Nick Bowlin

More excellent reporting from @readfrontier.bsky.social and @propublica.org on what happens when the public, legislators, and regulators grapple with the legacy of historic oil and gas pollution and toxic wastewater, the amount of which only grows by the day.

Tammy's story isn't an isolated incident. Check out the first story in this series, which investigates oilfield wastewater blowouts across the state of Oklahoma @readfrontier.bsky.social + @propublica.org

www.propublica.org/article/okla...

Their Water Was Undrinkable. Oklahoma’s Oil Regulators Failed to Help. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to find the culprit — then closed the case.

Their Water Was Undrinkable. Oklahoma’s Oil Regulators Failed to Help. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

Oklahoma officials found signs of oil&gas pollution in Tammy Boarman's drinking water, which left sores in her mouth and corroded appliances. In the end, the state closed her case, with basic questions left unanswered @readfrontier.bsky.social+@propublica.org

www.readfrontier.org/stories/salt...

Salty, Oily Drinking Water Left Sores in Their Mouths. Oklahoma Refused to Find Out Why. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

“We are convinced that some of you are either inept at your job, just do not care, or you are protecting the operators,” she wrote in a Sept. 27, 2024, email to a half dozen agency employees.

More great work from @nickbowlin.bsky.social

Salty, Oily Drinking Water Left Sores in Their Mouths. Oklahoma Refused to Find Out Why. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

The family’s water was undrinkable: It corroded taps. It withered plants. Their ice maker expelled clumps of salt.

Why?

For 2 yrs, Oklahoma oil regulators delayed basic tests that could help them find out.

Read @nickbowlin.bsky.social latest for @propublica.org + @readfrontier.bsky.social!

Salty, Oily Drinking Water Left Sores in Their Mouths. Oklahoma Refused to Find Out Why. State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to fin...

Truly shocking story. Salty, Oily Drinking Water Left Sores in Their Mouths. Oklahoma Refused to Find Out Why. by partner @nickbowlin.bsky.social @readfrontier.bsky.social

Smoke and Mirrors: How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country Colorado, which once served as the model for marijuana regulation, generated billions of dollars in tax revenue while promising to keep consumers safe. Now it’s scrambling to keep harmful hemp off the...

“When you have a market that is unregulated, difficult to assess and evolves very quickly, that is a calling card for nefarious agents to step in and make money.”

How Intoxicating Hemp Seeped Into the First Recreational Marijuana Market in the Country w/ @denvergazette.com

Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

"When utilities earn substantial profits, one might expect customers to see some relief in their monthly bills. But as a result of the ownership model of the utilities that serve most Americans, this is rarely what happens."

Treat your customers like captives, expect them to leave when they can.

that's kind of you, thanks, lucy

happy to oblige, thanks, Isaac

But to your point – much to scrutinize here, and I think we can reasonably differ in how we weigh the many problems at hand

The system is riddled with problems. ROE isn't the only one. But it deserves far more scrutiny IMO, especially given all the evidence that excessively high ROEs are costing ratepayers quite a lot of money. Those high valuations, in practice, haven't had that sanguine downstream effect on consumers

Why Californians Will Pay $340 More for Electricity Next Year - The American Prospect The state public utility commission is poised to approve a rate of return that critics say overcharges customers by $4.4 billion per year.

"Monopoly utilities are supposed to have their profits tightly regulated to protect ratepayers. Yet their stock prices are surging in ways that are totally unmoored from the expectation for a regulated monopoly," write @ddayen.bsky.social and James Baratta: prospect.org/2025/12/18/w... 🔌💡

ICE Separated A Family In Midtown Tulsa - The Pickup Immigration detentions in Oklahoma are on the rise. One case shows how ICE’s cooperation with Tulsa County makes it possible.

“You’re not targeting a criminal; you’re targeting a mom of four.”

Here’s how ICE detained and deported a Tulsa single mother—tailing her after she dropped her kids off at school—and how the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office made it possible.

thepickup.com/ice-separate...

New investors are absolutely getting screwed, I agree. I wish I'd had the space to address that in the piece. But to my mind, it's all connected. Capitalization of excess returns into share prices is part of the overall wealth transfer from customers to shareholders, who can then sell at a premium

I see what you're saying but the inflated market values are one function of the overall regime of excess ROEs, right? Shares are trading double the book value because investors capitalize the excess returns.

Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

Power bills are sky-high, and data centers are to blame, right? Well, yes, but there's something else, upstream of the AI boom: a utility sector beholden to financial interests, resulting in massive corporate profits. I looked into this dynamic for @harpers.bsky.social

harpers.org/archive/2026...

reminiscent of

Power Brokers, by Nick Bowlin What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

This story from @nickbowlin.bsky.social does as good a job as any journalism I've read of explaining how utilities have largely captured their regulators, and why that dynamic is driving skyrocketing utility bills. harpers.org/archive/2026...

The problem for Trump is that the US government doesn't drill for oil and Big Oil generally doesn't think its worth investing in Venezuela right now: www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

lol this explains so much

Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera. Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re...

NEW: One of the most significant accomplishments of the Trump Admin: Decimating the US's humanitarian aid.

We went to S. Sudan to see the effects.

Rubio says no one has died from the cuts.

Spoiler: That's not true.

@annamaria.bsky.social & Brett Murphy:

www.propublica.org/article/usai...

Read about it here!

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Oklahoma’s data center boom Is about to hit the grid — and your power bill A wave of big data centers is triggering a scramble for new electricity generation. OG&E and PSO are pushing to charge ratepayers more as they race to keep up.

A wave of big data centers is triggering a scramble for new electricity generation. OG&E and PSO are pushing to charge ratepayers more as they race to keep up.

Lightning in a Bottle - The American Prospect Regulatory capture is at the root of the affordability crisis in electricity. Public power could offer a way out.

We've got 2 great stories today in our series about drivers of the affordability crisis.
First up by James Baratta: Electricity rates are set by public utility commissions. But that process has become captured, with corporate utilities pushing through rate hikes and extracting profits.

Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground. Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It. Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells. Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drin...

An Oklahoma expert investigating toxic gas and oil wastewater brine migration and “surges” of waste injected at high pressure quit after 3 years when regulators refused to act. Now he’s speaking out.
@nickbowlin.bsky.social @readfrontier.bsky.social: bit.ly/4oh7KMc

@buckeyeenviro.bsky.social

This is so bleak dude

Data Centers Got You Worried? Wait Until You Find Out About The Bitcoin Mines - The Pickup A state law that quietly passed in 2024 with help from a crypto advocacy group has already created a headache for one Oklahoma town.

New story from me and our summer intern Katie about how the state opted out of regulating bitcoin mines, leaving counties and municipalities to deal with them on their own: thepickup.com/data-centers...

This is tonight: Anthem Brewing, 6 pm. OKC folks, c'mon by