January 9, 2018
By Jack Money
A split Corporation Commission (click here) decided Tuesday morning it won't require utilities to immediately cut their customers' bills after getting a significant cut in their corporate tax rates through the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017.
The act, approved by Congress and President Donald Trump, cut tax rates for utility providers such as Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Gas & Electric and others from 35 percent to 21 percent.
Oklahoma's attorney general prepared orders for the commission to consider on Tuesday that would have required five of the state's largest utilities to immediately cut their rates to compensate their customers for increased annual profits the companies will enjoy as a result of the cut.
The amounts, which varied by company, were calculated by considering how the corporate tax change would have impacted financial data the companies had filed with the commission as part of recent rate cases.
They ranged from amounts as large as $52 million for OG&E to less than $1 million for CenterPoint Energy and Arkansas Oklahoma Gas.