2022 Oklahoma Statutes
Title 2. Agriculture
§2-11-13. Grant program to mitigate costs.
A. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry shall develop a grant program for the purpose of providing grants to incorporated municipalities to mitigate extreme purchase costs, extraordinary costs, or both, incurred by the incorporated municipality's owned or controlled unregulated utility affected by the extreme weather event that began February 7, 2021. To qualify for a grant, the following requirements shall be met:
1. The incorporated municipality must show proof of extreme purchase costs, extraordinary costs, or both incurred by the incorporated municipality's owned or controlled unregulated utility;
2. The population of the incorporated municipality shall be no greater than three thousand five hundred (3,500) persons according to the most recent Federal Decennial Census or most recent annual estimate of the population by the United States Census Bureau; and
3. The incorporated municipality's owned or controlled unregulated utility has had no costs mitigated through securitization as provided by Sections 9070 through 9081 of Title 74 of the Oklahoma Statutes.
B. The Department shall promulgate rules necessary for determining the eligibility and priority of applicants for the grants. In determining the priority of applicants, the Department shall consider the implications of the extraordinary costs and extreme purchase costs regarding the incorporated municipality's solvency and the amount of the incorporated municipality's extraordinary costs and extreme purchase costs on a per capita basis.
C. On or before February 1, 2023, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry shall provide a report to the Governor, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives that includes the list of municipalities who applied for the grant, the amount requested by each municipality, municipalities that were awarded grants, the amount of each grant awarded, and any other information the Department determines to be necessary.
Added by Laws 2022, c. 391, § 3, emerg. eff. May 26, 2022.
