Rep. Mike Dobrinski reports: House bills move to Senate

March 27 was the deadline for bills to pass out of their legislative chamber of origin. House bills that passed now move to the Senate, and we will begin considering Senate bills in House committees.

Here’s a look at several of my bills that passed over to the opposite chamber this week.

House Bill 2156 is an effort to establish reasonable regulations on the rapidly expanding large commercial solar generation facilities and industrial battery storage centers in the state. We currently have zero regulations on these types of facilities. Several of these requirements match what have been in place for wind facilities for a number of years. The measure preserves property rights for individual landowners choosing to participate in these projects, while accounting for the rights of adjacent neighbors.

House Bill 2157 would establish an agrivoltaics advisory committee that would be charged with assisting the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology to study options in agricultural productivity along with the location of renewable energy generation facilities. Agrivoltaics is the practice of combining solar energy production with agricultural activities on the same land, offering potential benefits for both industries. This bill was a constituent request by former Rep. Clay Pope, a farmer and rancher from Loyal in Kingfi sher County.

House Bill 2158 is a request bill from the Oklahoma Automobile Dealers Association and is the result of months of negotiations between constituent franchise dealers and original equipment manufacturers. Oklahoma has been a franchise state for over 70 years to provide protections and accountability within automobile retailing. This act includes language that manufacturers would be able to include in the sales and service agreements that dealers must agree to every five years.

House Bill 2160 addresses rights of first refusal, where right now automotive and motorsports manufacturers can prevent citizens from selling their business entities to willing, qualified buyers. This measure would protect business owners from manufacturer overreach and keep these businesses located throughout our state, including rural dealerships.

I also co-authored and supported several other energy related bills very important in my district and all of Oklahoma. We are addressing the need for more electricity generation in our state to meet the growing demand from technology and manufacturing. These measures will help to offset our inflationary pricing of the last couple of years to help ensure the lowest cost electricity available for Oklahomans.

The next few weeks will be centered on committee work with very brief sessions on the floor. We’ll also be working to finalize work on our state budget.

Please remember, if I can help you with something, do not hesitate to reach out. You also can follow regular updates on my House Facebook page or call or email anytime at (405) 557-7407 or Mike. Dobrinski@okhouse.gov.