When the Oklahoma Corporation Commission votes later in the month on OGE’s nearly $78 million rate hike request, it will be met with a protest rally to be held by the Sierra Club.
The group is among those opposed to the utility’s request that was filed to recover costs after $534 million in emissions improvements to two of its eastern power plants. The matter will be decided at a May 28 hearing to be held by the Commission.
The Sierra club announced it will hold a rally on the east steps of the Jim Thorpe building which houses the Corporation Commission offices. The rally will begin at noon and the commission hearing will be at 1:30 p.m.
“OGE is trying to raise rates to bail out one of Oklahoma’s oldest, dirtiest and least economical plants, the Sooner coal plant,” charged Chapter President Johnson Bridgwater in announcing the protest rally. “OGE made a bad decision to pour nearly half a billion dollars into this old coal plant rather than acquiring more renewable resources.”
OGE spent more than $534 million making emissions improvements at the Sooner Power Plant and the Muskogee Power Plant and filed the request to recover costs.
The company filed a $77.6 million increase or 4.4 percent and spokesman Steve Alford defended the request.
“While taking these actions at Sooner and Muskogee, we have maintained customer rates that are among the lowest in the country, at 31 percent below the national average, and within one-half of a percent of our 2014 rates, when these projects began,” Alford said. “Due in large part to the actions we’ve taken at these facilities, overall plant emissions are expected to be significantly lower from 2005 levels. Beginning in 2019, sulfur dioxide emissions are expected to be lower by nearly 90 percent, nitrogen oxide to be lower by nearly 75 percent and carbon dioxide to be lower by approximately 40 percent.”
OG&E recently announced a decision to purchase two power plants for a approximately $53 million: the Shady Point plant near Poteau and the Oklahoma Cogeneration plant in Oklahoma City, pending regulatory approval. Shady Point is a 360 megawatt coal and natural gas-fired plant, while Oklahoma Cogeneration is a 146 megawatt natural-gas fired plant, both of which OG&E purchases electricity from currently.