OKLAHOMA CITY – Two new filings at the Oklahoma Supreme Court by Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola, continue his fight against billions of dollars of utility bill increases approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) that the representative believes are unlawful. The June 30 and July 6 filings include a twelfth appeal and a request that the Court pause enforcement of a recent decision pending “further review at the federal level.”

Gann has been joined in other filings by Reps. , Kevin West, R-Moore, and Rick West, R-Heavener.

The newest appeal challenges a June 5, 2026, OCC ruling that denied the intervention of Gann and more than 300 customers trying to participate in the latest rate case for Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO). The utility is seeking a $600 million rate increase, or an additional $25 per month for the average residential customer. Gann is joined in this appeal by Michael Ritze, a former Republican state representative from Broken Arrow. The OCC, PSO and attorney general have 20 days to respond.

Multiple settlement agreements have been announced since Gann’s appeal was filed, though none are unanimous, and the attorney general recently withdrew from one of them. 

“For the OCC to proceed without jurisdiction is a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Gann wrote in a public comment recently filed in the PSO rate case.

According to the motion, Gann “respectfully requests the Court suspend [its decision] until expiration of the time to file a petition for writ of certiorari or notice of final disposition by the United States Supreme Court,” or late September at the earliest.

Many of the PSO customers trying to intervene in its rate case are members of the Stop the Inola Smelter citizens group opposed to existing customers being forced to subsidize electricity for the controversial proposed aluminum smelter. The rate case will determine terms and conditions for a new “large-load” rate class of PSO customers likely to include data centers, and possibly the smelter. 

Gann and Kevin West appealed a similar OCC ruling that denied Gann’s intervention in the latest rate case for Oklahoma Natural Gas Company (ONG) on June 11. ONG is seeking a $29 million rate increase that, if approved, 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.

In both rate cases, the OCC set a deadline to intervene, but the utilities’ customers were not even notified about the case until after that deadline had already passed. And when customers were notified, the appeals argue, they were only told how to give public comment, not that they have a right to participate as parties of record in the case, which permits seeing all the evidence, filing objections and cross-examining witnesses.

“These cases were rigged from the start to keep utility customers out,” Kevin West said. “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.”

Unlike ONG’s rate case, which the OCC suspended pending the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal, the proceedings in PSO’s rate case have continued unabated without any discussion that the OCC may have lost jurisdiction of the case.

With this latest appeal, Gann, West and West have now challenged some $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 hitting the utility bills of millions of ONG, PSO and OG&E customers. Seven of those appeals are now fully briefed and under consideration by the Supreme Court.

In an April 21, 2026, decision, the Court denied the first appeal of an earlier PSO rate case challenging $250 million in rate increases and $700 million of 2021 Winter Storm bonds. The Court’s opinion said Gann should have intervened in the rate case at the OCC first. On June 29, the Court declined to consider Gann’s motion to reconsider that decision. It had informed the Court that Gann and other PSO customers did not even receive notice of the rate case until after the deadline to intervene.

As a result of its two rulings on procedural technicalities, the Supreme Court has not actually decided any of Gann, West and West’s legal issues. These include what they say are unlawful OCC utility “audits,” the failure to give customers timely notice of utility cases, and Commissioner Todd Hiett casting the deciding vote despite allegations of criminal conduct involving PSO’s attorneys. Gann said these required Hiett to disqualify himself from such cases under State Ethics Rules.

“We are not giving up this fight,” Rick West said. “We will continue to stand up for the law and the Constitution where the OCC and attorney general have failed. It is just a question of where, how and when.”

All filings in the utility case appeals are available on the Oklahoma Supreme Court website:

PSO rate case ($250m rate increases; $700m bonds; decision 4/21/2026; rehearing denied 6/29/2026):

   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 2024 fuel case ($390 million + $888m for 2021/2022; all briefs filed):

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

OG&E 2024 fuel case ($925 million + $1.9 billion for 2021/2022; first brief filed):

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

PSO 2024 fuel case ($600 million + $2.8 billion for 2021/2022; briefs this fall):

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

PSO Pre-Approval case ($1.255 billion; briefs this winter)

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

ONG Intervention Denial ($29 million rate increase)

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

PSO Intervention Denial ($600 million rate increase)

   https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=124187