After months of widespread speculation, the Public Service Company of Oklahoma confirmed in a January 2 news release that your electricity rates will likely soon be going up. And now we know by how much and when.
The average residential customer will experience a 15% increase to their monthly bill—about $25—by July 2026, should the utility's latest filing be approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
What's driving that increased cost? New large-load customers have been coming on to the grid, including data centers and crypto mines. On the upside, PSO says it's "proposing new special terms and conditions for new large customers to ensure they pay full costs to connect to the grid."
Markwayne Mullin Defends Minnesota ICE Killing In National News Interview
“Listen, if you don’t want to put yourself in harm’s way, don’t put yourself in a position like that,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said of yesterday’s killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by ICE in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Mullin, who sits on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said in the same interview with ABC that the U.S. is not committing troops to Greenland and that we were right to commit troops to Venezuela over the weekend. Mullin spent a lot of political capital early last year pushing President Trump’s freakishly unqualified cabinet nominations through the Senate, and is no stranger to cringingly debasing himself in public. But watching him blame a victim, coerce a foreign country into a land sale and defend the military extraction of a foreign head of state all in a single interview is a new low, even for him. Have a look for yourself:
Other recent local news hits:
- Production for season two of Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown will begin this spring after the show was renewed by FX and Hulu. [Variety]
- Mayfest is in danger, as TU has withdrawn its support of the annual arts festival [News on 6]
- A citizen group is trying to stop development of a data center in Sand Springs [Tulsa World]
- Machine Gun Kelly wore a Bob Dylan Center T-shirt in his latest music video, to my personal delight [Machine Gun Kelly]
- At David L. Moss, the Tulsa Community Foundation is funding the addition of a garden and a play space to support family visitation [Tulsa Flyer]
- The John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation launched a $10M capital campaign for a new facility focused on the legacy of Greenwood and its relationship with Native American culture [The Oklahoma Eagle]
State & Regional News
- The Muscogee Nation has filed a civil lawsuit in federal court that seeks to ban Oklahoma from enforcing state hunting and fishing laws against tribal members within the Five Tribes’ reservations [Tulsa World]
- A new Oklahoma law streamlines election dates, aiming to create a more predictable election calendar [KOSU]
- Guthrie drive-in movie theater, the state’s oldest, to close [The Oklahoman]
- Maybe our favorite news item of the year so far: "As litigation over the American Heartland Theme Park project continues, Rick Silanskas—one of two men accused of 'impersonating God' to manipulate a retired businessman—now faces accusations of using generative AI to write his legal briefs." [NonDoc]
