Customers to get ONG tax break

An order approved Tuesday by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission might help take a little chill off the state’s winter nights.

The order requires Oklahoma Natural Gas to pass through $22.7 million in credits to customers to compensate them for taxes collected as part of their bills the company didn’t have to pay.

Officials said those credits will compensate for the lowered tax liabilities that the utility enjoyed in 2018 after Congress approved and President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Officials said the order requires the utility, a division of investor-owned ONE Gas, to provide $11.7 million in credits to its customers in Oklahoma in February. They said that represents the amount the utility over-collected from customers in 2018 that didn’t account for its lower tax liabilities.

It also requires Oklahoma Natural Gas to lower its rates by $11 million to compensate customers for ongoing reduced tax liabilities, going forward. That reduction will remain in place until the company files its next rate case for consideration.

Officials said the average ratepayer will see a $15 reduction on February’s bill and will see smaller reductions in subsequent bills this year.

The order resolves a case Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter filed before the commission on the day the bill was signed, seeking rate reductions from all of Oklahoma’s regulated utilities to account for the tax change.

The federal law reduced corporate tax liabilities from 35 percent to 21 percent. In addition to Oklahoma Natural Gas, the commission has issued related rate reduction orders to Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. as part of its most recent rate case and to Public Service Co. of Oklahoma.

Hunter said Tuesday this rate reduction comes at an opportune time.

“Winter is one of the most expensive times of year for natural gas utility customers,” he said. “This will help a lot of Oklahomans.”

The order was signed by all three commissioners, including Bob Anthony, who began lobbying hard for ordered refunds before the measure had even become federal law.

“Some people are fond of saying that investor-owned, taxpaying public utilities don’t really pay taxes. They collect taxes from ratepayers and then pass it on to the federal government,” Anthony said, at the time.

“Fairness would make you think the consumers ought to enjoy some benefit.”