Another storm, and once again--no electricity. Thanks, AEP/PSO--yer doin' a heck of a job!

I wonder how long PSO expects its customers to tolerate their substandard service? They do business in Oklahoma--known for high winds--and particularly in Green Country, which has lots of big trees. We all know that high winds and big trees don't always play well together, and when you have power lines added to the mix, it's a bad deal for customers.

My power went out on Tuesday night at 11:41 pm--the same time Tulsa International Airport recorded its highest straight line wind reading of all time: 76 miles per hour. My power came back on last night shortly before 9:00 pm.

As I was throwing out several hundred dollars worth of food yesterday, it occurred to me that over the years, I've thrown away thousands of dollars worth of food due to not having electricity.

While I greatly appreciate the efforts of all the repair people, both local and from other states, who have worked hard to restore power, I feel that PSO has failed to take responsible actions to improve the reliability of its service to customers. How many more outages are we supposed to endure? Before this one, power was out for several days last summer. Then there was the December 2007 outage due to ice. Before that, Christmas 1987, also due to ice, and in between and prior to, numerous outages lasting several hours to days at a time.

You don't have to be a scholar to figure out that perhaps the power lines should be buried underground, avoiding the high wind and ice problems completely. In the 26 years since the Christmas 1987 outage, it would seem PSO has failed to do anything to improve the reliability of its service. With weather becoming more severe, these outages will likely be more frequent.

All over the city, I see trees butchered to allow the power lines to pass through them, but it seems the lines shouldn't be there in the first place. I understand it's expensive to bury lines, but even when given the opportunity to do so, PSO still doesn't do it.

A few years back, Yale Avenue between 71st and 81st Streets South was widened from a two lane road to a six lane boulevard. PSO could have buried power lines along that stretch, as everything had to be relocated anyway. But they didn't. Instead, they erected huge, ugly poles and strung unattractive power lines along the roadway. Since everything was already dug up, why didn't PSO work with the city to bury the lines at less cost?

It does no good to have underground power lines in neighborhoods, when the lines that feed them are strung above ground.

Now PSO is asking for a big rate hike to cover the cost of doing away with their coal burning power plants, and they expect customers to pick up the tab. The very same customers who are expected to continue to tolerate unreliable electric service.

I don't have a choice in choosing another electric company--but I am going to suggest to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission that PSO has had plenty of time to start improving its level of service to its customers, and has failed. Perhaps their CEO and other executives need to take a substantial pay cut to go toward improving their service and cleaning up their emissions. They could consider it a penalty for making bad decisions in the past, and expecting customers to endure days in the freezing cold or extreme heat without the ability to heat or cool their homes, not to mention the out of pocket costs to those customers in throwing out food that has spoiled, replacing batteries in alarm systems and other devices that were drained so completely they won't recharge properly, and the discomfort and health risks not having electricity can cause.