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Today, a press release from Senators Kristin Thompson and Todd Golihare, “Thompson, Gollihare Applaud New Kratos Facility in Bristow; Senators Highlight Major Aerospace Investment and Job Creation in Rural Oklahoma” was sent to Oklahomans. Since it was not posted to the Senate media page, I’ve copied and pasted the message from my inbox below.

Thompson, Gollihare Applaud New Kratos Facility in Bristow
Senators Highlight Major Aerospace Investment and Job Creation in Rural Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Economic Development, Workforce, and Tourism Chair Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, and Sen. Todd Gollihare, R-Kellyville, today celebrated the announcement of a new Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility coming to Bristow. The advanced manufacturing site will produce tactical jet engines for U.S. defense systems and is expected to bring dozens of high-quality jobs to Creek County and surrounding areas.

“This is a major win for Oklahoma,” said Thompson. “We’ve made targeted investments in research, development, and workforce to attract exactly this kind of advanced industry. The Bristow facility strengthens our national security footprint while delivering real economic opportunity to our communities.”

As Co-Chair of the Senate’s LEAD Committee (Legislative Evaluation and Development), Thompson has championed policies that support high-tech growth sectors like aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing — aligning long-term economic planning with real-world job creation.The 50,000 square-foot facility — expandable to 100,000 square feet — will house up to five production lines for Kratos’ GEK-series engines and include on-site test cells funded in part through state incentive programs. Kratos plans to begin hiring in late 2025 with full operations expected by the end of 2026.

Senator Gollihare, whose district includes the Bristow area, emphasized the regional impact:

“This is a big win — not just for Bristow, but for our region, for the state, and for the country,” Gollihare said. “We’re talking about high-quality jobs and cutting-edge manufacturing right here in rural Oklahoma, supporting our local economy and strengthening America’s defense capabilities. I’m proud to support projects that deliver for our communities and for the nation.”

The announcement was made at the Paris Air Show, where Oklahoma aerospace officials joined Kratos executives to highlight the state’s growing role in defense manufacturing. For more information, contact: Senator Kristen Thompson (405) 521-5592 or kristen.thompson@oksenate.gov

Since my reporting on Canoo and it’s detrimental effects on Oklahoma, I’ve been concerned about the use of Oklahoman’s tax dollars as business ‘incentives’. Consequently, I did some basic research on Kratos.

Kratos is an enormous, publicly-traded, investor-owned, company headquartered in San Diego, California, devoted to six areas of defense contracting; C51SR Systems, Defense and Rocket Support Systems, Microwave Electronics, Space, Training and Cybersecurity, Turbine Technologies and Unmanned Systems. It has international offices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UK and trades in the $40/share range. It also has offices in the US in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Virginia – and now (?) Oklahoma.

Just this year (January), the Pentagon award[ed] Kratos a megadeal worth nearly $1.5B for a new hypersonic testbed. Kratos’ press release announcing the ‘award’ said, “Kratos is honored to receive the largest contract award in our company’s history, a testament of the value Kratos’ employees and team bring both to our Company and United States National Security,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said in a statement. “This programmatic milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to making upfront investments for rapidly developing, and being first to market with affordable, mission-critical solutions that meet the evolving needs of the warfighter.”

Unfortunately, a few things cropped up in my research. Let’s start with this: though the good Senators use the wording, “celebrated the announcement of a new Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility coming to Bristow“, Oklahoma has been doling out tax dollars to Kratos since 2019 to the tune of $1,728,394. Here are the credits in chronological order:

If Kratos is a NEW business in Oklahoma, why are there tax credits go back to 2019? Why was there no mention of them previously having had an office/manufacturing plant in Oklahoma before – either in the Senators’ press release or on Kratos’ website?

Here’s another issue. Kratos works out of locations in 10 other states. Not one single state – excepting Maryland ($126,414) – has given Kratos any kind of tax break at all according to the Subsidy Tracker website.

Kratos was the recipient of a $689,876 federal grant in 2019 tagged to their facility in Colorado, however, for, “SOUTHERN RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIFE MODELLING OF CRITICAL STEAM CYCLE COMPONENTS IN COAL-FUELED POWER PLANTS”.

According to Google Maps, this is the building currently housing Kratos in Bristow:

Exterior view of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility located in Bristow, Oklahoma.

This building is also the site of Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC.

A Google Maps screenshot featuring the location of Consolidated Turbine Specialists, LLC in Bristow, Oklahoma, showing the building and surrounding area.

According to a Bristow News article published Wednesday, March 17, 2021, “In 2019, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., a California based company, purchased the parent company of Consolidated Turbine Specialists, aka CTS, which was originally founded in 2012.”

Interestingly, Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC was given ‘grants‘ – Quality Job Incentive Payments – from 2019-2022 in the amount of $345,432, during the same time period Kratos was ALSO receiving Quality Job Incentive Payments from Oklahoma. While the Kratos ‘grants’ during that time period were given for “unmanned arial systems”, no specific category is listed for the Consolidated Turbine Specialists’ ‘grants’.

A table displaying subsidy records for Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC, detailing locations, subsidy sources, years, values, and types of subsidies received in Oklahoma from 2019 to 2022.

These businesses have been sharing the same space from 2019 and until – according to Kratos’ press release – the new building can be built in Bristow. Whether or not the ‘grants’ were for different reasons, this looks a whole lot like double-dipping. If Consolidated was merged with Kratos in 2019 – then, according to the idea of a merger – these two entities became one entity. Why would Oklahomans give double Quality Jobs ‘grants’ to one company?

But that’s not the only issue. Why are we – under a REPUBLICAN governor and a REPUBLICAN legislature – superseding the FREE MARKET by giving out so much money in SUBSIDIES?

Many of Oklahoma’s elected officials commented on Kratos’ announcement, but Governor Stitt was in Paris for the Paris Air Show when the announcement was made. He said, “This is a big win for American workers, for our military, and for every Oklahoman who believes in freedom, innovation, and strength. Kratos could’ve gone anywhere in the world, but they choose to continue investing in Oklahoma because it is the best place to build, grow, and do business. Oklahoma is proud to be a hub for national defense that is leading the way in rebuilding America’s industrial base and powering the technologies that keep our country safe.”

I wonder if Kratos didn’t go anywhere else in the world because Oklahomans have given a publicly-traded company with a billion and a half dollar contract with the federal government (also our tax dollars) over a million dollars ALREADY to do business in our state?

The President and CEO of Kratos said, “Kratos is truly honored to expand our presence in Oklahoma with this new, state-of-the-art propulsion production facility in Bristow. This new Kratos investment reflects our continued commitment to delivering high-performance, affordable jet engine technology to support the Department of Defense and our allies and answers the rising demand for propulsion systems for cruise missiles and CCA-type aircraft, while being targeted and optimized for cost reduction. The Bristow facility will play a critical role in accelerating production of the GEK family of engines, including the GEK800, and strengthening America’s industrial base in this decisive era. We thank Governor Stitt and the State of Oklahoma for their partnership in helping us build the future of high-performance propulsion right here in the heartland.”

So, if that’s the case, and they are CONTINUING to produce jet engines and nothing was said about unmanned arial systems having been a course of manufacture in Oklahoma, that the double-dipping theory might hold some water? Yes, it could also be that the CEO of a HUGE investor-held corporation with multi-billion dollars in contracts is very untethered to the day-to-day business of all their companies, but then, why is he CEO?

At the bottom of the Kratos press release is a required statement from the SEC about the fact that, since this is a publicly traded corporation which is telegraphing doing business in a way they can’t be certain of, investors must consider the statement “forward looking”. In other words, don’t make a stock purchase solely based on this announcement because Kratos might not be able to undertake the actions they’ve described. Seriously. Think on this.

Yes, Bristow may get a brand new Kratos building and yes, they may get new jobs from this business proposal – but then, they might not.

Kratos has to use the term “expected” in terms of their plans, but then they also indicate that Oklahoma will CONTINUE to give them further Oklahoma tax dollars to meet their expectations.

So why wouldn’t investors (like Markwayne Mullin?) want to invest in Kratos? What’s the downside? Oklahoma’s government will rob Oklahomans to make sure Kratos makes its projections for its investors.

Or, maybe not. Maybe, like Canoo, Governor Stitt will dig into the pockets of Oklahomans and the jobs WON’T materialize, nor the building in which to house them. But by then, our Governor will have left his position, and possibly the state – along with big holes in the pockets of Oklahoma tax payers and an uneven playing field for Oklahoma businesses.

*An email to Senator Kristin Thompson was sent regarding information in this blog. She did not return the email before this article was published. If she does respond at any point, I will add her response below.

One day, while surfing the web for information relating to green energy, I stumbled onto the fact that Oklahoma has the largest carbon capture plant in the United States and the second largest in the world.

Immediately, I contacted friends in Osage county – where the plant is located – and no one I spoke with knew anything about it at all; from long-time politically active folks who get around in their community regularly, to the two County Commissioners I spoke with, to the outgoing Sheriff, to the county clerk. NO ONE had any idea that the LARGEST CARBON CAPTURE PLANT IN THE NATION was right down the road in Shidler off an old oil company road.

Interestingly, neither the Corporation Commission nor DEQ knew much about it either according to the employees I spoke with and neither one of them knew who regulated the site to keep Oklahomans safe from accidental discharge of CO2 (which has injured people in Satartia, Mississippi).

This all makes complete sense when reading a Senator Dave Rader-authored bill that passed through the Energy Committee this session to give the Corporation Commission jurisdiction over carbon capture facilities. So who’s monitoring the CO2 capture facility now? Does our Governor just do these deals on his own and not worry one little bit about the safety or security of Oklahomans? It surely seems that, in Oklahoma, it’s the ‘green’ energy wild west where everything goes so long as we’ve got an “all of the above” energy policy to push forward.

In fact, I only learned anything about the facility at all because I found a video of Governor Stitt excitedly congratulating the company Heimdal for the creation of the carbon capture plant, ‘Bantam’, on Heimdal’s LinkdIn page. Heimdal is the brainchild of a 30-something named, Marcus Lima – a chemist from Norway.

Lima created Heimdal’s carbon capture technology through Y Combinator in 2021, specifically to take advantage of green energy handouts such as the IRA’s $180 per ton credit of CO2 that is captured and stored through at least 2032. Yes, you read that right. He started the process SPECIFICALLY to get the ‘free’ money.

Heimdal is backed by Sam Altman – another 30-something who assumed control of Open AI after Elon Musk stepped down, took it public and then got fired. He and his husband just recently had a baby.

After my article about Oklahoma’s carbon capture fame came out in the Federalist, a post on Marcus Lima’s LinkdIn page, caught me by surprise

These remarks were made after he read a serious article in a national online magazine.

Because I’m me, I commented on the post:

Not long after I posted this, I received a reply in my message box from Lima:

Either he’s a very considerate European, or someone suggested he respond to me and then delete the post. Either way, the original post has been deleted from his LinkdIn page. Note that in his response he mentions only the Native American populations. What about the ‘regular’ folk? Again, no one I spoke to knew anyone who knew anything about this ‘groundbreaking’ plant. This is telling.

I noted that in his post he lists his “fellow secretive luminaries” as Kevin Stitt, Scott M, Victoria Tran, John Podesta and James Lankford. We know Stitt, Scott M. is either Scott Mueller (briefly Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development, who now works for Goldman Sachs), or Scott Mitchell (an Oklahoma broadcaster). Victoria Tran was the Deputy Secretary of Oklahoma Secretary of Energy & Environment at some point, but I can’t find her listed in that position any more. John Podesta is the creepy democrat political operative who’s worked for everyone from the Clintons to the Obamas and who served as Senior Advisor to President Biden for International Climate Policy from 2024 to 2025 after which he became the Chair of the leftist Center for American Progress. Then, of course, there’s our liberal Republican Senator Lankford, who has a lovely picture with Lima still up on Lima’s LinkdIn page.

He also has a photo of himself with the AG – “We discussed CLass VI well permitting and primacy for the State of Oklahoma, as well as Heimdal plans for DAC facilities in the State, with the launch of Bantam, as well as our expansion plans. It’s clear direct air capture (DAC) and carbon management broadly has an ambitious future and home in Oklahoma.”

I’m not sure what the AG has to do with any of that, but this was upsetting. He wants MORE Direct Air Capture (DAC) facilities in Oklahoma. Why? This has nothing to do with oil and gas exploration (although there is experimentation with injecting liquid CO2 into old wells as a way of fracking out new oil, instead of using salt water). This has everything to do with carbon credits and ‘sequestering’ CO2. In fact, in an article posted to Heimdal’s website but released by Bloomberg News, Lima says, “The world must cut greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible, and research shows reducing the use of fossil fuels is the fastest way to do so.”

Why in the world are we chasing after DAC technology in Oklahoma? This is the entire basis for the Carbon Credit scheme and the Green New Deal. This should be upsetting I would think – especially to REPUBLICANS as this whole thing is just a way to usher in a new economy based entirely on NOTHING. This whole technology is about nothing more than investors creating investment projects to make themselves more money.

Under the Biden administration and the IRA, these kinds of projects were not only ideologically ‘funded’, but funded with billions of our tax dollars as well.

We know that President Trump has said he hates wind turbines and that he’s not inclined to continue IRA subsidies, but then we have Governor Stitt giving an interview to POLITICO where he says that he’s asking the President to continue the subsidies to keep the green energy projects funded we already have going here in the state.

We can almost forgive the Altman’s and Lima’s – as Rush Limbaugh is quoted as saying, “If you’re not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.” But our Governor should be expected to DO better – if not KNOW better – if not for his age, but for the fact that he should have advisors to dispense topical thoughts and a pulse on his constituency, listening to their desires. Yet he doesn’t. He rules Oklahoma like a King – on his own with advisors he picks himself and changes depending upon whether or not he likes what they have to say – look at the State School Board, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, his Energy and Environmental Secretary and the Oklahoma Veterans Commission – and these are but a few examples. This history does not at all indicate an affinity for Oklahomans, but a myopic, self-centered, elitist view of governing that can only acknowledge his constituency as “the little people”.

Here in Oklahoma, the only ones crying out about the continued shoving of the Green Agenda down our throats in a Red State are the CONSERVATIVE little people; land owners and rural people effected by CO2 pipelines that can break and discharge their deadly gas onto their livestock and families – farmers whose land can become ruined from the oil and fiberglass thrown down to the soil by fractured wind turbines – communities whose farmland is being usurped for huge solar panel installations that seed the ground with glass and toxic chemicals should they catch fire or be damaged by hail or a tornado, preventing local food from ever being grown there again.

Unfortunately, Oklahomans have tended to love these authoritarian types of Republican Governors, we can only hope to learn from our history and be wiser in 2026.

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Oklahomans Denied Substantive Tax Relief While Providing “New” Private Defense Contractor Kratos $1,728,394.00 In Subsidies From 2019

Who’s Running The Show? Oklahoma Carbon Capture, Part 2