Now that last week's record cold temperatures are behind us, Oklahoma utilities are hard at work trying to figure out new ways to ripoff Oklahoma consumers.
Yesterday, OG&E – our unreliable public utility that's too cheap to keep trees clear from powerlines, and wasn't prepared to handle supply demands during bitterly cold weather – announced it wants Oklahomans to spend the next 10-years paying for last week's cold spell.
Via KOCO:
OG&E officials on Thursday announced proposed plans to recover fuel costs related to the historic winter storms, saying that they will work to minimize the impact on customers’ utility bills.
According to officials, OG&E has filed an application with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to recover fuel costs associated with the recent winter weather event and minimize the impact on customer bills. Officials said the company’s fuel costs from February winter weather events estimated to be nearly $1 billion, which significantly exceeded fuel costs for all of 2020...
“Natural gas demand rose dramatically during the recent winter weather, which, combined with severe supply issues, caused a significant escalation in prices,” said Brian Alford, OG&E spokesman. “We estimate the cost to support our customers’ demand during the record-low cold temperatures to be approximately $1 billion in terms of natural gas and purchased power. To add perspective, this amount exceeds our total fuel costs for all of last year.”
I'm not totally naive here. Obviously, you're going to have higher electric and gas bills when you consume more energy to keep your home warm, but $1-billion for a week's work of fuel to keep our state running???
Maybe I've paid too much attention to the propaganda aired during OKC Thunder games over the years, but that seems excessive. I thought the big selling point for natural gas is that it's clean, affordable and abundant. If that's the case, why did prices increase exponentially when demand spiked, or better yet, why didn't OG&E have stockpiles of natural gas on hand for when they needed it most? It makes you wonder if those oil and gas companies, and their pal in the utility industry, aren't completely honest with us in their commercials, have the game rigged in their favor, only care about themselves and shareholders, and that maybe we should more openly question them and their motives.
Haha. Just kidding. They're for-profit corporations so they can be 100% trusted at all times.
For OG&E's plan to work, it will need to be approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission – a trio of publicly-elected officials who depend on campaign contributions from OG&E and energy companies to fund their reelection campaigns.
“Our normal recovery process would create an excessive burden for our customers because it would require us to recover the fuel costs over the remainder of 2021. We do not want that, so we are taking this unprecedented step to ask the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to extend the recovery period to 10 years instead of a few months. This alternative approach will keep costs down for customers and support State leaders' efforts to lessen the burden on Oklahomans,” Alford said.
I like how OG&E's throwing a bone to our "State leaders." Earlier in the week, Kevin Stitt swooped down from the blue course to hold a made-for-tv press conference at the Capitol, and deliberately read prepared statements that claim he's going to fight for Oklahomans or whatever. Knowing our Governor like we do, that means we can expect him to do the opposite, and to call for OG&E to raise rates on all tribal nations that won't renegotiate gaming fees while he's surfing in San Diego.
Anyway, I guess we'll continue to follow this latest effort by our utility companies to rip off Oklahomans. Stay with The Lost Ogle. We'll keep you advised.
