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The state entity that currently regulates electric utilities is continuing its efforts to sabotage electric restructuring in Oklahoma - this time by issuing a flawed report that attempts to link an Oklahoma proposal with a vastly different restructuring statute in California.
Senator Kevin Easley, who authored electric restructuring legislation this year, said the latest report from the State Corporation Commission offers a blatantly distorted view of Oklahoma's restructuring efforts.
"We specifically drafted our legislation to avoid the kinds of mistakes that were made in California. Suggesting that the Oklahoma and California plans are the same is like saying that apples and oranges are the same fruit. It just isn't true," said Senator Easley.
A staff report presented to the Corporation Commission Wednesday indicated that the California and Oklahoma plans are very similar. One staff member even predicted that state residents would experience the same utility cost increases as San Diego consumers if drastic changes were not made in the Oklahoma legislation.
"That's hogwash. Anyone who makes that claim either hasn't read the Oklahoma bill or is deliberately trying to distort it. I had really hoped for a more professional approach from the Corporation Commission, but apparently it's more concerned with protecting its political turf than
honestly discussing the implications of electric restructuring," said Senator Easley.
The state legislator pointed out that there are a number of significant differences between the Oklahoma and California plans, including:
"We've done everything humanly possible to ensure that the California experience will not be repeated in Oklahoma. Texas has done the same thing, passing an electric restructuring law under the leadership of Governor George Bush. He's still standing behind it in the wake of the California problems and the Texas law isn't even as consumer friendly as the one we've proposed in Oklahoma," noted Easley.
This isn't the first time that the Corporation Commission has attempted to derail electric restructuring. In the final weeks of the legislative session, it announced its opposition to an electric restructuring bill, even though the final draft was not finished. The final version of the measure ultimately had more consumer protection provisions than advocated by the commission.
Senator Easley said the commission's public actions on electric restructuring have more to do with politics than consumer protection.
"When you try to increase competition and lower rates through restructuring, you take away some of the authority of the Corporation Commission in the process. Commissioners wield a lot of power over the electric utilities and they don't want to give that up. They're trying to protect their political turf, not consumers," said Senator Easley.