With no immediate ceiling in sight for skyrocketing utility costs, a local longtime oil and gas producer is urging those benefiting from higher energy prices to contribute to an assistance fund.

“I had heard a lot about the high utility bills, but those reports really did not hit home,” Steve Altman, president of Brown & Borelli Inc., said in an email to the Times & Free Press.

“Then I read your article in the paper and it all hit home; the benefit for us on the oilfield side, but the problem for others who are having issues with high utility bills and the high cost of fertilizer and other products that depend on natural gas on the consumer side.” Altman was referring to a Page 1 article in the Sept. 4 Kingfisher Times & Free Press entitled “Sticker Shock: Kingfisher electric customers zapped by rising cost of power.”

“Being an engineer, I saw this as a math problem, an equation – customers on one side and producers on the other side.

“And the equation was becoming unbalanced.”

Altman’s question to the Times & Free Press was straightforward: Does an entity already exist that will accept donations from oil and gas producers, royalty owners and others and distribute them to county utility customers struggling to pay their bills?

While the Kingfisher Ministerial Alliance and individual churches administer assistance to area residents in need, they also work hand-in-hand with the Salvation Army, which maintains a local service center at the First United Methodist Church.

With the help of Shauna Porter, director of the local center; her superior, Capt Scott Hoover; Cindy Fuller, Salvation Army communications director for Arkansas and Oklahoma, and Chris Johnson, social media and web director, a direct donation portal was created at www.SalvationArmyKingfi sher.com.

All donations made to that site will be directed to local utility assistance.

Donations also can be made via check made out to Salvation Army with utility assistance in the memo and mailed to Salvation Army, P.O. Box 165, Kingfisher 73750.

Currently, the Salvation Army and the local governing board place parameters on how much utility assistance each household can receive and how often.

But Fuller said the more donations the local office receives for that purpose, the more those parameters can be relaxed.

Porter urged anyone who is struggling to pay their bills to reach out to her, even if they have already received assistance this year.

“Don’t assume you’re not eligible,” she said. “If people are in need, they are in need and we want to try to help if we can.”

Altman emphasized that oil companies have little control over the volatility of fuel prices.

“The people need to know some of the reasons for these high prices.

“It is certainly not greedy oil companies. For the most part, we are just along for the ride, both up and down.”

“It is largely due to the policies of our current administration which lead to increasing prices, which led to amazing income growth for Russia, which led to Russia having the economic resources to attack Ukraine, which then led to the gas problems between Russia and Europe.

“Of course, Europe gets a significant part of the blame also, since they allowed themselves to become dependent on gas supply from Russia – always a bad idea.

“The truth is there is more than enough gas in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean to keep Europe warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

“They just refuse to drill for gas in the North Sea or to sign contracts for the Eastern Mediterranean gas to allow for proper development. Recent gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean are in the tens of trillions of cubic feet, an amazing amount.

“But since Europe will not sign long term contracts for the gas, they are working to liquefy the gas so it can be shipped to China and other countries in Asia.

“So we are shipping massive amounts of LNG to Europe to help them make up for their errors, and our people are suffering [from higher domestic fuel costs].

Local utility providers like the Kingfisher Public Works Authority and Cimarron Electric Cooperative are not profiting from higher utility bills.

Those entities and other utilities are paying tariffs – called Power Cost Adjustments – due to the higher cost of electric production to their own electric providers, who in turn are paying the same tariff to the generation plants.

City Treasurer Anita James told city commissioners at their September meeting last week that the checks the public works authority paid for the electricity it distributed to customers in July and August were the two largest monthly payments ever. Those are costs that are passed on to electric customers.

“So now it is up to us [who are benefiting from higher gas prices] to bring the equation back into balance,” Altman said.

“Of course, it’s not as simple as that, and we likely cannot bring perfect balance, but we can help.

“After all, it is our fellow citizens and neighbors that need the help.

“It’s time for those of us who are benefiting to help those who are hurting.”