GLUE Members Report August 8, 2007

If you discount the flooding conditions throughout northeastern Oklahoma, it has been a quiet summer. Since the last public meeting at Cowboy Junction in Vinita, little new has been released with respect to the SMP. There was an informative article which appeared inn The Chronicle featuring Casey Davis, who the legal staff member is making the final adjustments to the plan before it’s presented to the board of directors. We’re told the earliest that could happen is at the September board meeting.

Casey’s comments in the article, along with what we’ve learned from some of our other contacts within the authority, supports our belief that the GLUE recommended changes will be incorporated into the final plan presented to the board. To my knowledge, our recommended changes were the only ones submitted in a written format.

So what’s left? If our recommended changes are included in the final plan presented to the board and are approved, we have certainly accomplished step one. But before we lift our glasses in a toast to our success, let’s not lose sight of the fact there is still a huge mine field out there to be hurdled at the federal level. If FERC does not bless the plan and kicks it back to the authority for more stringent regulations, the fight has to start all over again utilizing the entire political stroke we can muster.

I would be less than honest if I told you we’ve won this fight. The naysayers have been extremely quiet while the final version of the plan is still in limbo. The “Fearless Fleming Forecast” is they will mount an all out fall offensive in opposition to the changes in the plan done by GRDA based on the majority of the public’s opinion. I would expect a very active sixty day comment period which is mandated following the presentation to the board. We have to be prepared to combat those negative comments regarding our proposed changes.

My gut feeling is that before it’s all said in done we’ll have to enlist the support of all our federal office holders to influence the FERC commissioners to accept the plan as written. If any of you have special relationships with Inhofe, Coburn, Boren or others, we may need your help.

In April, I wrote a length letter to FERC regarding our concerns with the proposed plan and provided them a copy of our proposed changes. In the letter I’m referencing the public meeting conducted by FERC in Miami in May 2005. A portion of that letter is below for your review:

At the conclusion of the public comments, representatives of your agency talked about how many of Grand Lake’s problems could be solved through the implementation of a shoreline management plan. After a discussion period on the development of a Grand Lake SMP, you commented on how the end product would be determined by what the lake’s stakeholders wanted it to be. It’s my recollection you went on to say, and I’m paraphrasing, “You can have whatever kind of lake you want. It can be developed or undeveloped and your input will be a major contribution to the plan.”

Mr. Morgan, I’m writing you today to express my concerns about the shoreline management plan draft developed by the shareholder working groups and Kleinschmidt & Associates. As demonstrated by the results of the meetings held to encourage public comment on the draft, it’s certainly not representative of what a majority of Grand Lake stakeholders would like to see. Throughout the five public meetings, the only voice of support for the draft came from the extremist who had managed to dominate the SMP stakeholder working groups. A vote was taken at the meeting conducted in Grove and attended by over 200 interested Grand Lakers. Only three in attendance favored the plan as it is written today.

If, as you said in Miami in May of 2005, this plan is to be representative of what a majority of stakeholders would like to see, changes will be needed. Our organization, Grand Lakers United Enterprise, is the only one I’m aware of that has provide written documentation regarding our concerns and recommendations for changes. I’m attaching those written comments for your review.

There is definitely more to come.