Protests Prompt Cancellation of $1.5 Billion Power Project in Southeast Oklahoma

TUSKAHOMA — A Texas developer canceled plans for a $1.5 billion hydroelectric storage project in this southeast Oklahoma river community last week, citing protests by 200 residents and opposition from the Choctaw Nation.

Tomlin Energy LLC proposed using the Kiamichi River drainage to produce power that would stabilize grids in Oklahoma and Texas during extreme weather conditions. Promises to create 500 new jobs, generate $12 million in annual county tax revenue and provide ambulance service to an area that lacks it convinced a Pushmataha county commissioner and a state legislator to the plan.

A Pushmataha County district court judge revoked water rights the state had granted in 2019, ruling that Tomlin Energy failed to notify owners of the plan early enough. Resubmitting a water use application to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, developer Daniel Tomlin Jr. said he sent more than 19,000 letters to residents.

His response convinced him to scrap the project on Wednesday.

“The local people, they just don’t get it, I don’t think so,” Tomlin said. “They started all these rumors and passed them on. As soon as we resolved something with the water board, we were going to have another lawsuit, for which we don’t have time. We already lost two and a half years on that.”

In interviews with oklahoma clock Made before Tomlin’s decision, landowners express fear that the proposed plant and accompanying reservoirs will doom the…