Temperatures in Oklahoma have risen by 0.6 degrees (F) over the last century. Extreme precipitation events are projected to increase, heightening soil erosion, flooding and runoff into streams and lakes. A 2023 report from the University of Oklahoma found that Indigenous communities across the state face higher flooding and rainfall risk. Warming temperatures and soil moisture loss can lead to an increase in drought frequency and severity. Oklahoma’s agriculture-based economy makes it particularly vulnerable to droughts which can lead to reduced crop and livestock production, drinking water shortages, increased wildfire risk, stress on ecosystems, and deterioration of air and drinking water quality. Extreme heat and dry conditions in the Oklahoma Panhandle have caused reduced wheat yields and increased labor demands for livestock. Meanwhile, an increase in pollutants and allergens, extreme heat and worsening air quality will impact public health and exacerbate socioeconomic disparities across the state.
As a Great Plains state, Oklahoma has a huge capacity for renewable wind energy production, which it is pursuing, although its commitment to an energy transition is unclear. In 2024, natural gas provided the majority of Oklahoma’s total electricity generation, reaching a record high in the state (50%). The state’s vast resource availability continues to drive its use, making Oklahoma the sixth-largest producer and eleventh-largest consumer of natural gas in the nation. Meanwhile, Oklahoma ranks third in the nation, behind Texas and Iowa, for electricity generated from wind. In 2024, wind supplied 41% of the state’s electricity. Renewable energy overall provided 47% of electricity generation, a massive increase from 20% a decade earlier. Oklahoma’s 10 hydroelectric power plants provided nearly 2% of electricity in 2024, while biomass accounted for 0.3% and solar for under 1%. While renewable energy is rising, coal use has been decreasing, down to 6% in 2024 from 63% in 2001 and 43% in 2014
In the 2010 Oklahoma Energy Security Act, the state made a commitment to 15% renewable energy by 2015, and in 2019 it produced nearly 35% of its net electricity from wind. However, in 2019 Oklahoma’s natural gas production also reached an all-time high at 3.2 trillion cubic feet. The state shows no signs of reducing its fossil fuel production soon; while the 2010 Energy Security Act established a natural gas energy standard declaring natural gas the preferred fossil fuel for new power plants, that specific legislative preference mandate expired in January 2020. Market-driven promotions continue independently, with Oklahoma Natural Gas providing residential energy rebates since 2011 and expanding them to commercial businesses in 2019.
When completed, Big Deer Wind, a 153-megawatt wind farm under active construction, will be one of the nation’s largest wind farms entirely on Native American land. The facility is being built on tribal trust land managed by the inter-tribal Chilocco Development Authority, under leases secured from five Oklahoma tribes: the Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation, Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Pawnee Nation, and Ponca Nation.
The Caddo Nation currently has two solar projects under development on their lands through its tribal utility enterprise, SAKU. To support these initiatives and expand tribal energy sovereignty, the nation partnered with the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology to launch specialized workforce training initiatives in renewable energy and utility development.
A sign of Oklahoma’s wavering pursuit of renewable energy is Governor Mary Fallin’s decision in 2017 to end the state’s tax incentives for wind energy more than three years early. The tax credit, Fallin said, was instrumental in establishing the wind industry in Oklahoma, which now ranks among the top three in the nation for installed wind power capacity.
While Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt has acknowledged climate change and the need to transition to clean energy, he downplayed the urgency at a 2019 Southern States Energy Board meeting, claiming “It doesn’t mean it’s an existential threat.” Governor Stitt has taken a business-centered approach to environmental policy, prioritizing profit and investments. The politics on climate change are heavily influenced by the fossil fuel sector, and Oklahoma’s senators are both prominent climate change deniers.
In 2023 a bill was introduced in the Oklahoma Senate that would defund public schools that introduce “climate change ideology” to students. The bill died in 2023, but similar bills continue to be introduced across the country.
Furthermore, a series of bills were introduced in Oklahoma targeting clean energy projects. Measures proposed in 2025 included House Bill 1044 and Senate Bill 2, which tightened restrictions by allowing county commissioners to ban the expansion or construction of wind projects near oil storage hubs or public infrastructure. Meanwhile, other legislation like Senate Bill 269 established regulatory frameworks placing carbon capture and geologic sequestration wells under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Corporation Commission, while lawmakers simultaneously introduced measures to explore nuclear energy expansion as a replacement for coal-fired power plants.
Oklahoma’s framework under federal programs and consumer impacts includes:
In spite of wide-spread skepticism of man-made climate change in Oklahoma, groups within the state still are finding ways to prepare for the future.
The Met Cares Foundation works to empower residents of North Tulsa, Oklahoma through youth workforce initiatives and school programs, and also leads environmental justice workshops along with ACTION Tulsa highlighting the racial disparities in asthma rates, lead paint exposure, pollution, proximity to toxic Superfund sites, infant mortality rates and more in North Tulsa. North Tulsans have a life expectancy 11 years shorter than South Tulsans, have an infant mortality rate twice as high, and black Tulsans are four times more likely to die from asthma than white Tulsans.
Representing the Local Environmental Action Demand Agency, an Oklahoma-based environmental justice organization, the Vermont Law Environmental Advocacy Clinic is urging FERC to hold Grand River Dam Authority accountable for toxic flooding events from its Pensacola Dam facility, which are harming neighboring communities and tribes living nearby, including along Tar Creek, one of the most polluted Superfund sites in the US.
CREDIT: DEMOCRACY NOW!
