Representative Kevin West

R

District 54

Hi, I'm Kevin West and I represent the people of Oklahoma's 54th District.


representative

Leadership

Oversight Committee Chair

60th Legislature

Assistant Majority Floor Leader

59th Legislature

News & Announcements

Jul 7, 2026
Recent Posts

Gann Files 12th Appeal, New Request at OK Supreme Court in Continued Fight Against Utility Bill Increases

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

Jun 19, 2026
Recent Posts

Gann, Kevin West ask OK Supreme Court to End ‘Muzzling’ of Utility Customers opposing $29M ONG Rate Increase

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

May 6, 2026
Recent Posts

Birth Certificate Accuracy Bill Sent to Governor

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, today commented on a bill being sent to the governor that would require every Oklahoma birth certificate to contain an accurate biological sex designation of either male or female as identified at the time of birth. House Bill 1225 clarifies that the biological sex listed on birth certificates at the time of birth is not to be amended to display gender identity or a nonbinary designation. "The compelling interest for this legislation is to ensure the state has integrity and accuracy on the vital records it maintains," West said. "Birth certificates are used for many different purposes, including accurate identification of a person. It's important these documents reflect biological reality that cannot be changed regardless of how a person might wish to be identified otherwise." Sen. Michael Bergstrom, R-Big Cabin, is the Senate author of HB1225 and the principal author of Senate Bill 1100 , signed into law in 2022, which limited the biological sex designation on birth certificates to male or female. "Oklahoma statutes have always held that on vital statistics documents there are two options for sex, male and female," Bergstrom said. "This legislation clarifies that position, clarifies that's the position always held by Oklahoma's Legislature, so moving forward no one can unintentionally or intentionally confuse this matter." West said HB1225 is closely tied to House Joint Resolution 1032 , which was approved by the governor in March. The resolution removed rules relating to driver's license and identification card renewal that were inherited by Service Oklahoma. The rules were implemented prior to the agency's existence. "These rules did not have statutory authority to exist," West said. He said the clarification in statute is needed after a previous bill signed into law in 2024 has been wrongly interpreted by some. "The combination of these two measures close a perceived loophole that lawyers have used to argue that people can change their sex marker on their driver's license," West said. "This will ensure the accuracy of state records going forward."