The House Energy and Natural Resources Oversight Committee considered a series of bills at its Feb. 1 meeting, adopting committee recommendations for a set of bills across water resources, agriculture, food policy and energy. Below are outcomes and key details. Vote tallies are the committee totals recorded during the meeting.
- House Bill 1817 (Worthen): Create a program with the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and a tier-1 university to train and educate water-well drillers and pump installers. Committee action: reported do pass (vote tally not specified in the transcript beyond a "do pass" report).
- House Bill 2829 (Burns, cultivated meat restriction): Prohibits retail sales of cultivated (lab-grown) meat for consumption while allowing research in universities. Committee action: reported do pass; recorded vote 11 ayes, 2 nays.
- House Bill 1162 (Gann): Raised minimum monthly gallons sold for a dairyman's request from 300 to 500 gallons. Committee action: reported do pass; recorded vote 11 ayes, 2 nays.
- House Bill 1910 (Alonzo Sandoval; urban agriculture cost-share): Establishes an urban agriculture cost-share program within the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to support urban farming and food-production projects. Committee action: reported do pass; recorded vote 13 ayes, 1 nay.
- House Bill 1189 (Rick West; Right to Garden Act): Establishes a right for citizens to grow vegetables on personal property for personal consumption and clarifies that municipal ordinances related to size and proximity and HOAs were discussed; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 12 ayes, 3 nays.
- House Bill 1191 (Rick West; donkey milk): Adds donkey milk to provisions in Oklahoma milk statutes and allows advertising of on-farm donkey milk sales; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 12 ayes, 3 nays.
- House Bill 2162 (Brimsky; invasive woody species): Expands a conservation commission program to eradicate invasive woody species statewide; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 14 ayes, 1 nay.
- House Bill 2156 (Brimsky; solar facilities regulation): Establishes regulation for industrial solar facilities and battery storage; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 15 ayes, 0 nays.
- House Bill 1374 (vice chair / PCS; behind-the-meter industrial generation): Allows private industry to provide behind-the-meter power to their tenants and facilities without retail sales back to the grid; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 16 ayes, 0 nays.
- House Bill 1371 (production revenue standards act adjustments): Adjusts PRSA interest penalties and royalty-payment rules; sponsor described ongoing stakeholder negotiations; committee reported do pass, recorded vote 15 ayes, 0 nays.
- House Bill 2747 (Caldwell; omnibus energy): See separate article. Committee reported do pass, recorded vote 13 ayes, 2 nays.
- House Bill 2751 (Caldwell; wind setbacks and county opt-out): Sets setbacks and creates county referendum mechanism; committee adopted a technical amendment and reported the bill do pass, recorded vote 10 ayes, 6 nays.
Several other procedural motions were adopted during the meeting, and the committee adjourned after completing the agenda. Where the transcript did not record a numeric tally for a vote, the entry lists the committee action as reported by the chair as recorded in the hearing transcript.
Timing: The meeting began at 9:00 a.m.; the committee adjourned after the last agenda item. Several bills were taken out of order to accommodate authors with commitments to other committees.
Note: This roundup reports committee actions and recorded tallies as stated on the hearing record; it does not report final House or Senate floor outcomes.