Out of a state of 1.8 million people, they had 572,000 disconnections. While it may have been the same family more than once, the next highest is Texas with 23%, and 41 states are at less than 10%. Oklahoma is at 30%.
TULSA- More than 2 percent of Oklahoma households were shut off each month in 2024, a rate that no other state approaches. In fact, only Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas had a shutoff rate above 2 percent in even one month of the year. In some low-shutoff states, like Iowa and Massachusetts, the monthly rate stays below half a percent all year long.
Electricity isn’t particularly expensive in Oklahoma — as of March, the state’s average residential price-per-kilowatt-hour was the eighth-lowest in the nation. But residents’ incomes are lower than all but five states.
The state lacks some of the consumer protections that make it harder for utilities in other states to shut off power. While Oklahoma bans new disconnections from starting when the temperature is under 32 or over 101, some states ban disconnections entirely from June through mid-October, and some from November through March.
The state’s AARP unsuccessfully advocated to reduce the temperature threshold from 101 degrees to 95 degrees, the legal limit in some neighboring states, which would have significantly reduced the number of days allowing disconnections. Tulsa only broke 101 degrees on nine days in the summer of 2023, the organization said, but topped 95 on 32 days.
“There’s a whole different mentality in those states. The mentality is to keep people connected, to not have lots of people suffering like this,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. “There’s a group of states that have succeeded in getting the affordability problem for energy under control, at least if you think of this outcome, of being shut off from power.”
It’s also logistically simpler for Oklahoma’s utilities to turn the power off. Gone are the days when a worker would have to come to a house to shut off the power; now, with automatic meters, it can be done with a keystroke on a computer. In Oklahoma, 93 percent of homes have automatic meters, while about 1 in 5 homes have them in Connecticut and New Hampshire, and only 1 in 100 in Rhode Island.
Moreover, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranks the efficiency of Oklahoma’s buildings second-worst in the nation.
WaPo
TULSA- More than 2 percent of Oklahoma households were shut off each month in 2024, a rate that no other state approaches. In fact, only Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas had a shutoff rate above 2 percent in even one month of the year. In some low-shutoff states, like Iowa and Massachusetts, the monthly rate stays below half a percent all year long.
Electricity isn’t particularly expensive in Oklahoma — as of March, the state’s average residential price-per-kilowatt-hour was the eighth-lowest in the nation. But residents’ incomes are lower than all but five states.
The state lacks some of the consumer protections that make it harder for utilities in other states to shut off power. While Oklahoma bans new disconnections from starting when the temperature is under 32 or over 101, some states ban disconnections entirely from June through mid-October, and some from November through March.
The state’s AARP unsuccessfully advocated to reduce the temperature threshold from 101 degrees to 95 degrees, the legal limit in some neighboring states, which would have significantly reduced the number of days allowing disconnections. Tulsa only broke 101 degrees on nine days in the summer of 2023, the organization said, but topped 95 on 32 days.
“There’s a whole different mentality in those states. The mentality is to keep people connected, to not have lots of people suffering like this,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. “There’s a group of states that have succeeded in getting the affordability problem for energy under control, at least if you think of this outcome, of being shut off from power.”
It’s also logistically simpler for Oklahoma’s utilities to turn the power off. Gone are the days when a worker would have to come to a house to shut off the power; now, with automatic meters, it can be done with a keystroke on a computer. In Oklahoma, 93 percent of homes have automatic meters, while about 1 in 5 homes have them in Connecticut and New Hampshire, and only 1 in 100 in Rhode Island.
Moreover, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranks the efficiency of Oklahoma’s buildings second-worst in the nation.
WaPo
