Capitol connections: Full circle

The great-grandson of an electric cooperative founder in Oklahoma now helps shape environmental policy across the South Central United States.

On a farm west of Cordell, Christmas morning didn’t always begin with presents.

Sometimes it started with cattle.

Long before he led environmental policy across five states, Scott Mason bundled up against Oklahoma wind and followed his father through snow, ice and dust to check livestock on the family farm. The land has been in the Mason family since 1906, and those early mornings taught lessons that still guide him.

“Farmers and ranchers are some of the
hardest-working folks there are,” Mason said. “I credit growing up on that farm with the work ethic I bring to this job every day.”

Today, Mason serves as regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6, overseeing environmental programs serving roughly 50 million people in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, along with 66 tribal nations. The job ranges from routine permitting issues to emergency response calls that can come at any hour.

Last Christmas Day, Mason and his team responded to an environmental emergency near Houston.

“It’s part of the job,” he said. “You’re always on call.”

Despite the scope of the position, Mason’s story begins in a place familiar to many electric cooperative members. Born in Elk City and raised in Cordell, he grew up helping with the family’s cow-calf operation, showing livestock in high school and spending summers working the land.

Those experiences continue to influence how he approaches policy.

“When we’re working on policies or regulations, I think about how they affect people back home,” Mason said. “I think about how my dad or grandfather would have viewed them.”

For many rural residents, the EPA can feel distant. Mason said he works to bridge that gap by seeking input from the people affected by agency decisions.

Some conversations happen in formal meetings. Others happen with lifelong friends still farming in Washita and Beckham counties.

“If I have a question about something that could affect them, I’ll pick up the phone and ask,” he said.

That approach recently played out during a roundtable discussion in Burns Flat, where farmers and ranchers shared concerns affecting their operations. Mason said those concerns were carried back to Washington for further review and discussion.

“We listen to people,” he said. “And then we work on solutions.”

Mason also is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. During the first Trump administration, he served as director of the American Indian Environmental Office at EPA headquarters, working with federally recognized tribes across the country.

The experience reinforced a lesson he learned long ago: effective leadership begins with understanding different perspectives.

“Whether they’re tribal leaders, farmers, ranchers or members of industry, every group brings concerns and viewpoints that matter,” Mason said.

That emphasis on relationships stretches back generations.

Mason’s great-grandfather, Walter Mason Sr., helped found Kiwash Electric Cooperative, now CKenergy Electric Cooperative, and served as one of the cooperative’s longest-tenured board members.

When Mason reflects on the cooperative model, he sees neighbors coming together to solve problems and strengthen their communities.

“At the end of the day, it’s about family, faith and community,” he said.

He attended cooperative annual meetings growing up and watched local people work together to address issues affecting their farms, businesses and families. The experience left a lasting impression.

In many ways, Mason’s career has come full circle.

Before returning to the EPA, he served as Oklahoma’s deputy secretary of energy, working closely with electric cooperatives across the state. Today, as he helps oversee environmental policy across the South Central United States, he still carries memories of the farm near Cordell.

He remembers riding with his grandfather and stopping to pick up litter along country roads. He remembers the care farmers took with the land because their livelihoods depended on it.

“They’re some of the best stewards of the land there are,” Mason said. “They’re the original conservationists.”

For Mason, environmental protection and economic growth are not competing interests. They are connected, much like the lessons he learned growing up in rural Oklahoma.

More than a century after the Mason family first put down roots in western Oklahoma, those lessons continue to travel with him from Washita County to the EPA’s regional headquarters in Dallas.

“In some form or fashion, every day I think back to growing up in Oklahoma,” Mason said. “I think about those family members, those neighbors and that community that shaped who I am.”