Ethics questions swirl as lawmaker could profit from potential solar farm in Oklahoma
Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, speaks after a legislative committee hearing in January 2024. (Photo by Carmen Forman/Oklahoma Voice)
In late July, Rep. Justin Humphrey met with about a dozen landowners in a little diner in Daisy, a small unincorporated town in Southeast Oklahoma district, to discuss a deal.
In a recording of what was supposed to be a private meeting, the Republican from Lane told the men he summoned that he had received a call from “a company guy named Bruce.”
And Bruce came with an offer.
“So here’s where we’re at,” Humphrey starts, “They want to put together about 5,000 acres out here to put a solar farm. He presently wants to lease acreage for $800 an acre.”
He explains that the lease could last up to 50 years and that the deal also includes a biannual 2% increase to the monthly payment.
But before going any further, Humphrey wanted to say something right up front.
“Me and my brothers, we got skin in the game,” he said. “We’ve got land in this as well. So, I’m not here to try to talk you in or out.”
Humphrey’s disclaimer acknowledges something he doesn’t have to say outright but that everyone at the meeting knows: He’s an elected official.
State ethics rules — those that govern the behavior of state lawmakers — say he can’t negotiate business deals that he or his family would benefit from, especially if there is legislation involved.
“I’m looking at trying to pass a bill that says we’re not going to allow any foreign government ownership in our electrical grid,” Humphrey said.
That “Bruce” guy Humphrey mentioned works for Ørested (pronounced erh-sted), an energy company based in Denmark.
“If I’m involved in that, I won’t be able to run that bill,” he said.
The bill, which Humphrey hasn’t yet filed, but said he is working on, was inspired by an ongoing protest by the community against a proposed hydroelectric storage facility in the nearby Kiamichi River. Humphrey has come out against the project on Facebook because of alleged ties it has with the Chinese government.
Until now, Humphrey’s premise meant to stop Chinese ownership and influence in Oklahoma’s energy sector also included any foreign governments or foreign-owned companies. His thinking has shifted, he said, to specifying what entities he aims to prohibit since not all of them are a threat.
Ethics concerns
The same state rules prohibiting Humphrey’s behavior also protect officeholders like him from formal complaints during an election season. And the locals’ frustrations with what they call a lack of accountability measures have been mounting for years.
Charlotte Robins is the activist who recorded the meeting at the small diner in Daisy.
After listening to Humphrey explain the deal to the landowners, Robins confronted him.
“I have been for 10-plus years involved with the hydroelectric projects on the Kiamichi River, and they’re horrible,” Robins told Humphrey. “And the only reason they’re getting this far is because our local politicians go behind our backs, and they make deals for money that they personally profit from, not the people around them and not the community, and it is disgusting.”
To be clear, Humphrey hasn’t made any money from the deal yet. But Robins isn’t the only local frustrated with him soliciting their land for an energy project.
Donnie Corbin owns a restaurant on the banks of the Kiamichi River. He worries about what projects like this might do to the river and the tourism in the area his business relies on.
He says Humphrey first knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to sell his land to make way for a hydroelectric storage facility in late 2018. The company owning that project was called Tomlin Energy LLC. Its plan failed after The Choctaw Nation came out in opposition.
“We had already studied the project ourself and reached our own conclusion that it was a bad deal, that all they were interested in was buying our place, and they just kept making offers, making offers,” Corbin said. “And then I guess they decided they needed help. So they got J.J. [Humphrey] involved.”
Humphrey denies ever contacting Corbin, but some locals joined the Facebook group called Save The Kiamichi River and have vented about their grievances with Humphrey and the various energy projects in the area over the years. The group is more than 9,000 members strong.
Corbin said he tried to file conflict-of-interest complaints against Humphrey to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, but that election season ethics rules got in the way.
Humphrey has run for reelection uncontested since 2018. He didn’t appear on any ballots this year because he won his seat automatically. Still, a formal complaint can’t be made against him because he filed for candidacy.
Ethics Commission Executive Director Lee Anne Bruce Boone explained the rules in a phone interview.
“A lot of Oklahoma elections are decided in the primary,” Boone said. “We’ve already asked the general counsel, and she’s opined that the statute is really clear and says the blackout period is from filing through the end of the general election.”
Convincing his fellow stakeholders
The men who gathered to listen to what their Representative had to say came with questions.
They weighed the benefits and costs of the massive solar farm against that of their cattle ranches. They wondered how it would hurt the environment, tourism in the area and their ability to contract with oil drilling companies, which also pay hefty sums to operate on private land.
At least one landowner with a stake in the project didn’t show up to the meeting because, according to Humphrey, he wanted nothing to do with it.
When contacted for this story, Humphrey said he thought a solar project on his or his family’s land was a good idea, despite the apparent conflict of interest and opposition from some constituents.
He refused to share details showing how much land he and his family own within the project area, or documentation of a project outline. But besides being a lawmaker, Humphrey said the personal stakes are just as high for him as they are for the ranchers he spoke to.
“Do I think me making hundreds of dollars per acre and not have to go out in the wintertime and feed cattle, that I can not have to own thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and that I can make more money without investing more money. Do I think that’s a pretty good deal? Hell yes,” Humphrey said. “And anybody who says I shouldn’t is a damn liar.”
He said the project would bring property tax revenue into the area, which would be spent on local schools, that he doesn’t foresee any harm coming to the environment, and that solar panels are much less ugly than the massive windmills dotting the Ouachita Mountains right now.
“The wind towers,” Humphrey said. “I hate the things, but if they’re paying you $30,000 a tower, guess what, I can learn to like them a little better.”
At the meeting, he laid it out clearly for his fellow ranchers, using his own expected payout as an example.
“That’s going to knock us back, say, 200 acres on our land,” he said. “You’re talking about $160,000 a year, and all you have to do is go to the post office and get your check.”
Over 50 years, without accounting for a biannual 2% increase and certain taxes, that amounts to $8 million.
“Can we cut enough hay?” Humphrey asked them. “Can we sell enough cattle to ever even come close to that? The answer is no.”
And when one of the ranchers pointed out that most of the men in the room were seniors well past retirement age, meaning they wouldn’t see much of the money they were being promised, Humphrey had an answer for that too.
“I got diagnosed with cancer eight years ago,” he said. “I just want to make you aware because when you’re looking at what we’re talking about, we’re not talking about us in this room as much as we’re talking about our kids and grandkids.”
“Exactly,” one rancher exclaimed through a grumble of low hums of agreement.
Humphrey is planning an interim study on foreign ownership of Oklahoma’s energy sector next month. He said the attorney general’s office is helping him get the language right in the bill he’s drafting.
He says he’s thinking about banning “foreign adversaries now,” not all foreign governments or companies.
This article was originally published by KOSU.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Daisy is not in Rep. Justin Humphrey’s House District 19. It is In the adjacent House District 22. Additionally, the story has been updated to include Humphrey’s claims that his mother owns land in the project, not him and that he disputes Donnie Corbin’s record of events related to the 2018 hydroelectric storage project.
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