Oklahoma governor pushes for $700 million rebate package to lure a company he can’t name

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

According to a report from Fortune and local media outlet News 9, Oklahoma's governor called on the Legislature to approve an enormous financial incentives package that was supposed to lure an electric vehicle company to the state. There is good reason to believe that this company may be Panasonic, despite the non-disclosure agreement preventing Governor Stitt from revealing the name of the company and the amount of money pledged to the package.

Over the next five to seven years, billions of dollars are going to be invested in this space, and we want Oklahoma to be the spot that these folks land, according to Governor Stitt.

The Oklahoma House Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget advanced the bill after Stitt made his pitch.

Oklahoma is at the one-yard-line of securing a multi-billion dollar investment that will make a generational impact for our state.



Lets work together to push this thing across the goal line and get it done! pic.twitter.com/DNJrCeJizc

— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) April 18, 2022

In March, an anonymous source told Japanese news group NHK that Panasonic is looking to build a factory in either Kansas or Oklahoma to make car batteries. By the end of March 2024, Panasonic plans to increase production by building two additional production lines at its Wakayama factory in Japan. The Verge reached out to Panasonic but didn't hear back.

According to Fortune, even other representatives aren't aware of the company Oklahoma laying out the red carpet.

Emily Virgin, Oklahoma House Minority Leader, said that the governor had not spoken to them about the bill, and that it was concerning that he would ask them to support something without giving them the bill number or language.

Oklahoma and Kansas are competing for a Panasonic factory deal. In February, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed off on a bill for a $4 billion mega-project plan. Oklahoma launched a huge campaign to get aTesla Gigafactory to the state in 2020 but lost out to Texas.