Complying with a four-month old state law regarding exempted public meetings, Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners have filed notices of two more instances where commissioners gathered in recent days.
Both meetings involved Commissioners Kim David and Brian Bingman as they attended last week’s national summit in Washington, D.C. of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Commissioner Todd Hiett’s name was absent from the posted filings.
The two commissioners took part in a NARUC Subcommittee on Pipeline Safey panel that occurred Feb. 23 at the site of the Winter meeting of the organization, the Westin DC Downtown.
“Commissioner David opened the meeting and introduced the panel, which was moderated by Commissioner Bingman. Panelists from ONEOK and ONE Gas discussed pipeline safety management, cyber resilience, compliance and safety,” stated the form posted on the agency website.
The second exemption of the public meeting act also occurred at the NARUC summit on Feb. 26 and involved Commissioners David and Bingman. The two held separate meetings with Oklahoma Rep. Kevin Hern, Rep. Stephanie Bice, Sen. Markwayne Mullin and Se. James Lankford. Attending with the two commissioners were staff members Jeff Kline, Erica O’Neal, Louis Jackson, Geoffrey Rush and Trent Campbell.
The fililng showed the purpose of the meetings was to “request assistance with receiving second round of grant funding from IIJA for the orphan well plugging program.” IIJA is the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act.
A second reason for the meetings was described as “EPA-Will need assisstance soon regarding Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s plan to convert Northeastern Unit 3 Coal Unit to a natural gas plant.”
Commissioners also had a third topic of discussion in their meetings with the members of the Congressional delegation.
“PHMSA-Senate needs to confirm PHMSA Administrator; Congress needs to approve Reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act; increase funding for pipeline safety inspectors; allow PHMSA staff to have ex-parte communications with state program administrators during rulemakings.”
Both postings were made on Monday, March 3.