OKLAHOMA CITY – Just a day after winning reelection to his House seat, Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, filed an appeal of another ruling of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He was joined by Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore.

A June 11 OCC ruling denied the intervention of customers trying to participate in the latest rate case for Oklahoma Natural Gas Company (ONG). The utility is seeking a $29 million rate increase. If approved, it would mark the fourth rate hike the OCC has approved for ONG in the last four years, increasing customer bills by more than $128 million.

Often joined by Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, Gann, West and West now have eleven OCC utility appeals pending before the state’s highest court. This latest appeal, filed June 17, brings the total amount of ONG, OG&E and PSO customer payments the representatives have challenged to $500 million in rate increases, $3.2 billion in 2021 Winter Storm bonds, $11 billion in fuel charges, and $1.3 billion in new capacity preapprovals. Six of those appeals are now fully briefed and under consideration by the Supreme Court.

“The feedback we’ve received from constituents has been great,” said Kevin West. “Oklahomans appreciate that we aren’t just talking about standing up for them and fighting against inflated utility bills, we’re actually doing it.”

“The OCC has gone completely off the beam,” ONG customers Gann and Kevin West told the Supreme Court in their June 17 petition. They go on to describe how the OCC set a March 27 deadline to intervene in ONG’s rate case, but only set it after that deadline had already passed. ONG’s customers were not even notified about the case until late April. 

“This case was rigged from the start to keep ONG ratepayers out,” said Gann. “The federal courts have said utility customers have constitutional due process rights – including a right to timely and adequate notice about these cases. We are asking the Supreme Court to uphold customers’ rights and require the OCC to change its rules to respect them. ONG ratepayers should be allowed to exercise their right to participate without being muzzled.”

At a June 11, 2026, OCC hearing, an attorney for ONG challenged Gann’s Entry of Appearance filed in the case, arguing he had missed the March 27 deadline to intervene. Gann responded by arguing that as an ONG customer entitled to personal notice in the case, his was an “intervention of right” under the law, not subject to that deadline anyway. 

“Oklahoma Administrative Code 165:5-9-4(d)(2) expressly permits ‘a person entitled to personal notice in a case’ to ‘become a party of record by filing an entry of appearance or orally stating an entry of appearance at any proceeding regarding the case without needing to file a motion for intervention,’” Gann later wrote in exceptions he filed objecting to the ruling. The OCC administrative law judge who ruled against him made no mention of that law in her ruling or addressed the fact that the OCC set an intervention deadline that had already passed. Instead, she went on to dismiss Gann’s filed motions and objections as well.

Immediately after formally preventing Gann from participating, the OCC conducted an eight-minute Hearing on the Merits with no witness testimony or cross-examination at which the utility, OCC Public Utility Division and the state's attorney general all agreed ONG’s latest $29 million rate increase should be approved exactly as requested by the utility. The commissioners are expected to make a final decision later this year.

Gann and more than 300 Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) customers have filed similar entries in PSO’s latest rate case at the OCC in which that utility is seeking an additional $600 million rate increase. With the OCC’s blessing, PSO also did not notify customers about its rate case until after the deadline to intervene had already passed. Those entries, many from residential customers opposed to subsidizing electricity for the proposed Emirates Global Aluminum smelter, are being challenged by PSO with a hearing in that case set for 1:30 p.m. June 25.

ONG, the OCC and the attorney general have 30 days to respond to Gann and Kevin West’s latest ONG appeal.

All the utility appeals can be followed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court:

PSO rate case ($250m rate increases; $700m bonds; initial decision 4/21/2026; reconsideration pending):

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

ONG, PSO & OG&E CY2023 fuel cases ($1.5 billion; all briefs filed):

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; all briefs filed):

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

ONG CY2024 fuel case ($390 million + $888m for 2021/2022; first brief filed):

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

OG&E CY2024 fuel case ($925 million + $1.9 billion for 2021/2022; first brief filed):

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

PSO CY2024 fuel case ($600 million + $2.8 billion for 2021/2022; briefs this fall):

https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123905

PSO Preapproval case ($1.255 billion; briefs this winter)

https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=124090

ONG Intervention Denial case ($29 million rate increase)

https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=124164