“The stench of these rotten deals is so pervasive, people on the outside are beginning to pinch their noses and look toward the Jim Thorpe Building with wrinkled brows wondering what the hell is going on at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.”
It’s what Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony declared in a 180-page opinion filed in dissent of the $6.6 million in fuel and other costs approved for ONG, OG&E and PSO from the 2021 winter storm Uri.
(Read Commissioner Anthony’s full dissenting opinion here: https://public.occ.ok.gov/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=13594470.)
” Not only are these public injustices rotting from a putrid core of greed, public corruption and regulatory capture, but so are the various layers of whitewash that have been repeatedly and sloppily applied by their proponents and apologists over the last two years,” he charged, adding that the massive orders, the largest in his 34-years on the commission, were approved without conducting a lawful prudence review.
He further charged the orders approved Thursday were the worst abuse of public utility ratepayers in decades and said it amounted to “damage control” and represented “yet another layer of whitewash.”
Anthony said that “Giving these utilities an unqualified clean bill of health for all their calendar year 2021 fuel procurement processes and costs is improper, irresponsible, negligent, an abuse of discretion, and a slap in the face to the hardworking ratepayers of Oklahoma who will ultimately pay for them.”
In his dissent, Anthony calls the orders approved today “shameful public policy and legal malpractice” and says they “make a mockery of fairness and the judicial process.” “The Commission is talking out of both sides of its mouth and contradicting itself repeatedly in these orders,” Anthony points out. “With their approval, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission has officially become a kangaroo court.”
Anthony accused his fellow Commissioners of hurrying to “fast-track” the 2021 prudence review cases and their “final orders approving everything that happened in 2021” after the multi-billion-dollar lawsuits in Kansas and Texas came to light in February accusing companies that also did business in Oklahoma of natural gas market manipulation. “Unnecessarily hurrying these ‘prudence review’ cases through in the face of mounting evidence of wrongdoing makes no lawfully or economically justifiable sense,” Anthony writes. “But if you are engaging in a multi-billion-dollar cover-up, it makes perfect sense!”
Asking “How can historically high fuel costs that were potentially the result of unlawful conduct – including price-gouging, fraud and market manipulation – possibly be declared ‘fair, just, reasonable’ or ‘prudent’ before the true origins of those costs are thoroughly investigated and determined?”
Anthony concludes that “Apparently Commissioners Hiett and David’s earlier concern was all for show.” He also said it wasn’t clear what “new evidence” might have emerged to change the mind of Commissioner David who voted in February to hire an independent expert to review the fuel costs.
