Tag Archives: Oklahoma Corporation Commission

OK’s Path to Energy Abundance

By Marven Goodman, Investigative Report

Why Limited Government and Market-Driven Innovation Beat the Old Regulatory Capture Model

The Regulatory Trap Holding Oklahoma Back

Oklahomans are tired of watching their electric bills rise while being told the only remedy is more government-approved spending on the same century-old system. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission continues to entertain rate cases from utilities that pass the costs of aging infrastructure and new demand straight through to captive ratepayers. At the same time, technological progress in solar, batteries, and small modular nuclear reactors offers a fundamentally different path, one that rewards results rather than spending. The contrast is stark, and it reveals why limited government, low taxation, and the removal of regulatory control over daily economic decisions consistently outperform bureaucratic gatekeeping.

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Data Center Dangers

By David Arnett

Data Part Two: Oversight, Finance, and Health Updates

The previous story, “Data Part One,” asked if high speed private fiber optics lines (Dark Fiber) were being installed illegally in Oklahoma to connect multiple data centers. The layman’s answer is yes as profiteers place private lines in presumed public rights-of-way without compensation, notice to landowners, or surveys. Not to put too fine a point on it, but without surveys, then are no accurate installations.

The Oklahoma Attorney Generals (AG) office has been asked to review the matter, but according to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), by law, they are not allowed to regulate data fiber. Only Oklahoma County Government is currently regulating installation and Wagoner County Commissioners, to their credit, have requested clarification from the AG office. There is no state oversight or consistent rule statewide.

Complicating matters, local officials—encouraged by economic special interests, supported by regional planning organizations, and pursuing economic gains—are signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to keep data center financial, construction, and operational details from the public.

Citizens object because publicly elected officials are sworn to represent citizens and many believe they betray constituents to sign such agreements. A law was proposed but defeated in the Oklahoma Legislature last year to specifically prohibit elected officials from signing such private NDAs. It should have been called the “Who’s your daddy law.”

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OG&E, PSO Brief Filed with Supreme Court

By Staff Report

On the fifth anniversary of February 2021’s Winter Storm “Uri,” appeals challenging more than $1.4 billion in bonds and $377 million in rate increases impacting the customers of electric utility companies OG&E and Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) are now in the hands of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. 

Tuesday, Reps. Tom Gann, R-Inola, Kevin West, R-Moore, and Rick West, R-Heavener, filed the final brief in their appeal of a 2025 Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) order approving a $127 million rate increase for OG&E without a CPA-led audit of the utility’s 2021 Winter Storm “Uri” bonds.

Winter Storm “Uri”
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