US Senator Markwayne Mullin spoke at Waypoint Lounge to a group of community leaders this week about a wide range of topics, including immigration and ICE, DHS funding, Voter ID, Iran, and, of course, his interactions with President Trump.
But the most locally relevant moment came when City Councilor Hugo Naifeh stood up to ask Mullin about data centers—a term on everyone’s mind as nearby Sand Springs sorts through its own controversy over a proposed Google data center.
Mullin said he was aware of the skepticism from smaller towns that aren’t sure what to make of such a massive project in a rural area.
“It’s a game changer,” Mullin said. “The amount of revenue that brings to your city, into your water and wastewater facilities, into your high schools … it’s pretty hard to ignore.”
Mullin acknowledged that data centers typically do not bring massive direct employment—at least, not long-term.
“Most of them are not going to hire three or four hundred people,” he said. “Maybe a hundred full-time jobs.”
However, he argued that the long-term benefit would come through an expanded property tax base and infrastructure investment.
He pointed specifically to the Google data center in Pryor, which opened 15 years ago and has been a boon for the community. In a recent News On 6 story, the superintendent of Pryor Public Schools said that Google’s investment into the community has increased property values and afforded it opportunites most school districts in the state—especially those in rural communties—rarely see.
“Go look at what Google has done for that community,” Mullin said. “Private investment has changed the facilities, the schools—it’s amazing.”
The impact has been measurable. In 2007, Pryor School’s overall net assessed value was $80 million; today it’s $1 billion. The school district is one of the few in the state that collects more tax revenue locally than it would be due in state aid.
Opposition to data centers nationally has often centered on energy load and water consumption.
Mullin said new federal policy is moving toward requiring facilities that connect to the grid to generate excess power, reducing strain on existing infrastructure. “The grid connection can’t be a main source. It has to be a redundancy source,” he said.
Mullin also pointed to water recycling practices used by many data centers.
“The ones we’ve been looking at are very efficient,” he said, noting that much of the water is reused multiple times and discharged cleanly back into the watershed.
He argued that eastern Oklahoma’s abundant water supply and energy resources make the state particularly competitive.
Mullin argued that Oklahoma is unique for data centers in that it has a lot of natural gas, and doesn’t have the water shortage problems of other states.
“Oklahoma is very, very rare. We have an abundant amount of water and an abundant amount of gas,” Mullin said. “That makes us a perfect spot.”
According to the Energy Information Administration, Oklahoma ranks among the top U.S. states in natural gas reserves and production, making it a strong energy hub. It has more than 6% of the nation’s proved natural gas reserves and traditionally strong output.
Even critics of large data center projects acknowledge that Oklahoma’s water resources are relatively strong compared with someother states, though not unlimited. Still, they say that with careful managment, Oklahoma could stand to gain a lot in tax revenue and infrastructure upgrades to coincide with a bigger investment that companies like Google are already making into the state.
