News from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission

Jim Palmer, Director of Information

August 31, 1999

"…it needs to be done."

"It’s a change in the way we approach being a commissioner."

(OKLAHOMA CITY)--Since 1907, Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners have been required to serve the state from the capital. With the advances in electronic communications it is now possible to be present at the capital through two-way video communications and still remain among the people the Commission serves.

On September 1, Commissioner Ed Apple will operate on that premise by being in his home town of Duncan and taking a look at the Commission from the perspective of the public. "Looking in" at the workings of the Commission will be made possible by videoconferencing between the Oil and Gas Conservation Division district office in Duncan and the main courtroom in the offices of the Commission.

As a believer that advances in electronic communication foster economic development and are useful servants to the people, Commissioner Apple wants to be on the leading edge of their use to encourage wider application and to insure the rural areas are included in the benefits.

The videoconferencing that he will use is primitive, as are most new initiatives. The small, fixed cameras will be the pilot and test phase for other more sophisticated and improved systems of the future to bring the functions of the Commission closer to the people.

Operating from Duncan will allow the Commissioner to lead the way to new procedures at the Commission, improve his visibility of the agency from a different geographic perspective and to spend more time with the public whose lives he wishes by his service to enrich and ennoble.

Commissioner Apple will be present in Oklahoma City for hearings relative to restructuring of public utilities and other cases where his physical presence would be beneficial.

Apple views his return to Duncan as both a practical and a philosophical matter. Practically speaking, the move puts him closer to the issues affecting small town and rural Oklahoma. He says Duncan has three competing electric service companies which will have a lot of significance as electricity is restructured. He also points to Duncan being an area of oil and natural gas production. Apple says these things put him at the point of application much more than in Oklahoma City. Also on the practical side is the reduction of costs for people doing business with the commission. He says videoconferencing in the future can reduce travel costs for people who now have to come to the Oklahoma City or Tulsa offices.

Philosophically, Apple sees a need to be sure as a government that we don’t have artificial restraints on commerce or individual lives.

Apple said "the technology is here…by returning to Duncan and putting video-conferencing to use I am doing something for the people of Oklahoma. I have the support and encouragement of people who understand and know this, to do less I would be remiss in my duties."