McAlester News-Capital, McAlester, OK

Local News

August 23, 2012

Inhofe wants McAAP to benefit from royalty payments; lauds highway bill

By James Beaty Senior Editor

McALESTER — Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, says he’s addressing the issue of how royalties would be paid for gas well drilling involving property at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant.

That includes any horizontal drilling that would affect McAAP property, the senator said.

The base covers a sprawling 45,000 acres.

“We want the royalties to go to the McAlester depot,” Inhofe said — referring to royalty payments that would go to McAAP, as opposed to going into a general fund.

Inhofe said he’s working on the royalty issue and he’s hopeful he can get it approved.

The senator made the statements when he sat down for an interview with the News-Capital during a Wednesday trip to McAlester.

During the trip, he toured the McAlester Army Ammunition plant with Heidi Shyu, the acting assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology.

He later attended a fund-raising dinner at the McAlester Country Club. Inhofe faces election again in 2014 and he also has a Political Action Committee.

Referring to recent action in the U.S. Senate, Inhofe spoke of  passage of the Highway Reauthorization Bill, which he considers as a major accomplishment. Passage of the bill maintains highway funding for 27 months.

Inhofe considers that much more preferable than the alternative — providing highway funding through passage of a series of short-term extensions, which is probably what would have happened if the 27-month compromise hadn’t been reached.

“If you operate on extensions, you can’t plan ahead,” said Inhofe, who served as one of the bill’s chief negotiators on the Senate side.

The bill provides $600 million per year for Oklahoma. Also, Oklahoma is not a donor state — a state that sends more to the treasury in revenue than it gets returned in transportation dollars — under the 27-month measure.

Inhofe had to persuade some of his fellow GOP members to accept the compromise, while others refused to budge from their opposition.

“I was upset with some of my fellow Republicans,” Inhofe said.

Some of the very Republicans who voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout in 2008,  as well as the subsequent $300 billion housing bailout, were against passing the highway bill, Inhofe noted.

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