By Tom Kleckner

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — As the chair of SPP’s Regional State Committee in 2015, Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) Chair Dana Murphy would, without fail, compliment her fellow committee members, regulatory and SPP staff, and other stakeholders for their efforts, no matter how small.

But that’s just Dana Murphy.

“I feel very grateful,” she said about her practice of recognizing others. “The thing is, there’s always going to be a healthy tension between regulators and SPP and the utilities, and I accept that. I accept that as part of the job, whether I’m serving as a commissioner in Oklahoma or representing Oklahoma here on the RSC.

“I don’t try to avoid [the tension]. The challenge with all of this — and it may be hard to believe — is that I’m an introvert who doesn’t like controversy. Yet, how did I get here?”

After serving on the OCC since 2008, and as its chair since February 2017, Murphy has set her sights on the lieutenant governor’s office.

She opened her campaign last July with a prayer in her hometown of Edmond. “I think all of you who know me know that my faith is the biggest part of pretty much everything I do beyond my family,” Murphy said.

Field of Four

Murphy is competing with three other Republicans — state Sen. Eddie Fields, former state party chair Matt Pinnell and “entrepreneurship consultant” Dominique DaMon Block Sr. — for the GOP’s slot in November’s statewide elections. The primary is June 26.

The commissioner has claimed a significant fundraising edge over her three primary opponents, finishing 2017 with $690,000 on hand after shifting nearly $639,000 from her OCC campaign account. Pinnell had $450,000 on hand, but outraised Murphy in the fourth quarter, $113,000 to her $44,000. Fields finished the year with $65,274 in funds; Block had nothing. Murphy’s donors include oil and gas executives, attorneys, insurance executives, lobbyists, real estate developers, bankers and real estate developers.

Murphy’s campaign website pledges “to address the roots of the longstanding problems facing our state, including the budget, education, health care and infrastructure,” but it is light on policy details.

Instead she highlights her Oklahoma roots and writes of putting more than 180,000 miles on her “little blue truck” to attend events statewide and “visit folks just like you.”

A fifth-generation Oklahoman, Murphy grew up on a ranch, graduated from Oklahoma State University with honors and first worked as a petroleum geologist. As Murphy says on her website, her family encouraged her to “do more and be more,” so she earned a night school law degree from Oklahoma City University while working as a law clerk.

The state’s Sooner Poll has yet to release results of the lieutenant governor’s race, but Pinnell appears to be her strongest opponent. Besides his fundraising prowess, he has built inroads with the national Republican Party by working as a campaign manager for the GOP in all 50 states.

Former Missouri Public Service Commissioner Steve Stoll, who served alongside Murphy on the RSC before cycling off the committee and his state’s commission in January, recalled her as “a very hard worker.”

“I know she cared deeply about the state and wanted to ensure her ratepayers were treated fairly,” he said.

“She has deep knowledge of the energy business, and energy is an integral component to the Oklahoma economy,” said SPP General Counsel Paul Suskie, who works closely with the RSC.

After six years as an administrative law judge for the OCC, Murphy won a seat on the commission in a 2008 special election. She was re-elected to full terms in 2010 and 2016 and has seen her workload grow from normal petroleum and electricity issues to ride-sharing companies and seismic activity related to fracking.

“To make really difficult decisions is something I’ve spent nine years on,” she said, referring to reaching consensus with the OCC’s other two commissioners, Vice Chair Todd Hiett and Bob Anthony. “We don’t have the same opinions on a lot of things, yet somehow, we have to find a way to work together to make decisions. You look at the stakeholders that we deal with, with very divergent opinions and decisions … you have to have the ability to try and process all that and make some really difficult decisions that ultimately, everyone is going to be unhappy with.”

Doing More with Less

Complicating matters, Murphy says, is that the OCC has been asked “to do more with less.”

“Our appropriations from the legislature continue to go down, but our authority and responsibility by statute have increased, just in the nine years I’ve been there,” she said.

Some Oklahoma utilities and petroleum companies have complained about the OCC’s delay in resolving rate cases, which has resulted in interim rates being implemented, subject to refund. Oklahoma law allows the commission to implement interim rates if the cases aren’t resolved in 180 days.

OGE Energy has led the complaints against the process, which reached a crescendo when its December 2015 request for $92.5 million was implemented on an interim basis of $69.5 million in the summer of 2016. The OCC gave OGE’s Oklahoma Gas & Electric utility customers a $47.5 million refund when the rate case eventually concluded last April.

“We are investing north of $500 million in our system every year. I think it’s my job to be supportive of the state, but we’ve got to be able to come up with a way to recover that in a timely manner,” OGE CEO Sean Trauschke said last month during the company’s most recent earnings call with analysts.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) has responded to the outcry by forming a task force to suggest ways to improve the commission’s performance. (See OGE Anticipates Legislative Review of Oklahoma Regulators.) For her part, Murphy says she is hopeful the task force will increase awareness of the OCC’s challenges and responsibilities.

Lieutenant governor may not be Murphy’s ultimate goal. Oklahoma media note the position is seen as a stepping stone to the governor’s mansion. Case in point: Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, an early frontrunner for this year’s GOP’s gubernatorial nomination, is now running second to Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett in a crowded field. They are battling to replace the term-limited Fallin, who was elected governor in 2010 after previously serving as lieutenant governor and a U.S. representative.

Murphy, whose term ends in 2022, said she will continue to represent the OCC on the RSC and serve at the commission during her campaign for higher office. As she put it, “I’m here until I’m not here.”