Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond lauded a federal court’s decision Thursday to send his lawsuit over the proposed Inola aluminum smelter back to Rogers County District Court.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma ordered the case back to state court, noting that the defendants failed to establish substantial federal question jurisdiction. The federal court’s order is final and cannot be appealed. Drummond filed a motion to remand last month.
“This case belongs in Oklahoma state court under Oklahoma law,” Drummond said. “I will continue to fight for the people of Inola and for what is in the best interests of all Oklahomans.”
Drummond initially filed a lawsuit in June in Rogers County District Court to stop development of Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, a massive, proposed smelter near Inola. Drummond’s lawsuit seeks to protect the health of area residents, livestock and natural resources from the threatened public nuisance posed by the project.
The court ruling came after the U.S. Department of Justice intervened in federal court, siding with the developers of the $4 billion proposed smelter at Inola. The DOJ argued Drummond had not made his case against the smelter and if the Attorney General were successful in blocking the massive projective, it “would impair national security.”
“Because of the project’s direct impact to the nation’s economic and national security, the United States has a substantial interest in this litigation,” stated Adam R. F. Gustafson, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Environment & Natural Resource Division.
“Plaintiff has not shown that it is likely to suffer imminent irreparable harm without a preliminary injunction,” argued the U.S. government. “In fact, Plaintiff’s motion and petition are premature. As Plaintiff has recognized, no construction has occurred.”
Read the order.
