For months now, people have kept a close watch on Oklahoma Gas & Electric's request to hike fuel rates due to the fuel costs during the blizzard back in February 2021 across most of the region. After weighing the options, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission approved OG&E's request, soon everyone will be paying extra across the state.

If you can remember that historic winter storm, every natural gas and electric supplier in the state reached out to plead with customers to turn down their thermostats. The supply-and-demand saw the price of natural gas rise 1000% in some cases for that short two weeks of brutal weather.

Naturally, like every publically traded Fortune 500 company out there, they took a gamble and lost. That little snowstorm cost OG&E an additional $760million in fuel, and because Wall Street isn't all about "paying bills," they've asked the public to bail them out and the powers that be have agreed to it.

Over the next 28 years, it's going to cost each OG&E customer an additional $2.12 per month, reaching a grand total of $1,067,259,833.00 by the time it's paid off.

This sets a precedence for utility companies in Oklahoma and most will likely follow.

I'll be honest, I stopped following the CenterPoint Energy story months ago because they're in so many different states, it's hard to keep it all straight. Add in the last I read about them, all Oklahoma natural gas customers were to be sold to a Colorado-based utility provider, the story just fell apart.

That being said, the level-pay amount I average has been on the climb since March of this year. Seeing as it has been so much warmer this fall as compared to last fall, it's hard to believe my finally using a dishwasher once every two weeks could be the culprit of why the gas bill keeps slowly climbing a few dollars at a time.

All the same, my electric bill has done the same thing. I just attributed it to the tree trimming I had done last May. Less shade on the house was noticeable in the evenings.

Time will tell the final tallies, but I'd assume it's safe to say every consumer of electricity and gas will end up paying a hefty sum to make up for the poor planning of the utility conglomerates.

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Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

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