Drummond files action to block Inola aluminum smelter
Oklahoma Attorney General's Office sent this bulletin at 06/02/2026 02:16 PM CDT
GENTNER DRUMMOND
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF OKLAHOMA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2026
Drummond files action to block Inola aluminum smelter
OKLAHOMA CITY (June 2, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a petition today in Rogers County District Court to block a proposed heavy-industrial aluminum smelting complex in Inola. Behind the massive project are two private ventures, one of which is owned by the government of an Islamic foreign monarchy.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), which is a state-owned enterprise of the United Arab Emirates, holds a 60 percent controlling interest in the project.
“The controlling hand behind the largest smelter ever proposed on American soil belongs not to Oklahomans, nor even to Americans, but to a foreign sovereign more than 7,000 miles away,” Drummond wrote in the petition.
Century Aluminum holds the minority 40 percent interest. The Delaware corporation is headquartered in Chicago.
The proposed facility - Oklahoma Primary Aluminum - would be the largest primary aluminum production plant ever constructed in the U.S. with a planned capacity exceeding 750,000 metric tons of aluminum per year. Primary aluminum smelting generates a hazardous waste stream, consumes significant amounts of electricity and water and is one of the most polluting heavy-industrial activities that exists. The process also wreaks havoc on cattle, threatening Oklahoma’s single largest agricultural sector.
The facility is projected to draw more than 1,000 megawatts of continuous electricity, more power than many Oklahoma cities consume, placing extraordinary strain on the regional grid served by Public Service Company of Oklahoma and threatening the reliability and affordability of electricity for Oklahoma ratepayers.
Drummond said the project is propelled by an extraordinary infusion of public money. Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Century Aluminum for a grant of up to $500 million to underwrite the smelter’s construction. The State of Oklahoma has added its own subsidies including a $255 million incentive package.
Drummond said he filed the petition to protect Oklahoma’s people, air, land and water. The smelter would occupy about 350 acres along the Verdigris River, within about three miles of Inola’s schools, homes and farms.
“A primary aluminum smelter does not belong in a community’s backyard, and its emissions do not respect property lines,” Drummond said, adding that winds could carry pollutants into the surrounding northeastern Oklahoma communities. “The injury is imminent, it is grave, and it is irreparable.”
