The Hot Seat: Gov. Stitt Touts Free Market Energy Solutions, Calls For Permitting Reform

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt emphasized the importance of a reliable and affordable energy grid, highlighting natural gas as the bedrock, on the "Hot Seat" Saturday.

Stitt also discussed his support for free market energy solutions, including renewable sources like solar, wind, and biofuels, as long as they avoid taxpayer subsidies.

"Well, Governor Burgum is a great choice, so he's a friend of mine, the governor of North Dakota. We're really good friends, and so we kind of see the world the same way we believe in a reliable, affordable energy grid. It's so weird to us to think about how people don't understand people need to heat their homes, their businesses, they need to drive their kids to soccer practice and piano lessons. And so we have to have a reliable, affordable energy grid, and that bedrock of that is natural gas, right? Renewables are supplemental, but you have to have a base load of natural gas generation or coal generation."

Stitt went on to express his support for free market energy solutions, including renewable sources like solar and wind, as long as they avoid taxpayer subsidies:

"We believe in free markets, right? And so if a developer has their own land and they want to put up windmills and they want to connect that to the grid, more power to them. That's the free market system. I would never be for subsidies and for putting and taking money from this person and saying, 'Hey, let's go ahead and subsidize this industry.' That's the thing that's gotten out of control. But as far as solar and wind and all that, and that's great hydrogen and, you know, bio fuels and SAP, which is a which is an aviation fuel that in some of the European countries, are forcing their airlines to mix with their with their jet fuel. Those are all things that, as long as we don't use taxpayer subsidies to do it, it's a free market."

Stitt also discussed the need for permitting reform to streamline the development of new pipelines and energy infrastructure, noting the inefficiency of the current process compared to other countries:

"We cannot allow new pipelines to provide natural gas to our allies coming out of Oklahoma and going to the going to our allies in Europe or Asia to not be developed. And when we take seven years longer than China or other European nations to develop infrastructure, that's a problem. And we have so much litigation and so much federal bureaucracy that's that's jamming that wheel up and gumming everything up that I know President Trump, Republican, Democrat governors alike need are all in agreement to, let's kind of, let's kind of free those gears up so the innovation of American companies can start meeting the needs of Americans, and we can start having a free market do."