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Sometimes even Attorney General Gentner Drummond can make a mistake, or at least his office.
In a recent filing with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the Attorney General asked for approval to force Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company pay for his employment of expert witnesses regarding the utility’s request for approval of three major power expansion projects.
OG&E filed the case, PUD-2025-000038, asking the Corporation Commission to approve its request for additional capacity involving three major projects and agreements. It seeks preapproval to cover a 5-year Capacity Purchase Agreement with Tenaska’s Kiamichi Energy Plant in Kiowa; a 20-year agreement for power from the Black Kettle Energy Storage in Oklahoma City; and the addition of two new gas-fired combustion turbines at a cost of $506.4 million at its Horseshoe Lake power plant in eastern Oklahoma County.
In a filing with the Commission, Attorney General Drummond responded with his own request to have OG&E pay for the “the retention of expert witnesses, consultants, and analytical services, and arrangement of the compensation of such person(s) to conduct an analysis of the purchase and cost recovery of the Green Country Generating facility and recovery rider.”
Whoops. The Green Country Generating facility is a Public Service Company of Oklahoma request and not OG&E. The Attorney General’s Press Secretary Leslie Berger explained, “the mention of Green Country in the filing you referenced was in error.”
Drummond wants to use “expert witnesses” to represent him in reviewing and evaluating OGE’s preapproval application.
“The Attorney General requests that if an expert witness is retained, OGE be allowed to recover all costs incurred for the expert witness from customers, with the manner of cost
recovery to be determined in its next base rate case.”
As for the estimated cost that OGE could be assessed, if approved by Corporation Commissioners, Berger indicated it could a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
“As far as the expense, that will depend on whether or not the case is settled or goes all the way through trial. Costs vary by case, but one recent example would be the expert services for PSO’s request for the $750 million Green Country Facility in which the expert services cost $195,000,” she said in a statement to OK Energy Today.
OG&E filed the request May 19 and if approved, it could lead to another 55 cents per month for residential customers in 2026, another $1.26 by 2727 and $2.02 in 2028.