Winter gas bill from hell: Oklahomans face paying $1.4bn over snowstorm

Many states have used securitization to cover climate-related costs, like repairing downed power lines after a hurricane. But it has rarely been used for fuel costs. Energy and economics experts say it can be misused to prop up unprepared energy systems that are being tested by worsening extreme weather.

He recently voted against allowing an Oklahoma electric utility to pursue securitization. The other two Republican commissioners approved the request.

Monthly bills were projected to be in the thousands. State leaders recognized that would cause extreme hardship. Oklahoma has the third-highest poverty rate in the country and was already struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Legislators introduced the securitization bill in early April 2021. The governor signed it into law on 23 April. It was meant to be just one option, but lawmakers and regulators at the Corporation Commission never revisited whether Oklahoma Natural gas customers should have to pay the $1.4bn.

Oklahomans have pushed back on the bill increases they have been told to expect.

Fern McIntosh of Tulsa, in response to a call for public comment, pleaded with policymakers.

Two commissioners, Todd Heitt and Dana Murphy, did not respond to a request for comment about their campaign donations. Anthony said his votes were independent and that his voting record had shown that.

Most Oklahomans became aware of the higher bills they would be paying only after receiving a November letter from the utility requesting them to weigh in on the plan already under way.

Paul Betow, a retired 61-year-old Muskogee resident who has lived in Oklahoma all of his life, had a grim take.