Committees

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. David Hardin, R-Stilwell, responded to a federal court order issued Friday that placed new restrictions on poultry litter use in the Illinois River watershed, a decision he said could have devastating consequences for poultry farmers and rural communities across several eastern Oklahoma counties.  The ruling limits land application of poultry litter, imposes financial penalties on several poultry companies and establishes a special master to oversee a phased cleanup process. Hardin said the impact of the litigation has already resulted in Tyson Foods announcing they are beginning the process of moving operations out of Oklahoma.  "For poultry farmers in my district, this decision threatens their ability to stay in business," Hardin said. "These are family-run operations that support local jobs and county economies. Local farmers are facing a real risk of bankruptcy." Hardin said poultry production remains one of the most important economic drivers in northeast Oklahoma, supporting farmers, school districts, county governments and small businesses throughout the region. "When poultry operations are disrupted, the impact reaches far beyond individual farms," Hardin said. "Rural communities feel it through lost jobs, reduced tax revenue and long-terms economic instability." Hardin said the court order comes after decades of conservation efforts that have produced measurable improvements in water quality in parts of the Illinois River watershed. He expressed concern that the ruling does not sufficiently account for those improvements or the progress made by producers working alongside state and federal partners.  "Environmental stewardship matters and farmers have invested years into conservation practices that show results," Hardin said. "Any path forward should recognize that progress and avoid decisions that undermine the livelihoods of the people who have worked to be part of the solution." Governor Kevin Stitt recently spoke to hundreds of poultry farmers in Adair County, focusing attention on the economic impact the industry provides to multiple counties.  Last month, Hardin sent a letter to the Attorney General Gentner Drummond highlighting the critical role poultry production plays in rural economies like those in northeast Oklahoma and urging careful consideration of how legal and regulatory actions impact farmers, local governments and working families across the region.  -END- Rep. David Hardin, a Republican, represents House District 86 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes portions of Adair, Cherokee, Delaware and Mayes counties.

OKLAHOMA CITY – An employee of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) who is believed to have dropped out of college as a sophomore has been performing audits of utility companies collectively worth more than a billion dollars, a brief filed Thursday at the Oklahoma Supreme Court reveals. Reps. Tom Gann, R-Inola, Kevin West, R-Moore, and Rick West, R-Heavener, are challenging OCC orders approving some $1.5 billion of 2023 fuel and purchased power costs incurred by monopoly public utilities ONG, OG&E and PSO. Their brief asks the Court to overturn the OCC’s approval orders and require new, lawful fuel audits and prudence reviews by outside, independent auditors and experts, instead of the OCC’s Public Utility Division (PUD) staff. “Fuel adjustment clause charges are passed through directly onto customers’ bills, so the utilities have already collected this money from us,” said Gann, a customer of ONG, OG&E and PSO. “State law requires audits of the utilities’ fuel charges every year. It also requires the OCC to make sure those costs were fair, just, reasonable and prudent before approving them. These laws exist to protect ratepayers, but the OCC doesn’t seem to care whether the people conducting these audits and prudence reviews are qualified or not.”  The representatives’ brief includes an email from the University of Central Oklahoma confirming that the OCC PUD staff member in question does not have a degree from the university and has not been enrolled since 2015. A resume attached to his testimony shows he has been employed by the OCC PUD since 2019 and served as the OCC’s lead analyst in 2022 and 2023 fuel cases for PSO. At that staff member’s recommendation, the OCC approved more than $1.2 billion of PSO’s fuel costs passed through to customers in those cases.  The brief shows the staffer also testified in recent rate cases for PSO and OG&E that resulted in almost $400 million in rate increases for customers. The representatives filed briefs at the court challenging those OCC-approved orders in August and November. All were approved by the OCC with votes by embattled OCC Commissioner Todd Hiett. Gann, Kevin West and Rick West’s newest brief accuses the OCC of violating state laws about audits and prudence reviews, and of violating ratepayers’ due process rights by permitting Commissioner Hiett to participate. ONG, OG&E and PSO were represented in these cases by attorneys who hosted a 2023 party where Hiett allegedly sexually harassed two female OCC employees and drove home drunk. ONG also was represented by an attorney whom the brief describes as “an outcry witness” to Hiett’s alleged sexual assault of a ONE Gas employee at a 2024 conference in Minnesota. The representatives argue that State Ethics Rules and the Code of Judicial Conduct prohibit Hiett from participating in OCC cases involving victims/witnesses of his alleged criminal conduct.  Thursday’s brief says the OCC’s disregard for the law has shielded more than $10 billion of utility fuel charges from lawful, required audits and prudence reviews since 2021. OG&E, PSO and ONG paid some of the highest natural gas prices in U.S. history during a two-week cold snap in February 2021, incurring some $2.8 billion in fuel costs during the storm and another $1.8 billion for the rest of the year. The representatives already have challenged more than $1.4 billion in 2021 Winter Storm bonds for OG&E and PSO authorized by the OCC, with an appeal of ONG’s $1.3 billion in bonds pending. Thursday’s brief says they also plan to challenge the OCC’s fuel approval orders for 2021 and 2022 in their appeals of the agency’s 2024 fuel approval orders, two of which were filed the first week in December.  “Not everyone has to graduate from college,” Rick West said. “But state employees being paid with taxpayer dollars have to be qualified for the jobs they’re hired for. This situation is not only an assault on the household budgets of utility customers; it is an insult to thousands of qualified public servants who are legitimately earning their paychecks.” The representatives’ last appeal brief, filed just before Thanksgiving, said OG&E “unduly (and possibly unlawfully) influenced” the hiring of the OCC’s financial advisor in the Winter Storm bond cases, Hilltop Securities. It also questioned how OG&E and PSO’s lender, RBC Capital, was hired to underwrite both utilities’ bond deals, when RBC’s bid was 25% higher than JP Morgan’s. (Hilltop Securities advised the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority on the bond underwriters’ bidding process.) The most recent brief describes “accounting shell games” and $100 million of OG&E’s 2021 fuel costs that remain unaccounted for.  “There are serious concerns about how the Corporation Commission is operating,” Kevin West said. “We have asked the Supreme Court to intervene regarding flawed audits and due process issues, but its role is necessarily limited.” In September, the OCC’s director of administration told House members that recent challenges stemmed from staffing shortages. “In order to protect ratepayers and maintain public confidence and transparency, the Legislature will have to step in and ensure proper procedures are being followed,” Kevin West said. All told, Gann, Kevin West and Rick West’s filed and pending appeals challenge more than $11 billion in utility charges for ONG, OG&E and PSO. The full Brief in Chief for the combined 2023 fuel cases appeal can be read online here: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetDocument.aspx?ct=appellate&bc=1063627122&cn=CU-122991&fmt=pdf ONG, OG&E, PSO, the OCC and the Attorney General’s Office have 40 days to respond. The progress of all the appeals can be followed on the Oklahoma Supreme Court website: PSO rate case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122861 OG&E rate case: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123021 ONG, PSO & OG&E CY2023 fuel cases: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=122991 ONG rate case: https://oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123348 ONG CY2024 fuel case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123588 OG&E CY2024 fuel case: https://www.oscn.net/dockets/GetCaseInformation.aspx?db=appellate&number=123608

Rep. Rob Hall, R-Tulsa, and Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair, have filed legislation to address Oklahoma's reading crisis. Hall introduced the Oklahoma Reading Excellence through Accountability, Development, and Standards (READS) Act in House Bill 2944 , while Bergstrom filed mirror legislation, Senate Bill 1271 . The measures introduce early intervention for K-3rd students who have a reading deficiency, reimplement the policy of retaining third graders who do not read on grade level and assign literacy coaches to districts with low reading scores. "Reading is the foundation on which all other learning rests," Hall said. "If we do not ensure students have sufficient reading skills by third grade, we are hampering their ability to achieve academically. This could ultimately lead to fewer opportunities for them in the workforce and their careers." "Oklahoma is failing our children. By almost every metric, our state is facing a literacy crisis, and it is our kids and our grandkids who are going to suffer," Bergstrom said. "On top of that, this could severely hamper our state’s ability to compete and prosper." The changes are modeled after Mississippi's Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), approved in 2013. Since the implementation of the LBPA, Mississippi has climbed from 49th to ninth for fourth grade reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. "The reforms we are proposing have a proven track record of success. In fact, the groundwork was laid down in the Strong Reader’s Act," Bergstrom said. "However, if we want to see significant progress, we must pass these changes and stick to them. Oklahoma cannot afford another decade of illiteracy." The Oklahoma READS Act would increase opportunities to screen public school children in kindergarten and first, second and third grades for reading deficiencies throughout the school year. Additionally, the measure would require that if a student's reading performance is not on grade-level, the student will remain in the third grade, beginning in the 2027-2028 school year. Under the bill, those students will be provided intensive intervention services. The legislation does include specific "good-cause" exemptions under which a school district may promote a student to fourth grade, including students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and English language learners who have had less than two years of instruction. The Oklahoma READS Act also requires the State Dept. of Education (SDE) to employ and assign literacy coaches to districts identified by SDE as having many students who received low reading assessment scores. "We have an opportunity for serious gains in childhood literacy," Hall said. "Reforms and results in other states have shown that widespread illiteracy is a policy choice. We must make the necessary policy changes here in Oklahoma to put our students on a trajectory of success." The Oklahoma READS Act is eligible for consideration during the upcoming legislative session, which begins Feb. 2, 2026.