OKLAHOMA CITY – Reps. Tom Gann, R-Inola, and Kevin West, R-Moore, on Wednesday filed a brief asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to overturn $98 million in rate increases for Oklahoma Natural Gas (ONG) well as $1.77 billion of the utility’s ratepayer-backed bonds. All were approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) with votes by embattled OCC Commissioner Todd Hiett who was accused of groping an employee of the utility at a conference in Minnesota in June 2024. 

Charges were never filed, and the Ethics Commission dismissed a complaint against Hiett in May 2025. Wednesday’s brief asks the Supreme Court to review the Ethics Commission’s legal determinations in that case.

Payments for the bonds, issued to cover costs incurred by ONG during February 2021’s Winter Storm “Uri,” have been collected as “Winter Event Cost Recovery” charges on customers’ bills since 2022. The OCC has also approved an additional rate increase for ONG of between $20 million and $41 million every year since the bonds were issued. If not overturned, the rate increases will continue in perpetuity; the monthly bond charges are scheduled to continue for another 22 years. 

Gann and West’s brief tells the Court that the OCC failed to perform lawful audits of ONG’s bonds in every rate case since the bonds were issued. They also argue ONG’s original 2021 “Uri” costs that were securitized into the ratepayer-backed bonds were never audited either. The representatives assert the audit failures are fatal in all four cases, making the OCC’s orders void.  

Wednesday’s brief was the third such request to the Court. Gann filed a similar brief asking the Court to overturn $250 million in rate increases and some $700 million in ratepayer-backed bonds that the OCC had approved for Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO). In December, with Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, Gann and Kevin West also asked the court to overturn a $127 million rate increase and $760 million in winter storm bonds for customers of Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company (OG&E). Those cases are already in the Court’s hands.

To date, this brings the totals officially challenged to $475 million in rate increases and more than $3.2 billion in bonds. The appeals ask the court to order everything wrongly collected to be refunded to the utilities’ customers. Wednesday’s brief says “$140 million in illegitimate rate increases and $300 million in illegitimate bond charges” have already been collected from ONG’s customers. 

Oklahoma utilities PSO, OG&E, ONG and CenterPoint/Summit paid some of the highest natural gas prices in U.S. history during two weeks in February 2021, incurring some $2.8 billion in debt. Interest and other expenses added another $2 billion, bringing the total cost of the bonds being paid by Oklahoma utility customers close to $5 billion.

Gann, a former internal auditor for the Tulsa International Airport, said he believes that "When Oklahoma law requires an audit, the Accountancy Act says it has to be done by independent, licensed CPAs following nationally recognized standards, and that did not happen." 

“Although all three of us voted against the securitization legislation in April 2021, we do not believe the intent was for the utilities to audit themselves, or for the Corporation Commission to make up its own definition of the word ‘audit.’” Kevin West said. “The apparently fraudulent audits are inexcusable. The law requires real audits, and the Accountancy Act defines auditing standards for a reason.” 

In addition to the individual appeals of each utility’s rate case, the representatives filed a similar Supreme Court appeal against the OCC’s approval of $1.5 billion of ONG, OG&E and PSO’s 2023 fuel costs. That brief, filed on December 18, 2025, alleged the OCC had allowed an employee, believed to have dropped out of college as a sophomore, to perform required audits of utility companies collectively worth more than a billion dollars, including in the challenged OG&E and PSO rate cases. [12/9/2025 press release.]

At the start of this year, the OCC terminated its top two administrators – the director of administration and the chief operating officer who was also the chief of communications – without explanation, but with “confidential” severance packages now revealed to exceed $200,000 and $100,000, respectively. The person believed to have dropped out of college also continues to testify about audits in OCC utility cases. 

“Fundamentally, these appeals are about upholding the Constitution and the rule of law,” Rick West said. “We are saying audits must be done by CPAs, and State Ethics Rules say if a reasonable person would question Hiett’s impartiality in these cases, he must not participate. But Hiett continues to cast votes approving billions of dollars of increases for these utility companies without performing the required audits. We expect the Court to overturn these votes and to order Hiett and the OCC to follow the law.”

The full Brief in Chief for the ONG rate case appeal can be read online here:

https://oscn.net/dockets/GetDocument.aspx?ct=appellate&bc=1064718136&cn=CU-123348&fmt=pdf

ONG, the OCC and the Attorney General’s Office have 40 days to respond.

The progress of all the appeals can be followed on the Oklahoma Supreme Court website.

PSO rate case ($250m rate increases; $700m bonds; all briefs filed):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122861

ONG, PSO & OG&E CY2023 fuel cases ($1.5 billion; first brief filed; last due mid-March):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122991

OG&E rate case ($127m rate increase; $760m bonds; all briefs filed):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123021

ONG rate case ($98m rate increases; $1.3 billion bonds; first brief filed; last due mid-June):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123348

ONG 2024 fuel case ($390 million + $888m for 2021/2022; briefs this summer):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123588

OG&E 2024 fuel case ($925 million + $1.9 billion for 2021/2022; briefs this summer):

  https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123608