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 Your future utility bills will be going up significantly.

 

OKEnergyToday.com reports $6.6 billion is the cost that will have to be eventually borne by consumers in the fuel cost adjustments approved Thursday for 3 major utilities by Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners on a 2-1 vote.

 

The Commission approved the requests for Oklahoma Natural Gas Co., Oklahoma Gas & Electric and Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

 

While the actual fuel adjust requests are less than the $6.6 billion cited by Commissioner Bob Anthony, their combined total along with interest costs increased to the final sum. ONG’s  covered $321 million and OG&E asked for $495 million while PSO sought $701 million in cost approval.

 

OkEnergyToday.com reports Anthony alleged a lack of transparency, ignoring of market manipulation, overcharging, falsified records, and obstruction of open records.

 

Commissioner Kim David said she was still relying on a possible investigation she requested of Attorney General Gentner Drummond in a March 6 communication.

 

Commission Chairman Hiett disagreed with Anthony’s assessment, saying he reviewed the requirements faced by the utilities.

 

Anthony had earlier referred to similar kinds of high natural gas costs during the 2021 winter storm and as a result of the large bills, how Kansas, Texas and Minnesota challenged the requests of their utilities.

 

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a $50 million lawsuit in February against Macquarie Energy, an energy company that also supplied customers in Oklahoma during the winter storm 2 years ago. Kobach accused the firm of market manipulation by allegedly passing artificially inflated costs onto its customers.

 

Lawsuits in Texas also made similar claims over 2021 winter storm costs.