That 2021 Oklahoma Freeze Is Still Costing Gas Customers

From the comments on Facebook, it appears the latest email from Summit Utilities has a lot of Oklahomans asking a couple of questions about the coming winter. It was mostly "Here comes winter..." but buried in all the usual customer service stuff was a reminder that we're still paying for that huge Winter Storm Uri.

Surely you remember it, right? February 2021, Oklahoma took a deep freeze, and there was natural gas price gouging on both a local and national scale. Well, the payoff of that event is still showing up on our gas bills.

Summit Utilities calls it the Winter Event Securitized Cost Recovery Mechanism, which sounds like something an intern used ChatGPT to name, but you'll find it on your bill labeled as WESCRM.

Here's what it is.

When natural gas prices shot through the roof, our utilities had no other choice but to pay the asking price to keep the gas flowing. I remember it would have cost each Oklahoma Summit consumer an extra bill to pay it off instantly, but the Oklahoma Corporation Commission decided it'd be better to charge just a few dollars a month for years to come.

Most Oklahomans had big opinions about that. Buy once, cry once. A one-and-done charge would have been worth not having to pay the interest on millions of dollars, but it wasn't fair to those who couldn't come up with the extra one-time payment. So here we are, five years after that storm, and the bill is still coming due.

What Winter Storm Uri Is Still Costing Oklahoma

According to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, Summit Utilities originally financed about $81.6 million through this arrangement. A regulatory report received in September 2026 shows a remaining balance of almost $70 million.

Do the math, and we've got another 11 and a half years of paying this extra charge, if it all goes to plan.

The other part of Summit's email was all about the wintertime price adjustment of our natural gas, and it's a weird thing that's the exact opposite of supply and demand.

Why Your Gas Bill Can Change With the Weather

Summit uses something called a Weather Normalization Adjustment, or WNA. It's designed to account for the difference between actual temperatures and what the company considers normal, based on a 10-year average.

During the cold season, November through May, that adjustment can lower a part of your bill when it's colder than normal, or increase it when it's warmer than normal.

Yep, it's backwards... but it's used to ensure Summit is making as much money on the delivery of their gas as the state will allow.

In the simplest terms, it protects minimum profits and earnings, making sure they can charge X amount regardless of the weather... Which explains why my personal Summit level-pay bill went up after that very warm winter we had in 2025-2026.

Shenanigans.

On that note, Summit also used the email to remind customers about Average Monthly Billing, which spreads expected annual gas costs across the year, and payment arrangements for customers who need more time to pay. Those are options that can help lower the monthly impact of your gas bill, and it does.

If you have any questions, reach out to Summit Utilities.