2004 Town Hall...

On October 10 - 13, invited participants assembled at the Norman Employee Development Training Center for the annual Town Hall. Through collaboration and consensus building, these participants will prepare thoughtful and actionable public policy recommendations that will serve to improve Oklahoma’s roadmap on the use of two of our natural resources: Water and Energy.

Oklahoma's Environment: Pursuing a Responsible Balance!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction

The 2004 Town Hall in many ways was a counterpart to the 2003 Town Hall focus on “Oklahoma Resources: Water and Energy.” In that Town Hall we considered the supply of energy and water, but saved environmental issues relating to energy and water for another day. This Town Hall focused on the environment and promoted a theme of “Pursuing Responsible Balance” with regard to Oklahoma ’s social, commercial, governmental and environmental concerns.

Oklahoma faces considerable environmental challenges. Some are apparent and agonizingly public such as the Tar Creek Superfund project and controversies surrounding chicken and hog production. Other challenges are less obvious such as how property rights balance against environmental regulation, how tribal sovereignty may affect state environmental policy and enforcement, are we fated to urban sprawl and, finally, can Oklahoma agree upon what sustainable development is and, indeed, reach sustainability?

Our state is fortunate that this generation has the capacity to foresee these challenges. This Town Hall believes that serious citizen discussion of these challenges is necessary for Oklahoma to prosper, in the broadest sense.

The Town Hall

A diverse group of 130 invited Oklahomans participated in a 2 ½ day collaborative conference addressing several major questions pertaining to sustainability. The participants included farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, educators, legislators, post-high school students, and representatives of small businesses, large corporations, Native American tribes and state agencies. Each person was selected to be a piece of the mosaic that would represent all perspectives in the state.

The Town Hall required participants to deliberate and discuss the presented issues. The participants were divided into 5 groups (we call them Panels) of approximately 25. Each Panel independently discussed and addressed a standard set of questions. An experienced Academy Board member facilitated each Panel discussion. The proceedings of each Panel were recorded and synthesized by experienced young attorneys who we refer to as Recorders.

At the end of the discussion sessions, the Recorders for each Panel crafted the consensus of all Panels. The final Findings document representing that consensus was presented to the entire group, and the final morning of the Town Hall was spent debating and resoling any differences.

Findings and Recommendations

Sustainability

• The State of Oklahoma must develop a long-range strategic plan for environmental sustainability.  The plan should be announced in 2007 (Centennial) and be titled “Looking Forward: Our Next 100 Years.”  The plan should be coordinated by the Secretary of the Environment and supported by the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals by convening organization meetings.  The Academy should coordinate a public education marketing campaign to help define Oklahoma’s collective vision --- celebrating the current positive sustainable stewardship of the land and bragging rights about 95% private ownership, among other things related to sustainable efforts; identifying incentives for sustainability, education about utilizing availability services such as conservation trusts.  The marketing campaign should outline the need for a long-range strategic plan for environmental sustainability and should include a call to action.  The marketing should be distributed through OETA, Cox Cable, print media and DVD.

Land and Water

• The Oklahoma Academy Town Hall supports the concept of a federal/state match for an environmental bond issue that would be between $8 to $15 million for a Conservation Reserve Enhanced Program (CREP) to address control of environmental concerns in priority watershed areas and for continued research on the possible viable uses for animal waste, with specific focus on chicken litter.  This should be an 80-20 federal/state match.  A state match of $8 million would obtain $32 million in federal funds.

Tribal and State Relations

• Creative and fair compacting with Oklahoma tribal governments and the State is crucially important to achieve fair and equitable statewide regulatory processes regarding water, air and solid waste that are consistent and predictable and fully honor the sovereignty rights of the tribes.  Input from all stakeholders (the tribes, industry, state regulatory agencies, private landowners and the EPA) must be sought in these discussions.  Knowing that there is a clear art to these discussions, it is very important that this “know-how” be institutionalized.  The art, the know-how and the contents of these discussions are critical to future negotiating and compacting. It should not be lost with the changing of administrations.  Therefore the Oklahoma Academy Town Hall recommends the creation of a permanent office to be a repository of factual information on the negotiation and compacting discussions and decisions.  This office and staff would not change with the changing of administrations. It would provide continuity and ensure that the dialogue continues.  This office would collect and maintain Oklahoma’s history, work and information on negotiations and compacts.  An appropriate name might be the Office of State and Tribal Affairs.  It could draw upon the various universities to coordinate and provide analysis, if necessary.

Universities

• Applied interdisciplinary research in support of the development and implementation of a long-range strategic plan for sustainability is essential to advancing sustainability practice in Oklahoma.  The Oklahoma Academy Town Hall recommends that the Oklahoma Legislature allocate funds to an organization such as the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to be distributed to higher educational research institutions in a competitive grants program.  The research agenda should be defined by the state’s environmental agencies to ensure that the research addresses critical sustainability issues in Oklahoma.