Monday is the deadline for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and its staff to comply with a subpoena issued by Attorney General Gentner Drummond who is investigated suspected market manipulation of natural gas costs during the 2021 Winter Storm Yuri.
It was early November when Drummond fired off his subpoena in response to Corporation Commissioner Bob Anthony’s continued allegations of wrongdoing over the handling of the state’s 2021 winter securitization Act which allowed utilities to use bonds to extend ratepayer costs over a period as long as 25 years.
As OK Energy Today has reported Anthony’s allegations over the pasts two years, the Commissioner raised public questions about the chuminess between an OG&E executive and a Deputy Treasurer at the time the utility sought approval of the use of bonds to cover its storm costs. He had filed numerous dissenting opinions in each of the utility cases where the securitization and bonds were used by PSO, OG&E, ONG and Summit Utilities.
His dissents were made public and the most recent was filed in late October over PSO’s rate hike that won approval on a 2-1 vote. It prompted Attorney General Drummond to inform Commissioner Anthony to either provide his proof of his claims or issue a public apology. That in turn, prompted Anthony to inform the Attorney General he had been given documentation of the basis for Anthony’s claims and did so when Drummond was a candidate for Attorney General.
Anthony also informed the Attorney General that he had met personally and discussed his claims with two of Drummond’s Assistant Attorneys General. Drummond was silent for about a week before he subpoenaed the Commissioners and the Commission staff for their email communications from Feb. 1, 2021 (which was just before the start of the winter storm) to March 31, 2022.
Drummond gave the targets of the subpoena until Nov. 27 to comply with the order. Commissioner Anthony responded with 48 hours of the receipt of the subpoena and turned over more than 4,000 emails from his office and personal computers.
Drummond has not spoken publicly about questions raised regarding the subpoena. His office declined to reveal if others involved in the bonding process, including those outside the Corporation Commission itself, might have also been subpoened.
So what sparked the Attorney General to expand his market manipulation investigation which he announced last May? What in the documentation provided by Commissioner Anthony might have led Drummond to determine that more should be put under the spotlight?
In the coming days this week, OK Energy Today will examine some of the claims made by Commissioner Anthony.