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Hearing Begins Over OG&E’s Controversial Plan To Comply With Clean Air Act

Oklahoma Gas & Electric's coal-fired Sooner Plant in Red Rock, Okla.
StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma Gas and Electric — the state’s largest utility — and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt fought the EPA’s new Clean Air Act regulations for years before being left with no choice but to comply.

Now, after being beaten back in court, OG&E is asking the state Corporation Commission for permission to increase customer electricity rates so it has the money it says is needed to convert coal-fired units at its Muskogee Plant to natural gas, and install air scrubbers at its Sooner Plant.

But the $1.1 billion dollar plan met with stiff resistance during the first day of the rate hearing in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. First, an attorney for the Sierra Club took OG&E to task for not including more wind power in its environmental compliance plan and for putting so much of the cost burden on consumers.

OG&E has warned that its plan could increase rates by 15 to 20 percent by the end of the decade.

Then, Thomas Schroedter, executive director of Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers, pressed OG&E managing director of regulator affairs Don Rowlett about why the utility’s plan includes money to update its Mustang Power Plant, which isn’t related to compliance with the EPA’s rules.

About $400 million of the $1.1 billion plan would be used to update equipment at the aging Mustang Plant.

As The Oklahoman’sPaul Monies reports, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is taking criticism for not being more involved in the rate case:

Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s public utilities unit has not filed any testimony in the case, although it has reserved the right to cross-examine witnesses. … The lack of involvement from the attorney general’s office has attracted notice from consumer groups, including Voices Organized In Civic Engagement, or VOICE. The group held a public forum on the case in Oklahoma City last week that featured representatives from OG&E, the Sierra Club, AARP and other parties in the case. “It’s our understanding the attorney general is calling no witnesses and does not seem to be taking a position on the case,” said Cynthia Cox, a member of VOICE.

 
But now, Monies reports Pruitt is getting involved, and calling for OG&E to drop the Mustang Plant improvements from its plan:
 

“The attorney general’s office believes a settlement that limits the case to consideration of only the requirements imposed by the EPA is in the best interests of consumers,” [Pruitt spokesman Aaron Cooper] said in a statement.

 

Tuesday’s proceedings included public comments, like those from Oklahoma City CPA and VOICE member Douglas Holsted, who also called for OG&E to remove the Mustang Plant improvements from its plan.
“I was worried about the impact of a 15 to 20 percent increase occurring gradually over five years would have on the 25 percent of Oklahoma children at risk of going to bed hungry, the stagnant wages for our poorest citizens, the elderly living on fixed incomes,” Holsted said. “As I study the financial performance of this utility company, I came to ask myself: Why does OG&E need a rate increase at all?”

Others praised the plan, and OG&E. Mustang School Board President Chad Fulton said the utility couldn’t be a better neighbor.

“These employees, they’re not only employees, but I consider them friends. I consider them partners with our school district,” Fulton said. “They’ve helped us. We trust them.”

The hearing is expected to continue for several weeks.

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma’s public radio stations and relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.
 

Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. Logan spent six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017.
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