John Carlos Baez13h ago

As confirmed by a 2020 Supreme Court decision, 15% of Oklahoma is under jurisdiction of the Choctaw Nation. Now the Choctaw have used their power to prevent ICE from getting a big detention center!

https://www.projectsaltbox.com/p/choctaw-nation-buys-former-big-lots

Choctaw Nation Buys Former Big Lots Warehouse, Closing Off Oklahoma ICE Detention Site

The sale is the second time in months that a large Oklahoma warehouse pursued by ICE for detention use has instead gone to another buyer.

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Show threadChuck
@johncarlosbaez This is pretty freakin cool of them. I wonder if they could turn a half a million acres of Oklahoma into a solar farm and grid scale batteries, it could generate 250 GWhrs of clean energy every day. With the battery installations built under the panels (uses the same space), that could generate 10GW of baseline power continuously over 24hrs of every single day. The Chocktaw nation would be rich beyond their wildest dreams.
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Show threadJohn Carlos Baez11h ago

@ChuckMcManis - the Choctaw don't own most of the land over which they have jurisdiction, and I can't quickly find out how much land they do own. So far they seem to be doing solar on a smaller scale:

The Choctaw Nation Solar Farm in Durant, Oklahoma sits on 35 acres of land and contains more than 15,300 solar panels. It's a partnership with Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), which constructed and operates the facility.

The farm first came online in August 2020 producing 5 megawatts, and expanded it to 10 megawatts by the end of 2021. Many Choctaw Nation facilities — including tribal government, culture, and health centers — receive a portion of their power from the farm, with each of the 58 connected facilities using solar for up to half of their total power.

The Nation saved $69,000 on energy costs in the first 90 days after the farm went online. The tribe also avoided price spikes during the devastating February 2021 winter storm because half their power consumption came from solar.

The utility authority director has mentioned the longer-term possibility of the Choctaw Nation moving into energy production itself, though that was described as still far off.

Show threadChuck11h ago
@johncarlosbaez Jurisdiction gives them the power of condemnation. They would have to compensate the original owners of course. The Navajo Nation, for example, maintains the Land Trust for that. There is case law on the the Navajo Nation Eminent Domains statute, but I cannot find the case I have a memory of where the tribe used it to take some ranch land for use in a water project. But glad to hear they are forward thinking on solar! Go Choctaw Nation!