Listen Frontier: Clifton Adcock on the Real Impact of Oklahoma’s Data-Center Explosion

About this episode

Clifton Adcock discusses the implications of Oklahoma's rapid data center growth and the challenges of reporting on it.

For the past several months, Frontier reporter Clifton Adcock has been digging into one of the fastest-moving — and least transparent — developments in Oklahoma: the rapid rise of data centers. These facilities promise big investment, but they also bring enormous demands for power and water, and much of the planning has happened out of public view. In this week’s Q&A, Clifton walks us through how he pieced this story together: from tracking down hard-to-find utility filings to decoding dense regulatory documents and uncovering data center projects that weren’t publicly disclosed. He also talks about the challenges of explaining highly technical issues in a way readers can understand, and what surprised him most as he followed the money, energy, and incentives behind Oklahoma’s data-center boom. Read the story: Oklahoma’s data center boom is about to hit the grid — and your power bill

People in this episode

Guest: Clifton Adcock

Topics covered

• data centers
• Oklahoma
• energy
• regulation
• investment

Keywords

• utility filings
• regulatory documents
• public disclosure
• technical issues

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Oklahoma

More episodes of Listen Frontier

• Why Tulsa is hitting pause on data centers · April 6, 2026 · 29 min
• Why Trump picked Markwayne Mullin for Homeland Security · March 6, 2026 · 21 min
• Salty, oily drinking water left sores in their mouths. Oklahoma refused to find out why. · February 11, 2026 · 22 min
• ‘The risk is moving too slow’: How Oklahoma's government wants AI to reshape the state's economy · January 21, 2026 · 28 min
• Inside the legal fight over immigration detention in Oklahoma · December 19, 2025 · 8 min
• Listen Frontier: Are Oklahoma classrooms too wired for learning? · October 17, 2025 · 21 min