Analysis: Nothing in the economic history of our state has presented the citizens of Oklahoma with such a divide and a busload of passionate opposing opinions as the proposed Inola Primary Aluminum Plant. On one side many believe that it is an economic juggernaut to provide financial security for eastern Oklahoma’s children and grandchildren, eliminating the need for so many of them to leave rural Oklahoma just to find a decent job. On the other side, others believe it’s a first-class ecological disaster.
Politicians, who interestingly enough don’t have that much influence on the project, are in the middle of the arguments. Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei is front and center and accused of having flip-flopped. He said that we shouldn’t be sending billions of dollars to an Arab nation until he learned that the economic incentives aren’t going to the Arab investor. They are actually going to enhance the building and efficient operation of the industrial park in the Tulsa Port of Inola.
Like former presidential candidate, John Kerry, Mazzei’s Democratic opponent Cyndi Munson, voted for the plant before she saw a political opportunity in campaigning against it.
So what are the essential truths:
First, “smelter” the term generally used to describe the Inola Primary Aluminum Plant, isn’t a smelter in the classical sense. A classical smelter takes bauxite ore, cleans off toxic materials and contaminates, and through several stages creates rolled aluminum sheets. The Inola Primary Aluminum Plant will not incorporate that first hazardous material separation stage. That process will be performed external to the state and the plant’s input material will be refined granules of a substance known as alumina.
Second, neither President Donald J. Trump, Governor Stitt, nor the legislators who originally supported the plant nor either candidate, Democrat Munson, who originally voted for it, or Republican Mazzei, who now believes it’s good for eastern Oklahoma, would consider doing something as blatantly stupid as favoring the installation of an industrial facility that would destroy the lives of the very people it’s there to help.
Third, the Aluminum Plant, provided it passes all of the air, water and ground EPA/DEQ standard testing, will not pose a hazard to livestock, to plants or to humans. If it doesn’t pass those tests, it will simply not be placed in production and a bunch of investors will lose a bunch of money. It’s not like that’s never happened before.
Fourth, the plan for the Oklahoma Primary Aluminum Project has a number of very specific economic provisions to ensure Oklahomans will not be taxed and will experience an economic boom.
Fifth, there is nothing scientifically experimental or dangerous about this new generation of aluminum plants that are already built. As a curious researcher can easily find, one is operating in the middle of a modern city and another is operating in a pristine farming area with no hazardous effects on the population or environment. And those plants are continuously monitored just as the Oklahoma Primary Aluminum Plant, if it passes the EPA/DEQ testing, will also be.
Sixth, if Mazzei is elected governor, which appears likely, he has committed to employing an independent third party to monitor the permitting process and the operation of the plant to ensure the provisions of the Clean Air Act are strictly followed.
So the deeper you dive, the more it looks like those folks I mentioned earlier as claiming the Inola Primary Aluminum Plant is nothing less than an economic juggernaut, either know what they’re talking about, or blindly picked the right side.
About the author: David Arnett’s beginning in print journalism was not planned in 1985 but covered by the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987. After 11 years in print, he established TulsaToday online in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022 providing email subscriptions. In April 2026, he began the YouTube Channel, Straight Up Dave. Arnett is identified nationally as a “Veteran Oklahoma Political Journalist” and locally as an “Equal Opportunity Aggravator.”