Members Of Congress Tour GRDA Power Plants For Look At Oklahoma Energy Diversity

Lawmakers from several parts of the country came to Oklahoma Friday to learn more about the state's energy portfolio.

GRDA said the tour is the perfect opportunity to showcase how it generates power across the state to lawmakers who will ultimately shape the country's energy policies.

Lawmakers started their tour at the Grand River Dam Authority's power plant in Pryor. They came to learn more about what makes Oklahoma's energy strategy so strong.

GRDA's president and CEO Dan Sullivan said the plant is home to a unique and highly efficient generator.

"This is the most efficient natural gas unit in the United States, and to see that right here in Oklahoma, burning Oklahoma natural gas is important to us and is important to our customers," he said.

It's important to lawmakers too, like U.S. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and Oklahoma Representative Markwayne Mullin who helped bring the tour together.

"We went to a power plant, they have coal, and they have natural gas. We're at a hydro dam here, where it's renewable. There's wind that they put onto the grid, it's an all of the above approach and that's energy security," Mullin said.

"It's good to see that," Scalise said about the tour. "And you can then go talk about it in real terms, not just hypothetical, but actually talking about what you saw on the ground in different places."

Oklahoma Secretary of Energy & Environment Kenneth Wagner said having multiple ways to generate power - and direct access to fuel - is what makes GRDA, and the state, uniquely positioned to weather tough storms like we saw this winter and to lead the country to a greener future.

"We really are not only a leader in all forms of energy, but we are an environmental leader," Wagner said. “We’ve actually reduced carbon three times the national average. So. it’s something to be enormously proud of.” 

Around 70 people, 18 of them lawmakers, toured the plants Friday.