The ice and snow that hit much of Oklahoma this past week created some challenges for us in the House, just as I’m sure it affected many in our House district.

The House shut down Tuesday, forcing very full committee meetings to be rescheduled.

Leadership extended the deadline for policy bills to be passed out of regular committee until Monday, Feb. 24, but this put some additional pressure on committee chairs and House staff to reconfigure agendas.

Thankfully, we have some extra time in the schedule this year because of our oversight committees.

We should be fine hearing bills on the House floor before third-reading deadline.

At home in the district last weekend, I had many discussions about our energy and utility challenges, including the need to strengthen state eminent domain regulations instead of allowing the federal government to gain control of property here in the state.

House Bill 2728 passed the House 86-3 on Thursday creating the REINS Act to reform the administrative rules process.

The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act is modeled after the similar federal legislation to give better review of agency rules to control the growth of bureaucracy.

In the House Energy Committee, I secured unanimous passage of House Bill 2156.

This is an attempt to create some reasonable setback provisions for large commercial solar generation facilities and industrial battery storage centers in the state.

To date, there have been no provisions for setbacks of any kind for these types of facilities. Several of these requirements match what have been in place for wind facilities for a number of years.

The measure also adds some provisions for wildlife and residential dwellings that would be adjacent to these new facilities.

It preserves property rights for individual landowners choosing to participate in these projects, while accounting for the rights of adjacent neighbors.

In Utilities Committee, rescheduled because of Tuesday’s closure, we passed four bills.

House Bill 2747 promotes affordable and reliable energy generation by championing Oklahoma’s abundant natural gas resources while also restoring state control over high-voltage transmission infrastructure to ensure ratepayer and landowner protections.

It creates regulation by the Corporation Commission to oversee a competitive bidding process for construction of transmission and ensures ownership and operation of those lines by incumbent state utility companies that serve Oklahoma ratepayers.

This is a significant step towards securing our affordable energy future.

House Bill 2751 would put in place a setback from wind turbines in counties that meet certain wind speed and population density requirements.

A setback of 2.5 times the fall down height of a wind turbine from the property line or a quarter mile from an occupied dwelling, whichever is greater, would be required in the counties that meet the criteria.

These include average wind speed below 9.5 mph according to Oklahoma Climatological Survey and; population density greater than 8.5 per square mile according to the 2020 US Census.

This bill should help us mitigate disputes between property owners.

House Bill 2752 puts into statute what is already being practiced in common law, which says you cannot use eminent domain for the construction of energy, solar, battery, hydrogen gas or other renewable facilities on private property.

House Bill 2756 is a companion measure being called the “be a good neighbor” bill.

It would establish a certifi cate of authority to be shared up-front with neighboring property owners when different entities are planning to build facilities such as wind turbine farms, high voltage transmission lines or others.

The bill contains some notification requirements for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as well.

Next week, we will move into our new second-step with oversight committee hearings.

I will be working my bills in various committees as well as serving on Energy and Natural Resources Oversight.

Please remember, if I can help you with something, do not hesitate to reach out.

You also can follow regular updates on my House Facebook page or call or email anytime at (405) 5577407 or Mike.Dobrinski@okhouse.gov.