Another electricity rate hike is being proposed by Rocky Mountain Power to offset the cost of wildfires in Utah. But critics are wondering when the prices of electricity will stop increasing.
The utility company wants to raise Utah customers’ monthly electric bills another 4.5% to pay for its new wildfire liability insurance fund.
Filed the day before Thanksgiving, the utility’s latest rate hike request would add an average $3.70 per-month surcharge for the next 10 years or until $1.09 billion has been collected for the fund.
The Utah Public Service Commission, which must approve the request, immediately opened a new docket and has set a scheduling conference for later this month.
RMP’s Utah Fire Fund was authorized by the Utah Legislature last year in a Senate bill that limits liability claims against the utility.
Another 2024 bill, HB191, protects Utah coal-fired power plants from early retirement.
The most recent RMP-PacifiCorp Integrated Resource Plan anticipates that its Utah coal plants will keep operating for another 20 years or more.
Clean energy advocates warn that as long as RMP insists on burning coal to generate electricity, future rate increases are inevitable.
The advocates say coal is the dirtiest source of fossil fuel pollution driving climate change impacts that include more frequent and severe wildfires across the West.
As Utahns see home insurance premiums rise and policies canceled due to growing wildfire risks, RMP has also faced wildfire-related liability insurance spikes and increased costs to harden its transmission equipment. Some wonder if ratepayers, rather than corporate shareholders, should keep shouldering most of the burden?
Stan Holmes, outreach coordinator with the Utah Citizens Advocating Renewable Energy, said basically Utah is on a fool’s errand at the expense of ratepayers.
“We are fueling our own problem, based on what our customers buy,” he said.
“We are basically fueling Rocky Mountain Power and we are paying the consequences,” he said. “We are parties to this problem and we ought to be parties to the solution.”
Holmes said if the rates continue to go up it will affect vulnerable households and those include increased or canceled homeowner insurance policies.
“There are people living on the margins already,” he said. “There are going to be people who will have to decide the full cost of the prescription, pay their medical bills or their utilities. They are going to really hurt as these rates go up.”
The Wasatch Front is already part of a coordinated effort to mitigate wildfire risks in the canyons.
The state’s Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands is working closely with federal agencies and residents to mitigate risks that are growing.
A proposal is just that
The rate increase still has to be approved by the Public Service Commission and has several more hurdles to cross. It will be subject to public comment, scrutinized by attorneys and analyzed by the commission for its validity.
The company points out on its website that since its inception of its Blue Sky program 25 years ago, participants have supported nearly 15 million megawatts in renewable energy, created enough energy to generate power for 800 billion smartphones and participated in 377 renewable energy projects across the West.
So the utility is embracing new energy alternatives, even as it is directed to keep coal alive by lawmakers.
Dave Eskelsen, a spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power, said the surcharge by the utility is only to be used in the event of catastrophic wildfires.
“This is for a specific account,” he said. “It is specifically for Utah and it will be transparent for what we charge for.”