Questions under review

Alphabet's own assured environmental report for fiscal year 2025 lists the Mayes County site at about 1,081.4 million gallons consumed and about 1,396.7 million gallons withdrawn. Those are two different measures. Consumption is not the same as water taken out of a source, and neither figure by itself says what the effect on an aquifer would be. A local news interview in May 2026 quotes the Pryor mayor at over 1 billion gallons a year, with recycling; that interview is not a meter audit.

Caveat: Nothing in these sources describes Cimarron County's water supply, the Ogallala aquifer, or any proposed project here. A figure from Mayes County is context from another Oklahoma county, not a prediction.

Sources: Alphabet FY2025 environmental indicators assurance letter, PDF p. 10, Mayes County row (as cited in the October 8, 2026 deck check). KWCH reporting republished by WIBW, May 14, 2026.

House Bill 2992, the Data Center Customer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026, was approved by the governor on May 11, 2026, and took effect July 1, 2026. It covers new computing facilities that contract to add at least 75 megawatts, per facility or in aggregate behind one interconnection, after July 1. It calls for separate tariffs or terms and for cost-causation protection, generally with a 10-year service term. It also requires notice of certain land purchases, within 60 days, to the Corporation Commission, county commissioners, and abutting owners.

That notice applies to covered land outside an industrial development park or a municipality, and it is not a rule for every data center of every size. The law is not a guarantee that electric bills stay the same. Behind-the-meter generation is treated differently, and a public-power financing exception qualifies the ten-year term.

Sources: Oklahoma legislative history, HB 2992 (2026 session); current 17 O.S. §901 (OSCN); enrolled act. Checked October 8, 2026.

No. The district's net assessed value grew from about $80 million in 2007 to approximately $1 billion, as reported by the superintendent in January 2026, and the district is flagged "off the formula" for Foundation and Salary Incentive aid. It still shows a state allocation of $111,194.16 on the State Department of Education's FY2027 adjusted initial allocation sheet (August 5, 2026). "Off the formula" does not mean no state money of any kind, and the value growth is district-wide, not a cash payment from one company.

Separately, a 2022 investigation reported more than $239 million in state ad valorem reimbursements over the preceding decade and $113.9 million in income-tax credits since 2017. Those are historical figures through June 2022, paid in significant part by Oklahoma taxpayers, not an updated total and not "taxes the company paid."

Sources: News On 6, January 13, 2026; OSDE FY2027 initial allocation spreadsheet, August 5, 2026; The Frontier, June 8, 2022.

Stillwater's October 7, 2024 draft plan describes an initial annual payment in lieu of taxes of $867,568 for Phase 1, including $624,022.98 for schools, plus an initial city betterment payment of $132,432, with 1% annual escalation and a 25-year, 100% exemption on qualifying new investment. The city's project page estimates about $2.25 million per phase per year in franchise-related revenue when fully operational, and about 30 jobs per phase. The cross-check treats these as draft terms and estimates. It does not establish that every phase starts at the same dollar amount, and it does not verify that no payments of any kind have been made.

Claremore's city release of August 28, 2026 announces approximately $172.5 million in payments in lieu of taxes over 25 years, including $100 million for Sequoyah schools, plus a $5 million betterment commitment and $3.1 million in infrastructure deposits. A $21.552 million irrevocable letter of credit is security, not cash to add to the total. These are announced commitments, not an audited record of money received.

Sources: Stillwater draft plan, October 7, 2024; City of Stillwater project page; City of Claremore release, August 28, 2026; KJRH, August 30 to 31, 2026.

The core restriction from Senate Bill 609 (2021) is still in current law. For property in NAICS 518210 (data processing), the general placed-in-service cutoff remains December 31, 2021. An exception remains for eligible personal property placed in service by December 31, 2036, at qualifying real property that had already obtained a personal-property exemption within the five years before November 1, 2021. So "new data centers were cut out" is fair shorthand only with that grandfather qualification. It does not mean older exemptions ended, and it does not mean a brand-new facility automatically receives a five-year state-reimbursed exemption today. Local incentive or payment-in-lieu arrangements are a separate question from the state exemption.

Sources: SB 609 enrolled act (2021); current 68 O.S. §2902 (OSCN). Checked October 8, 2026.

At the end of federal fiscal year 2025 (September 30, 2025), USDA's Farm Service Agency reported 216,598 acres in Cimarron County under CRP contract. That is about 18.4% of the county's land area (1,174,277 land acres), and about 338 sections. Most of it, 176,836 acres, is Grassland CRP, a working-lands practice that allows grazing and haying with restrictions. CRP land is under a federal contract until it expires. Ending a contract early takes FSA approval and normally means paying back the payments received, plus interest, plus liquidated damages. Most of these contracts run into the 2030s, so CRP acres are not a near-term pool of available land. County figures for fiscal year 2026 had not been posted as of October 8, 2026.

Sources: FSA, CRP enrollment by county, 1986 to 2025; FSA, CRP practices by county, September 2025; 7 CFR 1410. Local notes dated October 8, 2026.

A desk screen run October 8, 2026, counting every mapped building as a possible home or business, found about 113,000 acres of farm or ranch land (about 9.6% of the county) at least 2 miles from any mapped structure. That land falls into 3 separate areas of at least about 10 square miles, or 4 if a county road crossing a site does not count as a split. About 39% of the qualifying land appears to be state school trust land, which is leased for farming and grazing and is not private. The nearest mapped transmission line of 115 kilovolts or larger is 12 to 37 miles from the larger areas. This is a map exercise, not a site study, and nobody has checked it on the ground. It did not screen water, wildlife habitat, easements, roads, or whether any owner would sell or lease.

Source: local siting screen, October 8, 2026, using Census TIGER/Line 2024, Overture Maps buildings (release 2026-09-23.1), NLCD 2021, PAD-US, and the last public HIFLD transmission-line release. Method and limits are in the research notes kept with the session materials.