REGULATORS OK REFUND

Commission signs off on an agreement to refund ONG customers

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission on Tuesday signed off on a stipulated agreement that will return about $27 million to Oklahoma Natural Gas customers during the coming year.

The adjustments are being made as part of an annual review of a performance-based rate agreement the agency uses to regulate the company, a division of One Gas.

Under the agreement, the rates ONG can charge are tied to various performance metrics, including customer satisfaction rates and outage percentages that typically are reviewed annually.

Under that type of regulation, justifiable subsequent rate changes only are authorized when those reviews find the regulated entity met its prescribed performance standards.

Officials said Tuesday some of what will be returned to its customers as part of this week's agreement will compensate the company's customers for overcollections that provided the utility with a better return on investment than the existing agreement allows.

Officials said the company's residential customers will see credits on their bills during the next 12 months of about $1.47 monthly to account for those over collections.

Commercial, nonresidential transport and transport-only customers also will get credits. Altogether, the company will credit customers' accounts by about $15.6 million.

As for the remaining dollars coming back to customers, they will be paid to honor agreements ONG made with regulators to return money collected for corporate taxes it didn't have to pay.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced corporate income tax rates from 35% to 21%, leaving the company with more collected revenues for taxes than it actually owed in 2018.

The agreement approved Tuesday requires ONG to provide its customers with a refund of about $12.7 million and for that to be credited to customers accounts in February.

Residential customers will

get a one-time credit that month of $14.41 on their bill.

Officials said similar refunds on excess deferred income tax will be required in February during future years of the current performance-based rate-making agreement.

In total, Tuesday' s approved agreement sends ONG customers an average reduction of $35.77 to their bills during the coming 12 months.

Corporation

Commissioner Bob Anthony said Tuesday he was pleased with what

ratepayers will get through the stipulated agreement, highlighting that it sends all of the excess equity returns and unneeded tax revenues back to ratepayers this year.

“One hundred percent to ratepayers is good — something to brag about,” Anthony said.

Agency employee honored

Jeromy Webb, a field inspector for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission's Oil and Gas Conservation Division, was recognized by elected commissioners Tuesday for actions he took earlier this year to help save a man's life.

On April 16, Webb came upon a one-vehicle

accident on a rural Beaver County road, where he found am an trapped inside his upside- down vehicle with an arm pinned underneath.

Webb, accident investigators said, stayed with the accident victim for several hours until emergency responders made it to the scene. The accident victim was air-lifted to Amarillo, Texas, to be treated for his injuries.

“Webb made a decision to be there for a complete stranger during a traumatic time,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Derrick Stewart stated in an accident report, adding that the inspector's efforts that day were “admirable and selfless.”