Every filing, permit step, town vote, and broadcast since the joint venture was signed in January. Nothing here is our summary of a summary — each entry links to the original.
Adopted unanimously June 29 on construction in the Industrial Heavy District. Residents had asked for six months.
DEQ is still evaluating the application for technical adequacy. The formal public comment window opens only when a draft permit is issued.
The Attorney General sued in Rogers County. The companies want the case heard in federal court in Tulsa instead.
Bankable feasibility study due September. The companies say they want every permit in hand by the end of this year.
Local broadcast coverage and the Attorney General's full press conference, in the order they happened.
The complete announcement of the petition to block the smelter, delivered to applause from the residents who gathered for it.
The filing in Rogers County District Court and the statewide fight it set off between the Attorney General, the governor, and the White House.
Supporters say the project reshapes Oklahoma’s economy. Neighbors say it does not belong on the other side of their fence line.
Residents question Oklahoma Primary Aluminum staff directly — the first time most of them could ask anyone anything.
The earliest sustained local coverage of what neighbors were already asking about hydrogen fluoride, months before the permit landed.
Century Aluminum and Aluminum Oklahoma file a Notice of Removal, seeking to move the Attorney General’s suit out of Rogers County and into federal court in Tulsa.
Project director Ziad Fares says a bankable feasibility study is due in September, all permits by year end, and construction by the end of the first quarter of 2027.
In a county that voted overwhelmingly for the president, residents publicly reject his deal to build a foreign-owned smelter beside their homes.
Tulsa Ports warns the town that interfering with the port’s purpose “will necessitate a response.” Oklahoma Primary Aluminum says it would have an obligation to pursue legal remedies to recover its investment losses.
After more than five hours of comment and a closed executive session, councilors unanimously adopt a 60-day moratorium on construction in the Industrial Heavy District — not the six months residents came to ask for.
A letter from the president urging approval “without delay” is read to the room. An attendee answers: build it in Mar-a-Lago.
The project’s quiet supporters run the school district and the career tech center. The superintendent describes lifelong friendships severed over a plant that does not exist yet.
The smelter is swept into the governor’s race. Drummond denies political motive and points to the air-quality permit application as the reason for his filing.
A standing-room-only council declines to pass the six-month moratorium as written and tables it for redrafting. It does approve ICARE, a resident committee with a formal voice in planning decisions.
Drummond petitions Rogers County District Court for a permanent injunction halting all construction. The suit seeks no damages — only that the project not be built.
DEQ tells a packed room the permit application is still being evaluated for technical adequacy. Doubts persist; the opposition petition passes 2,000 signatures.
An energy expert examines the smelter’s power appetite and finds unanswered questions that could reshape the region’s farms, livestock, and public health.
One of the two companies behind the project has a documented history of air pollution violations at its existing American plants.
Bechtel is hired for preparatory engineering, with the stated goal of a final investment decision and construction start by the end of 2026.
EGA and Century Aluminum sign the joint development agreement — 60 percent Emirati, 40 percent American — for a plant sized at 750,000 tonnes a year, larger than first announced.
Photographs and drone footage from Inola residents.
Port of Inola — the 440-acre site
Hay ground inside the fluoride zone
June 29 — standing room only
Herds downwind of the stacks
Teal shirts, hand-made signs
The Verdigris, at the barge terminal
The state publishes the permit file. The Attorney General published his petition. Nothing on this site asks you to take our word for it.
Sixty days was what the town could get. What happens next depends on how many people are still paying attention when the clock runs out.
Take action →