OKLAHOMA CITY – Shortly after winning his reelection last week, a state lawmaker is again asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to halt a rate increase by Oklahoma Natural Gas.
Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, announced that he filed an appeal of another ruling by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Gann was joined in the effort by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore.
“The feedback we’ve received from constituents has been great,” West said in a media statement. “Oklahomans appreciate that we aren’t just talking about standing up for them and fighting against inflated utility bills, we’re actually doing it.”
In their latest petition – filed June 17 – both Gann and West, who are ONG customers, said the Corporation Commission “has gone completely off the beam.” Both lawmakers said the OCC set a March 27 deadline to intervene in ONG’s rate case but only set it after that deadline had already passed.
ONG customers were not notified about the case until late April, the lawmakers said.
“This case was rigged from the start to keep ONG ratepayers out,” Gann said. “The federal courts have said utility customers have constitutional due process rights – including a right to timely and adequate notice about these cases. We are asking the Supreme Court to uphold customers’ rights and require the OCC to change its rules to respect them. ONG ratepayers should be allowed to exercise their right to participate without being muzzled.”
Officials with ONG could not be reached for comment.
During a June 11 OCC hearing, an attorney for utility challenged Gann’s Entry of Appearance filed in the case, arguing that Gann had missed the March 27 deadline to intervene.
Gann argued that as an ONG customer entitled to personal notice in the case, his was an “intervention of right” under the law, not subject to that deadline anyway.
“Oklahoma Administrative Code 165:5-9-4(d)(2) expressly permits ‘a person entitled to personal notice in a case’ to ‘become a party of record by filing an entry of appearance or orally stating an entry of appearance at any proceeding regarding the case without needing to file a motion for intervention,’” Gann wrote.
Gann noted that the OCC administrative law judge who ruled against him made no mention of that law in her ruling or addressed the fact that the OCC set an intervention deadline that had already passed. Instead, she dismissed Gann’s filed motions and objections as well.
After Gann was prevented from participating, the OCC conducted an eight-minute Hearing on the Merits with no witness testimony or cross-examination at which the utility, OCC Public Utility Division and the attorney general all agreed that the utility’s latest $29 million rate increase should be approved exactly as requested. The commissioners are expected to make a final decision later this year.
Gann said he and more than 300 Public Service Company of Oklahoma customers have filed similar entries in PSO’s latest rate case at the OCC in which that utility is seeking an additional $600 million rate increase.
Records show that the utility company, the attorney general’s office, and the Corporation Commission have 30 days to respond to the lawmakers’ latest ONG appeal.
M. Scott Carter is an award-winning political and investigative reporter with more than 40 years’ experience covering federal and state government and politics in Oklahoma. He can be reached at scott. carter@swoknews.com.