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Oklahoma proposes privatizing power plants to pay for budget gap

Logan Layden
/
StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s budget gap next year could amount to well over half a billion dollars.

To plug the hole, lawmakers in Oklahoma City are discussing selling some of the state’s power plants.

As StateImpact Oklahoma reports, the Sooner State has considered the idea of selling the Grand River Dam Authority to make up for the budget shortfall. The plan would involve selling some of Oklahoma’s hydroelectric dams, as well as a coal-fired plant.

Lawmakers plan to soon introduce a plan to sell the Dam Authority. If the plan is approved, the power plants would be given over to private enterprises. The GRDA’s sale could be worth more than a billion dollars.

The Grand River Dam Authority is currently a state-owned, non-appropriated, non-profit utility. This isn’t the first time the sale of the GRDA has been floated, but the bills always failed in the past.