Quick Note: Oklahoma, Moving Backward Two Steps at a Time

Oklahoma Governer Mary Fallin (R)

1. Oklahoma: Minimum Wage - Keep it Low
With legislation to increase the federal minimum wage stuck in Congress, several states and cities have taken steps on their own to ensure their citizens are paid a living wage.   Activists in Oklahoma City were in the process of gathering signatures to put a new minimum wage rate on the local ballot when the Republican dominated Oklahoma legislature preempted that attempt and, instead, chose state-sponsored stagnation over progress.

On Monday, Governor Mary Fallin (R) signed a measure that bars localities from increasing the minimum wage or from requiring that employers provide benefits like sick or vacation days.  At the signing, Ms. Fallin said the law "protects our economy from bad public policy that would destroy Oklahoma jobs."  

These conservatives must all work from the same Handbook of Excuses for Which We Offer No Evidence.

2. Oklahoma: Alternative Energy - Make it High
Also on Monday, the state legislature caught everyone off guard by tacking an anti-alternative energy amendment onto an unrelated bill.  

If Governor Fallin signs the bill, as she expected to do, Oklahoma residents who install solar panels or wind turbines on their property will be required to pay a monthly surcharge to their local utility company.  Not unsurprisingly, the bill was strongly supported by Oklahoma's major utilities. 

Kathleen O'Shea of Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. said, "We're not anti-solar or anti-wind or trying to slow this down, we're just trying to keep it fair.  We've been studying this trend.   We know it's coming, and we want to get ahead of it."

Sub-text:  If people generate their own electricity, they won't be paying us as much so we have to find a way to keep billing them...even if we provide no service.

As solar energy advocates point out, solar generates during peak hours.  Solar panels that feed excess energy back to the general grid help alleviate the demand during that peak use.  Wear and tear on utility lines is also lessened because less energy is being transmitted to solar panel or turbine owners.

Let's hear it for Oklahoma Republicans, guardians of profits over people and champions of the 20th Century.