OCC Postpones AEP/Sierra Club/EPA Settlement, Rate Hike
AEP-PSO compliance plan hearings postponed
By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
3/29/2013
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 2-1 Thursday to put off hearings planned next month on AEP-PSO’s environmental compliance plan, which could raise rates by 11 percent and cost $350 million beginning in three years.
American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma wanted to go forward with the planned April 23 hearing on its settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Commission staff and intervenor Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers, which opposes the EPA agreement, asked for the delay because state and federal agencies were still finalizing the plan.
“Consumers will benefit by a stay,” OIEC Executive Director Tom Schroedter said in his testimony to commissioners Thursday. “You will be making sure if you stay this case you will have all the facts before you.”
AEP-PSO, the state’s second-largest utility, informed state regulators of its federal compliance deal in September. The utility will shut down two coal-fired generation units in Oologah by 2026 and install other emission controls to meet EPA rules on regional haze and other air toxins.