AARP Offers Counterproposal To OG&E's Rate Hike

Editor's Note: In a previous version of this story, it was stated that rate hikes would amount to an extra $10 per month for the average residential OG&E customer. A spokesperson for OG&E tells News 9, however, that the June 10 proposed settlement would increase residential rates by approximately 2.7%, which would result in the average residential customer paying less than $3 per month, not $10.

An AARP counterproposal that went before the Corporation Commission offers an alternative to OG&E's proposed rate increase.

This settlement agreement, according to the AARP, will both reject OG&E's request for annual rate adjustment and provide assistance for low-income OG&E customers.

That assistance would come in the form of the low-income assistance Program or LIAP. The discount would increase by $3.00 per month.

This would go against the settlement agreement filed last week by OG&E.

It included rate hikes that would amount to less than $3 per month for the average residential customer, according to OG&E.

On the new settlement agreement filed Thursday, AARP Oklahoma State Director Sean Voskuhl said the new settlement agreement is,

"Both reasonable and fair to both customers and the utility, unlike the settlement agreement filed by OG&E last week, which once again fails to protect customers from an unnecessary rate hike."

The next public hearing where they will be able to propose the new settlement agreement will be on June 27 at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.