VOICE seeks answers about $4.5 billion in storm-related fuel costs
[Excerpts]
Oklahoma City religious and community leaders are raising questions about how power providers plan to recover an estimated $4.5 billion spent on fuel during February's severe winter storm.
Power providers spent so much in the wake of the storm, a customer who might normally see a $100 February bill could have seen a nearly $2,000 bill instead, with months of similar bills to follow.
Some legislators recently submitted plans to mitigate these costs over time, but leaders of the civic organization VOICE OKC want assurance the process won't pass unreasonable fuel costs on to consumers.
“If we as consumers are going to be asked to pay $4.5 billion, we deserve transparency,” said Eric Jergensen, a VOICE member representing the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House.
VOICE, formed in [2012], is a coalition of 25 church congregations, nonprofits, and schools that works to develop the leadership skills of its members to work more effectively within the democratic process with civic leaders and public officials on issues of concern to families.
This week, what mattered to the organization are those potentially high utility bills.
Questions raised by VOICE
VOICE is seeking answers to several questions related to the storm, including:
• Who made a profit from the storm, and will the Oklahoma Attorney General conduct a grand jury investigation into that issue?
• What policies were in place that allowed this to happen, and who, if anyone, will be held accountable?
• How did utility companies fail to have hedging contracts in place that could have capped at least some of their fuel costs during the storm?
• Why won't shareholders of publicly traded utilities have to carry some of the financial responsibility for decisions made by those companies' leaders?
“Oklahomans experienced 46 ‘extreme weather events’ between 2010 and 2020,” said Pam Bracken, a VOICE member representing Mosaic United Methodist Church. “What’s going to happen to utility costs after the next storm, and the one after that? Our policy can’t be, ‘Oh, shucks, fooled again, we’ll pay it this time, but just wait until next time.”
Father Tim Luschen, a VOICE member representing the Saint Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, said Wednesday he was alarmed by how much an average customer's utility bill could increase under proposed legislation, even after extra-ordinary expenses were carried by bonds.
Families simply won't be able to afford even a 150% increase on their bills, Luschen observed.
“We have more families in need of utility assistance than we can help under normal circumstances,” Luschen said. “How will families be able to pay so much more on their monthly bills?”