceeding.

“The Attorney General’s pursuit of RICO allegations introduce quasi-criminal elements that would not only impermissibly broaden the scope of this civil contract dispute but also the nature of the recovery sought,” the decision reads.

The Court relied on a 1987 matter known as Gettler v. Cities Service Company, which established limits on interventions that expand the scope or character of litigation, the justices wrote.

Nevertheless, the Court offered precise instructions on how the AG could proceed so as to avoid the limitations imposed by the Gettler decision.

“The proper recourse could be for the Attorney General to bring his claims in a separate, independent lawsuit, which avoids the restraints of Gettler on intervention,” the decision reads.

In other words, if at first you don’t succeed, try again.

1000 Identical Cases

The Hursh matter harkened back to litigation that has been moving stealthily through Oklahoma courts for at least six years.

Hints of an alleged State Farm scheme to arbitrarily reduce payouts on claims of wind and hail damage to Oklahoma roofs emerged last year when reports surfaced of settlements in 125 individual bad faith cases against Oklahoma’s largest writer of homeowners insurance. After attorneys representing policyholders won the right to examine critical documents and depose executives, State Farm quickly moved to settle all 125 cases.

The amount of damage in each case was modest — around $30,000 — but just one of the 125 cases was revealed to have settled for $3 million. The total amount paid for all of the cases combined could only be estimated and the settlements once again hid the now infamous State Farm documents behind a protective order.

But hail damage cases kept coming.

The Hursh case, hinging on $22,000 in damage to a Broken Arrow home, burst into the news in December and quickly became emblematic of similar cases that now number as many as 1,000. Drummond filed to intervene in the Hursh case to expedite subpoenaing the same documents that triggered the settlement of the earlier cases.

Drummond raised the stakes in the Hursh matter by invoking RICO laws. State Farm took the intervention to the Supreme Court, which prompted Drummond to assert that if the Court denied the civil application of RICO laws, he would not shy away from criminal charges for State Farm employees if crimes were uncovered.

In the second action before the Supreme Court in the Hursh matter, the Court ruled in favor of policyholders seeking access to internal State Farm documents they believe will prove the company engaged in a scheme to defraud claimants.

“Massive Fraud Perpetrated on Oklahomans”

Within minutes of the announced decision, the office of the attorney general issued a three-sentence press release quoting Drummond.

“I thank the Oklahoma Supreme Court for bringing clarity to the appropriate forum where the case needs to be filed,” Drummond said. “We will be filing a new lawsuit in the morning to hold State Farm accountable for the massive fraud perpetrated on Oklahomans.”

In this, the AG appeared to act almost in concert with the Court, which had taken note of the AG’s insistence in his pleadings that he would not give up the fight if his effort at intervention was denied.

“Indeed, the Attorney General admits his intent to file such an action,” the justices wrote.

The Court’s equivocal decision is in keeping with a judicial practice variously known as signaling or roadmapping or preemptive dicta, in which a court may rule against a party while simultaneously suggesting how they might succeed in a further action.

A 2006 paper by Emory University School of Law Professor Tonja Jacobi modeled judges’ attempts to influence their agendas as a game of covert or overt signaling.

“Many judges attempt to shape their dockets by encouraging potential litigants to bring particular cases,” Jacobi wrote. “This encouragement takes the form of judges signaling their own positions on an issue as well as their colleagues’ expected support.”

The motive for such signaling may be judicial efficiency.

“Judges may wish to signal their attitudes on a particular issue to lower courts, beyond or before the bounds of precedent,” Jacobi wrote.

Jacobi confirmed that the Hursh decision bore all the earmarks of judicial signaling. The clarity of the course of action prescribed by the Court, and even the fact that the decision was unanimous, could be signs that the justices wanted to make a clear statement that ran counter to the denial of the intervention.

“This is not something that justices are required to do,” Jacobi said. “I think they are definitely signaling a way of making this case work in a different formulation.”

Jacobi said that subsequent scholarship had revealed the practice of judicial signaling to be effective and widespread.

“We are seeing this more and more as judges see bad behavior and they don’t want the party to get away with it on a technicality,” Jacobi said.

Andy Spriopolous, the Robert S. Kerr, Sr. Professor of Constitutional Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law, agreed that it was not uncommon for courts to advise litigants on the proper way to seek relief when dismissing claims.

“It is even more likely courts will provide this guidance when it is the representative of the people who seeks a remedy,” Spiropolous said in an email.

Ill-Gotten Gains

On Wednesday, Drummond filed a new action against State Farm in the District Court of Cleveland County.

“Multiple acts of racketeering activity and deceptive practices described herein — including misrepresentations at sale and renewal, claim denials communicated by email and electronic means, and use of computer systems to execute the scheme — occurred in Cleveland County,” the petition reads.

Although the new action is civil rather than criminal, the petition does not back away from the racketeering charge.

“From at least in or about 2020, up to and including the present, in the state of Oklahoma and elsewhere, State Farm … engaged in, directly and indirectly, the conduct of the affairs of that enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity,” the petition reads.

The petition alleges numerous ways in which State Farm unjustly enriched itself at policyholders’ expense, including the sale of policies and the denial of claims under false pretenses.

“Under principles of equity, State Farm should not be permitted to retain these ill-gotten gains,” the petition concluded.

State Farm did not respond to an interview request.

J.C. Hallman covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at jchallman@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Supreme Court Signals the Way Forward on State Farm While Denying Drummond’s Intervention appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Keaton Ross and summer intern Maya Henry track a historic flood of outside political spending and targeted ad campaigns shaking up the June 16 primary elections. Plus, as states push forward with artificial intelligence laws despite federal warnings, reporter Andrea Eger reveals why nearly all AI legislation in the Oklahoma Legislature has hit a dead end. Catch these stories and more on the latest Long Story Short with Shaun Witt.

The post Long Story Short: Outside Political Money & Oklahoma’s Frozen AI Legislation appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

As Congress debates the transportation bill, Oklahoma’s future may depend on more than roads.

When MidAmerica Industrial Park Chief Administrative Officer David Stewart talks to prospective employers, transportation is often one of the first topics that comes up.

“If you have bad access, you’re completely out,” Stewart said.

Companies considering a move to Oklahoma want to know whether raw materials can arrive reliably, whether finished products can reach customers efficiently and whether workers can access jobs without difficulty.

In other words, they want to know whether the transportation system works.

For Stewart, that increasingly means more than highways.

It means rail service. It means access to inland ports. It means bridges, freight corridors, truck routes and the broader supply-chain network that connects Oklahoma manufacturers to national and international markets.

As Congress begins debating the BUILD America 250 Act, a sweeping five-year transportation reauthorization proposal that would take effect in October 2026, transportation leaders across Oklahoma are watching closely.

The bill would authorize funding for highways, bridges, freight corridors, transit systems, rail programs and safety initiatives through 2031. The previous transportation legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was passed in 2021 and will expire at the end of September.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., called the BUILD America 250 Act, which would replace the prior law, the most important surface transportation bill since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System.

The proposal arrives at a pivotal moment for Oklahoma.

State leaders have spent years positioning Oklahoma as a logistics and freight hub. Industrial recruitment efforts increasingly emphasize the state’s location at the intersection of major transportation corridors. At the same time, transportation agencies face rising construction costs, aging infrastructure and uncertainty surrounding the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, the primary federal source of transportation funding.

The result is a transportation debate that extends far beyond roads alone.

“It’s all connected,” said Susan Howard, director of policy and government relations for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “You cannot do any of this with just one mode.”

Howard said state transportation agencies are focused on three priorities as Congress considers the legislation: stability, flexibility and predictability.

“The number one concern is always having a long-term bill done on time,” Howard said.

State transportation agencies often plan projects years before construction begins, making certainty about federal funding critical for long-term decision making.

Howard said states are also seeking flexibility to address different regional needs.

“The needs of some of the states that you work with are going to be different than states here in the Northeast or in the West,” she said. “We really need as much flexibility as possible.”

At the same time, she said, transportation agencies are increasingly balancing the desire for expansion with the practical reality of maintaining aging infrastructure.

“Our primary role is maintaining the system we have and making sure that it is safe and efficient and reliable,” Howard said.

That focus on reliability has become increasingly important as inflation and rising construction costs have reduced how much infrastructure agencies can build with available funding.

“What I hear from our members is more than anything, it helps keep their head above water because of the cost of inflation and how much project costs have gone up,” Howard said of recent federal transportation funding.

Freight Becomes the Focus

One of the clearest themes emerging from the BUILD America 250 Act is a growing emphasis on freight movement.

The legislation expands freight programs, places additional emphasis on high-priority freight corridors, creates new freight planning initiatives and includes provisions intended to improve movement of agricultural products and other commodities.

Those priorities closely mirror conversations already taking place in Oklahoma.

Transportation officials, economic developers and logistics providers increasingly describe highways, railroads, ports and warehouses as components of a single system rather than separate industries.

That perspective is evident at Tulsa Ports, where barge traffic, trucking and rail operations intersect.

Executive Director David Yarbrough said inland waterways often receive less public attention than highways but play a critical role in the freight network.

“Barge transportation doesn’t replace trucking or rail,” Yarbrough said. “It complements them.”

The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System links Oklahoma to the Mississippi River and global export markets. Agricultural commodities, industrial materials and manufactured goods move through the system.

Yarbrough said transportation planning increasingly focuses on how those systems work together.

A disruption affecting one mode often affects the entire network.

That observation was echoed by Sunderesh Heragu, Oklahoma State University professor of industrial engineering and management.

“Our biggest constraint is our ability to adapt to changes in the logistics environment caused by tariffs, wars, realignment of supply chains, weather-related events … and frequent changes in US government policies,” Heragu said.

Oklahoma’s Freight Ambitions

Those concerns are particularly relevant in Oklahoma, where economic development efforts increasingly emphasize logistics and distribution.

MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor has become one of the state’s most important industrial recruitment assets. Home to manufacturers, data centers and energy-related industries, the park depends heavily on transportation access.

Stewart said prospective employers routinely ask about freight movement, highway access and supply-chain reliability.

Projects such as the future Interstate 42 corridor have attracted attention because they could strengthen east-west freight connectivity across the region.

The proposed interstate designation would follow portions of U.S. Highway 412, connecting Oklahoma with Arkansas and other regional markets.

Supporters argue the corridor could improve freight mobility, strengthen economic development opportunities and improve connections among industrial centers, ports and distribution hubs.

Stewart views transportation investment as a long-term economic development strategy.

“It’s difficult to recruit industry if access is limited,” he said.

Preserving What Already Exists

While economic developers often focus on growth, transportation agencies face a more immediate challenge: preserving existing infrastructure.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s planning documents emphasize maintenance and asset preservation as core priorities.

Emily Long, ODOT’s public information manager, said the department’s Eight-Year Construction Work Plan and Asset Preservation Plan continue to guide transportation priorities across the state. Together, the plans outline projects involving highways, bridges, rail, ports and transit systems.

Long said ODOT is encouraged that Congress has begun work on a new transportation bill but is not yet prepared to assess how specific provisions could affect Oklahoma because the legislation remains in the early stages of the process.

“We always have the eight-year plan,” Long said.

Like transportation agencies across the country, ODOT faces rising construction costs and an aging transportation system that requires continuous investment.

ODOT actually has two plans. One, the Construction Work Plan, outlines new work to be done over the next eight years. The other, called the Asset Preservation Plan, describes work needed to extend the life of existing infrastructure.

“Across the country, DOTs have experienced nearly 18 years of cost inflation over just the last three years,” ODOT Executive Director Tim Gatz wrote in the foreword to the plan. “That reality forces us to stretch limited dollars even further, making asset preservation an even more critical strategy to protect the progress Oklahomans have invested in.”

Oklahoma’s transportation priorities are evident in the projects already moving through ODOT’s pipeline. The agency’s current Eight-Year Construction Work Plan includes major investments in Interstate 35 widening, the Chickasha Bypass and the accelerated replacement of the Roosevelt Bridge over Lake Texoma. In eastern Oklahoma, plans also include replacement of the Navigation Bridge between Gore and Webbers Falls and major work on an Interstate 40 bridge crossing the Arkansas River in Muskogee County. Together, the projects reflect a mix of freight mobility, economic development and long-term system preservation.

Dr. Norb Delatte, a civil engineering professor at Oklahoma State University, said transportation facilities are long-lived assets.

Many bridges and roadways remain in service for 50 to 100 years.

Yet funding and political decisions often occur on much shorter timelines.

“Transportation funding is usually popular because it creates jobs,” Delatte said. “Unfortunately, it also suffers from a lack of long-term planning.”

Delatte argues infrastructure planning should be aligned with infrastructure lifespans.

The challenge becomes more complicated when inflation and construction costs rise faster than transportation revenues.

“The gas tax is a fixed amount per gallon,” he said. “It has not been adjusted for many years.”

Meanwhile, vehicles continue becoming more fuel-efficient.

The Highway Trust Fund Problem

That funding challenge sits at the center of the federal transportation debate.

For decades, the Highway Trust Fund has served as the primary funding source for federal highway programs.

The BUILD America 250 Act attempts to address some of those concerns.

The legislation includes provisions intended to generate new transportation revenue, such as fees on electric vehicles and other highway users.

Howard said AASHTO has identified more than 100 transportation funding mechanisms currently in use across the country. In addition to traditional fuel taxes and registration fees, some states have adopted sales taxes, rental car fees, freight-related charges and other dedicated transportation revenues.

“States are really looking at everything,” Howard said.

The diversification reflects a broader concern among transportation agencies that traditional fuel-tax revenues may no longer be sufficient to meet future infrastructure needs.

More Than Highways

Although surface transportation bills traditionally focus on roads and bridges, the current proposal extends well beyond highways.

The legislation includes substantial funding for bridge programs, transit systems, passenger rail, freight initiatives and safety programs.

The bridge provisions alone would represent more than $50 billion in investment over five years.

The proposal also includes dedicated funding for truck parking, an issue frequently raised by trucking companies.

Matt Herndon, president and CEO of United Petroleum Transports, identified truck parking as one of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

As freight volumes increase, drivers often struggle to find safe and legal places to park.

The BUILD America 250 Act would authorize $150 million annually for truck parking initiatives.

Herndon also pointed to broader questions regarding future transportation funding and the need to ensure all highway users contribute to infrastructure costs.

Oklahoma generally compares favorably with many states from a trucking perspective, Herndon said, particularly because severe congestion is less common than in larger metropolitan areas.

Still, he said, carriers continue to watch projects such as the future I-42 corridor and major interchange improvements around Oklahoma City. He also expressed support for efforts to accelerate project delivery, arguing that transportation improvements often spend years moving through planning and permitting processes before construction begins.

Transit Remains Part of the Equation

While much of the transportation debate centers on freight movement and infrastructure, transit advocates argue that moving people remains equally important to economic growth.

Kristen Joyner, executive director of the Oklahoma Transit Association, said public transportation often receives less attention than highways despite playing a critical role in connecting workers to jobs, patients to healthcare and residents to essential services.

In many rural communities, she said, public transit is not a convenience but a necessity.

For older adults, people with disabilities and residents without reliable access to a vehicle, transit systems can determine whether someone can reach a medical appointment, grocery store or workplace.

“Transportation is about access,” Joyner said.

She noted that economic development projects frequently focus on freight access, industrial recruitment and highway capacity, but employers also need workers who can reliably reach job sites.

That issue becomes increasingly important as communities confront workforce shortages and an aging population.

Joyner said transportation planning works best when highways, freight systems and transit networks are viewed as parts of a larger system rather than competing priorities.

“They all work together,” she said.

The BUILD America 250 Act includes funding for urban and rural transit programs, bus facilities and state-of-good-repair grants, continuing federal support for transit systems alongside highway and freight investments.

For transit providers, Joyner said predictable federal funding remains important because many systems operate with limited local resources and long equipment replacement cycles.

Like highway agencies, transit operators often plan years in advance.

“We need certainty,” she said.

Delatte said transportation decisions often outlast the political and budget cycles that produce them.

As Congress debates the next transportation bill, Oklahoma transportation leaders said the challenge is not simply building new infrastructure, but maintaining and connecting the systems already in place. The state’s future competitiveness, they argued, will depend on how effectively highways, railroads, ports, transit systems and freight corridors work together.

Stephen Martin is an Oklahoma City-based journalist and contributor to Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at smartin0170@gmail.com.

The post Freight, Bridges, Rail and Transit: How the BUILD America 250 Act Could Reshape Oklahoma appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Clara Goletto no longer picks up the phone when calls come from unknown numbers. The last time she did, she lost $2,500. 

On March 19, shortly after nine in the morning, Goletto received a call. Her daughter was arrested the night before, so she wasn’t surprised to hear the voice on the other end identify himself as Deputy Humphrey from the Oklahoma County jail. 

But she was surprised by the declaration that came next: her daughter, the voice on the line said, had COVID-19. Goletto owed the jail $2,500 for related fees. She was stressed, running on three hours of sleep and was watching her grandchildren, whom she’d assumed temporary care of while their mother was in jail. Goletto was suspicious, but the caller seemed legitimate: he knew her name, her daughter’s name and, even stranger, she later thought, her grandchildren’s names. And, he’d called her directly. 

She read aloud her debit card information; the jail only took debit, Deputy Humphrey warned her. Goletto would learn later that credit cards offer significantly stronger fraud protection than debit cards.

Then, there was another charge, for $900, an extended bill on her record that Goletto needed to clear for her daughter to be eligible for bail. She tried to negotiate and succeeded. When the voices on the line — at some point, she said, two other purported jail officials had joined the call — said she could pay off the last charge for $100, Goletto realized she was being scammed. 

“Well, that was it,” said Goletto, who’s retired and lives on a fixed income with her husband. “There’s all my money. They just got me, and I couldn’t do anything about it.” 

Bail bond scams are not new, but they’ve become faster and more accurate with the aid of technology and scammers’ unprecedented knowledge of victims’ personal information. Faux bondsmen lingering outside jails, hoping to trap overwhelmed families or the occasional odd call claiming unpaid charges or warrants, are no longer the biggest threat. Today, the calls come immediately after an arrest, accurately address family members by name, and, with artificial intelligence, callers can fake legitimate phone numbers and impersonate real people, such as law enforcement and even the jailed person themselves. 

Victims and bondsmen are begging authorities to do more to stop them. 

“This is something completely different because it’s lightning speed,” said Jessica Hawkins, president of the Oklahoma County Bondsman Association and a bondsman operating out of Oklahoma County, Cleveland County and Canadian County for 15 years. “This is different because it hasn’t been shut down.”

Across Oklahoma, stories like Goletto’s — scam calls made to emergency contacts and payments demanded through Cash App, PayPal and Apple Cash, virtual third-party payment options that offer little buyer protection — repeat themselves. 

Oklahoma County bondsman Heather Chambers recalled an 83-year-old woman who paid $7,777.68 to a man claiming to be Sergeant Briscoe with an Oklahoma County anger management course for inmates. The phone call lasted several hours and ended with the scammer threatening to kill the bondsman – Chambers – that the woman had contacted. 

Three other bondsmen told similar stories: 

A young man who got out of jail received a call saying that if he didn’t send money via PayPal to the self-described bondsman on the phone, he’d be re-detained immediately. He sent the money less than 24 hours after his release.

A woman was transferred from federal custody to the Canadian County jail. Within minutes of being booked, the woman’s cousin got a call demanding an electronic payment to bail her out. The scammer knew about the relocation before her family did.

A mother who sent $2,000 via Apple Cash after a man identifying himself as a lieutenant offered her son a place in a pre-trial release program. The mother contacted a lawyer first, who said the call seemed legitimate. Hours later, her son called her. He hadn’t been booked yet. 

Concerned bondsmen and victims have rallied law enforcement to conduct investigations and crack down on scammers. In April, a bondsman wrote a letter to the attorney general, detailing the story of a woman scammed. 

The attorney general’s office is investigating, according to an agency spokeswoman, and the Oklahoma Insurance Department issued a public warning in March, urging people to verify information with the jail or a licensed bond company and never send money to strangers. 

Scammers with accurate details are more believable, and bondsmen don’t always know how they’re obtaining certain information. 

Some information is public, such as that found on jail blotters that publish the full name, photo, booking number, charges and bond amount. Facebook accounts such as OKC Jailbirds, which has more than 125,000 followers, post notable arrests daily. 

But blotters aren’t live feeds, Hawkins said. Jail blotters are sometimes updated once a day. Some jails don’t update blotters over the weekend. 

“It’s the amount of time from the person being booked in to their family receiving phone calls that’s mind-blowing,” Hawkins said. 

And phone numbers and emergency contacts, which arrested people may provide during booking, are not posted on the blotters. Yet, scammers have been able to contact family members within minutes. 

Bondsmen noticed an uptick in similar scams in the last year. Over five months, Hawkins counted at least 15 of her clients who were scammed. 

Goletto eventually signed a legitimate bail bond contract with A Absolute Bonds. Owner Tracey Halley-Terrell encouraged Goletto to file a police report. But, Halley-Terrell acknowledged, she’s not sure a police report can help. Previous clients filed reports and have been dismissed. Halley-Terrell filed one herself when a scammer claimed to be calling from her business, but police said she was not a victim. 

Halley-Terrell, who is president of the Oklahoma Bondsman Association Board, started working as a bondsman in 1997. At the time, she rarely saw scams.

In the early 2010s, they popped up every now and then. 

“You might have heard about it every once in a while,” she said. “But nothing like it is right now.”

Some bondsmen have tried to puzzle out clues themselves. A group of state bondsmen track scam calls on a Facebook thread. They tried to find a pattern between the booking officers and clients’ scammed families, but couldn’t. 

Julie Trepagnier, a bondsman for nearly 30 years, is in that group of eagle-eyed bondsmen. Cracking down on scams is in the group’s best interest. 

“It hits your morale because I’m busting my butt every day to do this, and these people are coming in, stepping on my toes, and then they take people’s money,” Trepagnier said. “Then they don’t have the money to pay us.

“It breaks my heart for my clients,” Trepagnier said. “But it hurts my business too. Now I don’t have that income.”  

Some, including Trepagnier, have tried to track down the scammers themselves. The calls often originate from toll-free or private numbers, or numbers registered to small businesses across the country with seemingly no connection. 

One phone number automatically hangs up if called; another is linked to a Google Voice number, which makes tracking down the owner nearly impossible without a subpoena, since the numbers aren’t part of public telephone directories. 

Lewis Garrison, director of the bail bond division at the Oklahoma Insurance Department, said the inability to trace phone numbers has made law enforcement investigations harder. 

Frustrated with hitting dead ends, bondsmen in December took the issue of scam calls to sheriffs’ departments. Suspecting foul play or moles within jails, they requested an internal investigation and dedicated probes into each scam. 

Katie Tolbert, a bondsman in Oklahoma City, complained to the Oklahoma County Detention Center in December and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office in April after a co-signer on one of her bond contracts was scammed out of thousands of dollars. Tolbert suspects it was an inside job and wanted someone held accountable.

“The timing of the contact, coupled with the personal and booking-specific information known to the callers, raised serious concerns regarding the misuse or unauthorized dissemination of inmate intake information,” she wrote to the attorney general. 

Tolbert hasn’t received a response.

“It’s very disappointing that no one seems to be taking these scammers seriously,” she said.

Some sheriffs’ offices have posted on Facebook to warn people of the scams, but bondsmen say that’s not enough.

David Stuckman, Professional Bail Agents of the United States president, said he’s pitched a public service campaign to the AARP in hopes the news would reach older audiences more effectively. 

Even so, Stuckman said, education may only go so far. He’s discussed the scams with the FBI and has been told that investigators are more focused on multimillion and billion-dollar fraud schemes than scams of a few thousand dollars. And the investigations are hard. 

“The sheriff and the police and the FBI and everybody, they can’t get ahead of it,” he said. 

Maya Henry is a summer 2026 intern at Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at mhenry@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Bail Bond Scammers Are Calling Families Within Minutes of an Arrest. Nobody Can Stop Them. appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Here is the audio of Oklahoma Watch’s published stories for the week of June 15, 2026.

– Full Week Playlist: Listen to all the stories back-to-back, without interruption.
– Individual Stories: Select and play any story you’d like to hear, at your convenience.

Full Week Playlist:

Individual Stories:

Fact Briefs:

Oklahoma Watch Is Looking for an Audio Story Sponsor
We’re currently seeking a sponsor for our audio stories. Thanks to our friends at Everlit for helping make this sponsorship feature highly customizable.

Interested in becoming a sponsor or would like to learn more? Contact Shaun Witt at switt@oklahomawatch.org or 405-824-1469.

The post Audio Stories: June 15, 2026 appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Oklahoma City’s eviction rates have doubled since 2016 and are more than double New York City’s.

More than 40% of evictions filed in Oklahoma County were from the same 100 properties.

Over the past 12 months, 37% of eviction claims were for less than $1,000. Fifty percent were for less than the median monthly rent. Only 1% were for more than six months’ median rent.

That information, and more, comes from a new data set compiled by The Eviction Lab at Princeton University in collaboration with Mental Health Association Oklahoma. The lab’s eviction tracker will now include Oklahoma City and be updated monthly.

Advocates said that Oklahoma’s eviction policies are attractive to large corporate landlords and harmful to tenants, and that policymakers should use the data to combat high filing rates across the state.

“It is really appealing to an out-of-state entity that is looking at a state to buy property or to build property if they know it will be easy and inexpensive to incorporate that (an eviction) into their business practices,” Amy Coldren, the director of advocacy and communications for Mental Health Association Oklahoma, said.

Coldren used Oklahoma’s eviction timeline, which is among the fastest in the country, and the state’s low eviction filing fees as examples of why it is easy for a landlord to use the eviction process as a rent-collection tool.

Rent Collection

Nearly half of all evictions filed in Oklahoma County during the first quarter of this year were dismissed, and, of those dismissed, 18% were dropped before the first court hearing, according to data previously released from Mental Health Association Oklahoma.

“There was a case in Oklahoma County this week that was for $33 in past due rent that was dismissed the same day the case was filed,” Coldren said. “The issue is not that landlords are trying to remove bad tenants from their properties, because in most cases it’s not resulting in a tenant moving, but it is damaging to the tenant.”

Coldren said policy changes to Oklahoma’s eviction timeline and the sealing of eviction records could be a start toward addressing the problem.

There have been several attempts to extend Oklahoma’s eviction timeline, but none have been successful.

Previous Oklahoma Watch reporting detailed how most eviction records remain publicly available indefinitely unless they are sealed or expunged by a judge. Even eviction filings that were dismissed in the tenant’s favor, filed in error, or were discriminatory, remain available to the public. Because those records are discoverable by other landlords, it can damage a tenant’s ability to find a place to live.

When landlords use the eviction process as a form of rent collection, it opens the door to serial evictions, in which landlords file multiple eviction cases against a single household to collect rent and additional fees without removing the tenants.

The addition of court fees and late fees makes it more difficult for tenants, especially those who are rent-burdened, to avoid being late on rent in ensuing months.

A quarter of Oklahoma renters qualified as extremely low-income, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. Those renters earned at or below 30% of the area’s median income, or about $30,000 for a four-person household. Affordable housing in Oklahoma is scarce, with an estimated shortage of 84,125 affordable, available rental homes.

Disproportionately Harming Women and People of Color

While the lack of affordable housing harms extremely low-income renters, leading to more evictions, the data from The Eviction Lab found that evictions in Oklahoma City disproportionately affect women and people of color.

Despite just making up 22% of renters in Oklahoma City, Black renters make up 37% of all evictions filed. Female renters also face high eviction filings, making up 46% of all evictions filed. Though it is more representative, with the group making up 52% of the entire renter population.

“If you’ve spent any time on the sixth floor of the Oklahoma County courthouse, you can see that the tenants that are there facing eviction are mostly women and they are mostly women of color,” Coldren said.

A previous Oklahoma Watch investigation found that women of color and mothers are drastically overrepresented in eviction court both in Oklahoma and nationally.

Oklahoma City’s Eviction History

This is not the first time Oklahoma City has been mentioned in research conducted by The Eviction Lab.

A decade ago, the lab published a list of the top 100 cities in the United States with the highest eviction rates. Oklahoma City ranked 20th, with an eviction rate of 6.19%. Tulsa ranked 11th, with an eviction rate of 7.77%.

The eviction map and ranking were among the lab’s first big projects, and they show data for every county in the U.S. from 2000 to 2018.

“The rate has doubled from back then,” Juan Pablo Garnham, the communications and policy engagement manager for The Eviction Lab, said.

Oklahoma City’s eviction rate is at 12%, according to the new data.

“Not much has changed in the legal aspect, but we have seen that eviction rates have increased a lot if we compare 2016 to the numbers we just published,” Garnham said.

Garnham used both Dallas and Austin as examples of cities where Oklahoma City has higher filing rates than. Dallas’ rates are at 10%, and Austin’s filing rates are just 5%.

“It’s (Austin) a city that has become increasingly unaffordable, yet the eviction filing rate is just 5%,” Garnham said. “Affordability and the rent prices are only one part of the problem.”

Garnham used the eviction rates of larger, more unaffordable cities, such as New York City and those along the West Coast, to further demonstrate that affordability is a factor but not the root cause.

“Policy has a big role to play,” Garnham said.

A Lack of Protections

Despite multiple attempts to balance the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, which often favors the landlord, the bills have repeatedly been left on the cutting room floor. This past legislative session, multiple bills fell flat.

Katie Dilks, Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation executive director, said there is some low-hanging fruit that policymakers can address to reduce Oklahoma’s eviction rates.

She said a reasonable increase in the filing fee for an eviction is a start to reducing eviction rates.

“Small claims court is supposed to be the people’s court; it’s supposed to be low-barrier, but the reality of the situation is that the vast majority of cases are eviction cases and debt collection cases,” Dilks said. “One side is represented, and often a frequent player, and the other side is often an unrepresented low-income Oklahoman.”

Dilks said that stronger tenant remedies are also a way to reduce eviction rates. That would include allowing tenants to withhold rent if a landlord fails to make repairs, as has been implemented in other states, and allowing courts to hold landlords accountable through injunctive relief.

Jake Ramsey covers evictions, housing and homelessness. Contact him at (405) 370-3798 or jramsey@oklahomawatch.org.

The post OKC Evictions Have Doubled in a Decade appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

The average price to eat out is not $28 in any state, including Oklahoma.

The telehealth company Top Nutrition Coaching compared the cost of eating out to the cost of eating in for the most populated city in each state. They found that in Oklahoma, the cost of eating out at an inexpensive restaurant was $12. The cost of eating in was three times less at $3.89, a difference of $8.11.

Nationwide, the average cost to eat out was $16.28 versus $4.23 to eat in. That’s almost four at-home meals for every one restaurant meal.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of food away from home has risen 3.6% nationwide between April 2025 and April 2026, while the cost of food at home has risen 2.9% – Oklahoma saw nearly the same increases at 3.6% and 2.5%, respectively.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• Top Nutrition Coaching Pros and Cons of Eating in
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Geographic Information
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, South Region — May 2026

The post Does eating out cost an average of $28 in Oklahoma? appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Six months after President Donald Trump warned states not to regulate artificial intelligence, some are forging ahead with their own laws anyway. Nearly all such efforts in the Oklahoma Legislature have hit a dead end.

Trump’s move to restrain states’ actions on AI drew criticism from members of both political parties and from civil liberties and consumer rights groups, who worried that banning state regulation would amount to a gift to AI giants, which enjoy little to no oversight.

Trump has made AI a top national and economic security priority, and he said that letting states clutter the regulatory playing field for an industry that’s spending trillions of dollars and driving the economy is too risky in the race with China for AI superiority.

But the president’s executive order didn’t seem to discourage states, including Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, and California, from trying to regulate the use of AI. 

More bills have been introduced this year than last, including by Republicans. Justine Gluck, policy director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit that advocates for data privacy in technology and whose members are from industry, academia and civic groups, told the Associated Press.

But some Republican-led states, including Florida, Utah and Oklahoma, have held back. 

State Rep. Carl Newton, R-Cherokee, authored a bill in 2025 that would have prohibited deepfake images of a candidate or political party on the state or local ballot within 90 days of an election. 

It never even got a committee hearing. 

“I think the knowledge part of the AI – we hate to limit that so we can get the usefulness out of it,” Newton said. “But I think AI shouldn’t be used to hoodwink people into thinking something’s true that’s not. I think there’s some appetite for that kind of law.”

In early June, Gov. Stitt said on CNN that he was considering calling a special legislative session to address the use of artificial intelligence in campaign advertisements to prevent voters from being misled about candidates’ positions and political alliances. 

“When I started seeing some AI-generated ads politically attacking people, putting them in different situations with people, I just thought, listen, we need to make sure that the voters have accurate information and the truth still matters in Oklahoma,” Stitt told the outlet on June 8.

Proposed this year, House Bill 3299 included strict guidelines for digital and synthetic material in political ads. 

It would also have made it unlawful to create and distribute digitized or synthetic media depicting another person’s name, image, voice or likeness in any context without written consent when done with the intent to cause emotional, financial, reputational or physical harm.

It passed out of the House’s Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee at the end of February, but that was as far as it got.

It included both a misdemeanor penalty for a first offense of up to one year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, or an elevated felony penalty if the offense causes financial harm exceeding $25,000, or if the media is used for extortion, coercion, blackmail, or to obtain anything of value through threats

Political advertising rules required disclosures for the use of digitally or synthetically altered images, with a penalty of a misdemeanor punishable by one year in jail or a $2,500 fine for failing to disclose the use of AI in a political ad.

Hays could not be reached for an interview this week. 

This year, Rep. Cody Maynard, R-Durant, filed a three-bill legislative package establishing what he said would be commonsense safeguards for the use of artificial intelligence in Oklahoma. 

All three cleared the Oklahoma State House of Representatives, but that was the end of the line for them. 

“I had to do a lot of education with people on why we need these, but they got caught up in the Senate this year,” Maynard said. “I’ll say this – a lot of bills got caught up in the Senate this year.”

Maynard’s proposed measures sought to clarify that artificial intelligence systems are not persons and cannot hold legal rights the same as employees of businesses or spouses entitled to filing joint tax returns; to ensure state agencies use AI responsibly with human oversight and disclosure to the public; and to try to protect minors from harmful AI chatbots and social AI companions.

Since Trump’s executive order includes exceptions for measures intended to protect children and none of Maynard’s bills sought to regulate business use of AI, he doesn’t believe any of his proposals would have run afoul of the president’s wishes. 

And Maynard hasn’t given up hope for his ideas.

“People are concerned about AI,” he said. “You know, the destroying of somebody’s name with something that is fake is very distressing, and AI has gotten so good that you can’t almost tell anymore that it isn’t real. It’s fair to say I will be looking at ways to bring back some of these ideas to craft new versions in the future. 

“I only get 8 bills to run each year, so I have to pick those 8 very carefully,” Maynard said.

One of the only exceptions to Oklahoma’s lack of AI regulations is Senate Bill 1734, which just created the Oklahoma Responsible Technology in Schools Act. 

Authored by State Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, and signed into law by the governor on May 12, the new law establishes guardrails on the use of artificial intelligence in public schools and requires parents to be notified annually about how the technology is used in their child’s classroom.

The measure requires teachers to review anything AI produces before using it in the classroom, for state education officials to establish guidance to local schools, and for local school boards to adopt their own AI policies, and it prohibits the use of AI tools as the primary basis for grading or student promotion or retention decisions.

Presidential Power Versus State Power

Trump issued an executive order directing the attorney general to create a task force to challenge state laws that are more than “minimally burdensome,” and directed the Commerce Department to draw up a list of problematic regulations. It also threatened to restrict funding from a broadband deployment program and other grant programs to states with AI laws.

The White House said it wouldn’t target state laws that seek to prevent fraud and protect consumers and children.

In the meantime, the Trump administration released a national policy framework in which it urged Congress to preempt state AI laws that are out of step with its regulatory worldview and to pass legislation to protect children, intellectual property rights and free speech. In recent days, a new bipartisan draft proposal in the House met withering criticism from key Democrats and Republicans.

The White House has given no indication that it has made good on its threat to enforce the president’s executive order by going to court against a state’s AI law or withholding money. In a statement, it said the Trump administration is eager to work with partners to enact its policy framework.

Many states haven’t been dissuaded from trying to regulate how AI is used. 

In Illinois, legislation on the desk of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker piggybacked on elements of laws passed last year in California and New York that require developers of large advanced AI models to create protocols to prevent their systems from causing a catastrophe, such as a biological weapons attack, power outage or large-scale hack.

Illinois also added a requirement that AI developers must have an independent auditor review whether they comply with their own policies. Analysts see it as a step toward requiring AI developers to take greater accountability for their products.

This kind of legislation is expected to expand to other states.

A growing number of states, including a mix of Republican- and Democratic-led states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Oregon, passed new laws this year to restrict how AI chatbots interact with people, especially children.

In many cases, states want companies to tell people when they are interacting with AI instead of a human. Many want chatbots to be restricted in how they interact with minors, parents to have control over their child’s access, and data given to chatbots to be kept private.

In recent weeks, Connecticut enacted provisions for companion chatbots that sustain an ongoing relationship with a human. Under them, chatbots must not be able to interact with someone under 18, unless it is programmed against encouraging self-destructive behavior and provides parents with tools to manage the child’s use.

Last month, Colorado required companies that deploy AI systems in important areas such as employment, education, housing or banking to tell people when it’s being used to influence a decision about them.

In Connecticut, lawmakers required employers who use employment-related AI systems to tell employees or job applicants that they are interacting with AI.

Meanwhile, Connecticut, Washington and Utah required AI developers to embed data into digital content that will allow users to determine whether the content — such as photos or video — has been created or altered by AI.

Andrea Eger covers a variety of topics for Oklahoma Watch. Contact her at aeger@oklahomawatch.org.

The post Oklahoma Holding Back on AI Regulations Amid Trump’s Order for States Not to Stifle the New Technology appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.