Months of delays in approving a commercial lease on state school land for a data center near Lawton led to the developer canceling its lease, causing the state to lose out on lease payments that benefit public education.  Boomtown Manufacturing LLC won an auction for a long-term lease on a 38 8-acre parcel on the east side of Lawton in April. The final agreement was before the Commissioners of the Land Office at meetings in the summer, but commissioners tabled the vote each time.  Agriculture Secretary and Commissioner of Agriculture Blayne Arthur, one of five land commissioners, was particularly concerned about neighbors knowing more about the project. Another commissioner, State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, wanted to see if it would be better in the long run for CLO to sell the land than lease it.   Data centers have become the latest flashpoint between local communities and developers, who are making plans to build infrastructure at a rapid pace. Residents worried about electricity and water use, as well as economic development deals cloaked in secrecy, have turned out to previous CLO meetings to express their concerns.  Despite a town hall meeting planned for the end of October, Boomtown Manufacturing notified CLO staff in November they wanted to cancel the lease. Commissioners voted 5-0 on Dec. 3 to accept the lease cancellation.  Gov. Kevin Stitt, who serves as chairman of the land commission, said he was frustrated by the delays that led to the state to lose out on possible revenue for the education trust fund.  “You’re supposed to lease them,” Stitt told Oklahoma Watch. “You put them out to bid, and you’re supposed to go to the highest bidder. That’s the way I feel about it. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, and that’s the way the system works.”   Emails between Boomtown Manufacturing and CLO staff, obtained under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, show the developers working to address commissioners’ concerns in the months since it won the lease auction. Company representatives said in previous CLO meetings the initial plan was for a 100-megawatt capacity data center, with possible expansions to 500 megawatts.   Boomtown representatives told commissioners in May the company also had an option to put the data center on private land, but they preferred the CLO parcel. Company representatives declined to comment when reached by Oklahoma Watch after the Dec. 3 meeting.  The data center lease cancellation comes just months after commissioners, in a 2-1 vote, rejected a long-term commercial lease for 1,790 acres for a wind farm in Woodward County. That rejection came after pushback from county commissioners and some state lawmakers.  Stitt said he understands community concerns over data centers and renewable energy projects. But he said land commissioners have a duty to get the best investment returns on behalf of education in Oklahoma. “Regardless of what you think about it, we believe in personal property rights,” Stitt said. “Regardless of what you think about looking at windmills — I don’t want to look at them either. But I also believe in personal property rights, and that’s kind of the way this thing’s supposed to work.”  Stitt said a “behind-the-meter” bill he signed in May was a good example of responding to some of the concerns over data centers. Senate Bill 480, by Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston, and Rep. Brad Boles, R-Marlow, required any entity that generates its own electricity for industrial use to use natural gas as part of its generation mix. Boles said in June he will run for a seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. “You can go into Oklahoma and you can put your own turbine in, hook it up to natural gas, and we can power our own data centers without having to pull (electricity) off of the grid,” Stitt said. “So I just think that it’s a free-market approach that’s going to keep setting Oklahoma up for success.” CLO manages a $2.9 billion investment portfolio. Earnings from the investments provided more than $156 million for education in Oklahoma in fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30. Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.  The post State Delays Push Data Center Developers to Private Land appeared first on Oklahoma Watch. ...read more read less