Trump deal to build foreign-owned refinery on the brink of failure in deep-red state

President Donald Trump’s dream of opening a massive, foreign-owned aluminum smelter in Oklahoma is in jeopardy.

Ironically, the Republican leader’s plan to erect an enormous, superheated, pollution-producing, industrial complex in a rural area isn’t imploding because of his usual perceived enemies: the liberal, radical left.

His plan is on the brink of failure, this time, because of fellow Republicans.

It turns out Trump, his hired hands in Washington and partners in the United Arab Emirates may have underestimated Oklahomans. They can be a stubborn lot, with a strong desire to be good stewards of the environment and a pungent dislike of federal and state officials insisting that they know what’s best for them.

Oklahomans first learned in May 2025 that our own Republican leader, Gov. Kevin Stitt, had inked a deal with Emirates Global Aluminum to place the smelter in Inola, a town of about 2,000 people located about 25 miles east of Tulsa.

We also learned then that Oklahoma taxpayers would be on the hook for providing about $255 million in incentives. We later discovered that the federal government had issued a $500 million grant to help with construction costs, and the UAE company is also expecting to receive $735 million more in other tax exemptions and offsets.

Supporters tout the project as being the largest economic investment in state history. They say it represents $4 billion pumped into Oklahoma by Emirates Global Aluminum that will create over 1,000 jobs. It’s also apparently part of President Donald Trump’s broader $200 billion economic deal with the United Arab Emirates.

In exchange for over $1 billion in incentives, about 600,000 tons of aluminum would be produced in Inola each year. Supporters of the facility, which include state House and Senate leaders, say it would double the amount of aluminum produced in the U.S.

The problem appears to be that no one considered whether residents of Inola – which earned the nickname “Hay Capital of the World” courtesy of the Bluestem Prairie grass harvested in the area for cattle – would want to put a gigantic, superheated facility in their backyard.

As residents have learned more about Trump’s plan, it’s clear that they’re getting increasingly aggravated at the federal government and this company who wants to upset their way of life.

Aluminum smelters require a high amount of energy to turn aluminium oxide, a crystalline powder most commonly known as alumina, into aluminum metal. Supporters contend while the process utilizes a ton of energy, it doesn’t generate much solid waste.

But the country’s existing smelters – constructed more than half a century ago – have been found to produce heat-trapping greenhouse gases, some of which remain in the atmosphere for 50,000 years.

Residents in the Inola area worry about the potential impact of the facility’s emissions on plants and animals. A growing number don’t want it unless or until they receive written assurances that would stand up in court — from the company and federal government — that it’s safe.

Is it any surprise that neither the UAE business nor U.S. leaders seem willing to give them that peace of mind on paper, despite insisting that it’s perfectly safe?

Inola residents are rightfully expressing their anxieties in a proper way — during the town’s permitting process. Last week, hundreds of residents attended a meeting to urge local leaders to pause the approval process for the smelter. Town leaders issued a 60-day moratorium on the permitting process, KOSU reported.

Getting a win on the project is so important to the Trump administration, KOSU reported, that Trump penned a letter urging town leaders to support it.

The president’s missive was read aloud at the meeting.

In response, someone shouted that Trump should build it at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson even showed up at the town meeting to try to convince residents that the plant will use the latest and greatest technology that ensures “emissions will not leave the plant.” The U.S. Senate confirmed Robertson’s appointment in October. She leads the Department of Energy’s Office of Critical Mineral and Energy Innovation.

Amid angry rumblings from the audience, KOSU reported, Robertson imprudently told a roomful of people who overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024: “All right. I guess it’s not as friendly here as where I came from.”

Let’s be clear about one thing. Oklahomans are traditionally very friendly people — until they’re faced with federal political appointees who roll in and insist they know what’s best for them. If Robertson really wanted to convince Inola the smelter is safe, she could insist the company sign an affidavit swearing that “emissions will not leave the plant,” as she claims.

The company behind this project isn’t doing Trump any favors either.

Who in their right mind sends town leaders a letter threatening to sue an entire town for millions of dollars in damages as a project is going through our governing process?

Rather than work to alleviate concerns, KOSU reported that Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, a U.S. subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminum, did just that. Primary Aluminum owns 40% of the stake in the company. Dubai-based Emirates Global, which is 7,000 miles away, holds the majority stake.

Just days before that clash in Inola, Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond separately issued a rare challenge to Trump’s policy ambitions, suing to block the project’s construction. He argues it will severely pollute Inola and other communities in the region. He also has concerns that the Dubai company owns the majority stake in the project.

Trump responded by ranting on TruthSocial that Drummond is a “Dumocrat,” and that Oklahoma’s attorney general “wants to dethrone a magnificent, Job producing, desperately needed Aluminum Plant that will be one of the best projects ever conceived or built in the Great State of Oklahoma.”

Trump unsurprisingly has endorsed Drummond’s Republican gubernatorial opponent Mike Mazzei, who has suddenly come out in support of this project.

Oklahoma is not a dictatorship where out-of-state and out-of-country officials can force us to bow to their whims.

And our state shouldn’t be spending our hard-earned taxpayer dollars backing a company that – rather than work to build consensus – is further sowing division by threatening to use litigation as a cudgel to get their way

Ours is a state that embraces democratic processes. That includes local governance and the ability of local residents to decide what they want their community to be, regardless of what deals are inked at the state and federal level on their behalf.

Trump and the leaders of the smelting company would do well to remember that.