Every filing, permit step, town vote, and broadcast since the joint venture was signed in January 2026. Nothing here is our summary of a summary — each entry links to the original reporting so you can read it for yourself.
A win for the opposition: the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma sends the Attorney General’s lawsuit back to Rogers County state court, finding the companies “failed to establish substantial federal question jurisdiction.” The AG’s office says the order is final and cannot be appealed. “This case belongs in Oklahoma state court under Oklahoma law,” Drummond said.
The town’s challenge to a citizen-led petition fails, meaning a city-wide referendum on whether to permit the smelter can proceed to a future election. A separate grand jury petition fell short — about a thousand verified signatures under the threshold — but the referendum survives.
Under legal pressure, Oklahoma Primary Aluminum files a revised DEQ proposal cutting its potline fluoride cap to 0.64 pounds per metric ton of aluminum — 37 percent below its original filing. A Century Aluminum executive says the new figure still must be proven safe to DEQ before any permit is issued.
Four Rogers County landowners open a second front, filing their own federal lawsuit to stop the U.S. Department of Energy from funding and approving the smelter — alleging DOE never conducted the site-specific environmental review the law requires before backing a project this size. The same day, Inola’s 60-day construction moratorium expires, leaving no local stop-work order in place.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervenes. Its Environment and Natural Resources Division files a statement of interest backing the smelter and asks the federal court to dismiss the Attorney General’s suit, calling it premature because the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act already govern the plant. DOJ frames the project as national defense — “the armor, aircraft, and munitions required” — citing Trump’s July 20 executive order to boost domestic aluminum, and claims the plant would avoid an estimated 75 percent of a traditional smelter’s emissions.
On the eve of the Republican gubernatorial runoff, the smelter is the sharpest divide between the candidates. AG Gentner Drummond, who filed the injunction, faces Mike Mazzei, who supports the plant and is endorsed by Trump. A dark-money group runs statewide ads attacking Mazzei; Trump touts the “largest aluminum plant in the world” from the NATO summit.
The day after the injunction filing, DEQ says it is still early in reviewing the air modeling and Best Available Control Technology analyses — and that the evaluation will weigh how both particulate fluoride and hydrogen fluoride settle on vegetation and livestock. Another public meeting is promised once the technical review is done, with a comment period when a draft permit is issued.
Drummond asks the federal court in Tulsa for a preliminary injunction to halt all construction and site work before Inola’s moratorium expires Aug. 28. An expert declaration filed with the motion projects 425 tons of fluoride a year — which it calls the highest-emitting plant, across all industries, in the country.
Inola ranchers respond to the filing. “It’ll put me out of business,” says Ken Froese, with pastures two miles from the site. Carl Day, who gathered grass samples near a Kentucky smelter, says no one from the companies or the EPA has told him grazing and smelting can coexist.
The smelter splits the Republican race for governor. A runoff debate turns on foreign ownership and a rival’s family engineering firm — a claim later fact-checked to a different plant entirely.
An Oklahoma lawmaker says a requested state study of the smelter’s impacts was denied, and calls it censorship.
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation formally opposes the smelter, noting the site sits within the reservation and that the tribe was never consulted.
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.
The joint venture is branded "Oklahoma Primary Aluminum." The name is local. The controlling interest is not.
The air permit hasn't gone to public comment yet, and council meetings are open to anyone. Both are places an ordinary resident has standing — the update list is how you'll know when the window opens.
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