Yes, your electric bill is more expensive this year than it was last year. That’s according to Fairo Mitchell, director of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Public Utility Division. But you probably already know that.
If you’ve been on social media, you’ve seen the petition to stop rate increases in Oklahoma. You’ve probably also seen the reactions to Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s recent letter from CEO Leigh Anne Strahler.
Thanks to interim rates, higher fuel costs and rate increases now coming into play, Mitchell confirmed at a recent electricity rate town hall your bill is probably even higher.
Many Tulsans are trying to get to the bottom of it now that there’s a lot of chatter online. Some are even digging into their own data.
Rachel Shoemaker, who lives near Bixby, paid $215 for electricity this month and $187 in July. Even though her billing cycle was shorter, it was hotter outside and she used more energy. She monitors all of her usage closely.
For years, Shoemaker has gone online to talk about these things. She remembers the summer of 1980, which the National Weather Service still reports as the hottest-ever recorded in Tulsa. Her dad was a mechanical engineer at PSO, and Shoemaker remembers him talking about heavy strain to the power grid that summer.
Rates have not doubled, she says, even if people’s bills did. Instead, she thinks PSO is turning to other, more expensive generators to meet higher electricity demands.
“If you look at the increases with all of this, it has not doubled the rate,” Shoemaker said. “Now if people’s bills are doubling, that’s on them.”
Since her house was built in 1999, Shoemaker insulated her garages and applied for insulation rebates through PSO. She’s also tried the Power Hours program, gotten energy audits and changed her daily habits. She doesn’t leave fans on, for example, or do laundry between 2 and 7 p.m. This helped her cut back on using a lot of electricity during peak hours.
Erma Matthews lives in north Tulsa and works in energy. She says she’s keenly aware the price of oil and gas is going up, and you’re going to see it in the bills. She paid $260 in July 2025 for electricity and $364 this July.
“The cost of said energy is higher, and so they’re just passing it on,” Matthews said.
She likens it to what you see at the gas pump. As oil prices have skyrocketed during the war in Iran, so has the cost of gas. The largest factor behind gas pricing, about 61%, is the cost attached to crude oil, according to the U.S. Oil and Gas Association.
On top of that, it’s hotter outside. You’ve got to cool your house and use the energy, Matthews says. Instead, people are having to make adjustments elsewhere. But she says that’s why higher electricity bills have entered a larger conversation — everything else is so much more expensive now too.
“You’re dealing with it at the grocery store,” Matthews said. “The salaries haven’t gone up. … I’m not making sense of it. I’m just making do.”
You can find lots of answers by logging into your PSO account. Then, you can compare monthly bills, get explanations about why they fluctuated and find tips on how to save money in the future. There’s also a bill forecast for what you’ll likely pay next month.
Read the Flyer’s breakdown to learn how to read your bills, plus information about PSO’s request for rate increases.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
