Wyoming residents spoke loud and clear on Rocky Mountain Power’s almost 30% rate increase last year, but that isn’t stopping the company from trying again to make a case for new and significant rate increases.
The company also simultaneously is pursuing a lawsuit over the increases Wyoming’s Public Service Commission has denied.
This time, however, the attempt appears to be flying somewhat under the radar as far as the public is concerned.
At a public hearing in Casper on Tuesday, there were just a handful of people there to comment, most of them state lawmakers or other elected officials, ranging from Secretary of State Chuck Gray to elected representatives tuning in remotely from counties across Wyoming.
It was quite a contrast to the marathon sessions last year when Rocky Mountain Power proposed rate increases that totaled almost 30%. That brought out dozens of commenters from all walks of life, and even a student wearing an eagle costume.
Wyoming Public Service Commission Secretary and General Counsel John Burbridge told Cowboy State Daily the commission is thinking about whether to schedule more public hearings.
The actual hearing for the application itself is scheduled for March 10, and public comments will also be taken at that time as well. A decision will be published June 1, 2025.
What RMP Wants
The rate increases this time seek $123.5 million per year from its 144,511 customers, or 14.7%, to cover various costs, including increases to insurance premiums. That adds about $17 to an average rate payers’ bill per month, according to figures from Rocky Mountain Power.
Also on the docket at the same time is a filing that seeks to recover $84.3 million in deferred net power costs and to increase rates by an overall $2.1 million as part of a routine “true-up” of actual energy costs. This is referred to as the Energy Cost Adjustment Mechanism or ECAM.
These are on top of an 8.3% rate increase that went into effect in January and a 12.3% rate increase that went into effect in July.
The Public Service Commission took multiple breaks to play out the two hours allotted for the hearing, trying to ensure they captured as many voices as possible.
There was only one more, though, toward the very end from Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas.
“We have so many families who are hurting from inflation and property taxes,” she said. “And we have businesses that are hurting. This raise is just not going to be good for the economy. It just really is going to hurt our people. I just plead that you would really think about it and give it some real good thought.”
Strock also questioned infrastructure Rocky Mountain Power is building that she said will primarily serve other states that have prioritized renewable energy like wind and solar.
“I think we need to start looking at what we’re doing to our state, to not be taking care of others states and their wishes,” she said.
Latest Rate Increase A ‘Continuation Of The Conversation’
Rocky Mountain Power’s new president, Dick Garlish, said the company sees its latest rate increase request as a “continuation of the dialogue we’ve been having going back to the spring.”
Since then, the company says it’s gone out to customers to talk with them directly about the issues the company faces.
“We’ve gotten some positive feedback about that, and a lot of positive feedback about how we show up in our communities and how we support our communities,” Garlish said. “And expressions of gratitude for the linemen who are out there in the snowstorms like we’re having in Casper today, making sure the lights stay on.”
Garlish acknowledged they’ve also heard many frustrations about economic pressures, ranging from rising property taxes and stagnant wage growth to increased costs for things like fuel and groceries.
“We understand that and we can relate to it,” Garlish said. “Because in many ways we are subject to some of these same inflationary pressures. It’s costing us more to run our business today than it has previously, and we also operate on a lag, so things like commodity costs like natural gas that were high a couple of years ago, and people felt that price a couple of years ago, it’s just catching up with us now.”
Garlish said the company’s record shows that the region still enjoys some of the lowest prices in the nation, and that is something the company will continue to strive for.
“But we still have to recover the cost that it’s taken to provide the service that we provide,” he said. “We do have, for those who are listening, customers who are feeling stressed, we do have resources, we list resources on our website that can help with payment plans and some programs that help with monthly bills.”
Gray: They Just Keep Coming Back
Secretary of State Chuck Gray told the Public Service Commission he was not surprised to see Rocky Mountain Power vying for a rate increase that would ultimately get it where it was trying to get last year, with an almost 30% rate hike.
“We called that,” Gray said. “That they were just going to keep coming to the trough every single time with these outrageous rate increases that are backed up and that are actually driven by a strategy to hurt Wyoming,” he said. “And I reiterate the need for us to create a mechanism in state law where if the request is not granted, and they are unable to justify each request, that there is a lockout period.
“So you can’t have this gamesmanship, where as soon as the PSC says no, then they just keep coming back over and over and over again.”
It’s an outrageous fatigue strategy, Gray suggested, one that he’d like to see the Legislature “nip in the bud.”
“This is asking the hard-working people of Wyoming to once again foot the bill and subsidize radical left-wing environmental policies of other states, states that hate Wyoming, hate our fossil fuels and hate us,” he said. “RMP’s parent company, PacificCorp, is engaged in a systematic divestiture of Wyoming’s core industries in favor of, quote unquote, environmentally friendly alternatives such as federally subsidized solar and wind.”
Included with that, Gray added, is a commitment to shut down Wyoming’s coal-fired plants.
“It has publicly touted that it wants to reduce the carbon footprint, quote unquote, by 98% by 2050, and it won’t negotiate with anybody who wants to purchase these coal-fired plants and keep them running.”
Gray said it’s an attempt to turn Wyoming into “vassals.”
“In 2023, RMP admitted that 97% of its requested rate increase is due to resetting the new base to meet other states’ environmental compliance requirements,” he said. “This rate increase proposal is more of the same, according to its own filing with the PSC. Its own filing. RMP’s rate hike is directly due to its heavy investment in quote unquote green New Deal energy projects.”
Where Only Buffalo Roam?
Gray suggested that nothing less than the American dream in Wyoming is at stake.
“When is enough enough?” he asked. “Because this is part of, and we talked about this last year, it’s an attempt to try to destroy the American dream, the Wyoming dream. There are some who want to close Wyoming for business and turn Wyoming into what they call the Buffalo Commons, where everybody’s priced out except the millionaires and the billionaires, and they buy up all the land assets and just have the buffalo roam.”
Gray suggested this strategy is multi-pronged and includes deliberately keeping property taxes high.
“Unfortunately, with the governor’s veto in the last legislative session, we have gotten nowhere near anything approaching property tax relief across the board for the state of Wyoming,” Gray said. “The second part of this is destroying every single one of our industries so that Wyoming isn’t able to reach our potential with the resources that God has given us and granted us.”
Gray said the third part of the strategy is just increasing costs across the board.
“This is selfishness, it’s greed,” he said. “And I think we need to make clear that enough is enough.”
Prejudicing Legal Case
Others were concerned that the new rate case risks prejudicing a legal case that Rocky Mountain Power filed in May against the Wyoming Public Service Commission, which it said had denied just and reasonable increases necessary to recoup the true costs of providing power in the state.
“Their legal case is against the very rules the Public Service Commission is required by law to use,” Rep. Tony Locke said.
Under those rules, Rocky Mountain Power must prove that a rate increase is not only just and reasonable, but consistent with public interest.
“And that, of course, is Wyoming’s public interest, not every other state who is interested in green power’s interest,” he said. “Frankly, any cost based on other state decisions on green energy requirements is not a Wyoming problem. Our rates should be for things beneficial to Wyoming, not for new transmission that does not benefit us. This is not just and reasonable.”
Some felt that Rocky Mountain Power plans to invoke the recent Supreme Court ruling that upended the Chevron doctrine, a longstanding legal precedent that had favored deferral to agency decisions, who have experts tasked with closely studying and examining the issues.
“This is an untenable situation for the Commission, as well as for the courts, and most critically, for the parties impacted by the litigation,” VanKleef said. “It is essential to all parties that no action be taken by the Public Service Commission until questions raised by Rocky Mountain Power regarding the very constitutionality of the rules, regulations, and procedures and the enabling legislation be decided and resolved. To do otherwise will be to expose the judicial process to undue and inappropriate outside influences.”
VanKleef added that the new rate increase request, when combined with what the commission has already granted, will be essentially equal to what the company had been seeking all along when the PSC denied part of its previous rate increase.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
