Rocky Mountain Power IRP Update Significant Setback for Communities and the Climate

Salt Lake City, UT – On Monday, April 1, PacifiCorp, the parent company of monopoly utility Rocky Mountain Power issued an update to its 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), doubling down on fossil fuels when decarbonization is urgently needed. Whereas the initial 2023 IRP proposed significant levels of new renewable energy, the IRP update has completely reversed course, slashing near-term renewable acquisitions, extending the lives of the Hunter and Huntington coal plants in Utah, introducing new gas resources, and including new plans to install Carbon Capture Utilization Storage (CCUS) to certain Wyoming coal units despite CCUS being a technology that is expensive and unproven. 

The update comes after PacifiCorp suspended its 2022 All Source Request for Proposals (RFP) that’s meant to build out the energy infrastructure outlined in the IRP. The update now effectively cancels near-term clean energy procurement until sometime after the 2025 IRP, unnecessarily extending reliance on expensive and dirty energy sources despite their severe impacts on communities and climate. Worse, Rocky Mountain Power is likely leaving significant money on the table, given the federal funding made available under the Inflation Reduction Act that is driving down the costs of clean energy even further and is spurring the development of a clean energy economy in communities across the country.

PacifiCorp’s update forecasts operating the coal-fired Hunter and Huntington plants past their prime, increasing risk to customers due to the skyrocketing cost of coal, as well as likely environmental regulations that will limit both plant’s ability to operate. Both plants could be subject to a variety of impending regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including regulations to limit pollution in national parks (Regional Haze), ozone pollution (Good Neighbor Plan), and greenhouse gas emissions. In a recent analysis highlighting US coal plants that contribute to regional haze pollution, both plants were categorized as two of the worst regional haze offenders for their unchecked emissions that harm nearby communities and diminish air quality hundreds of miles away. Hunter and Huntington remain some of the only coal plants in the entire country without modern pollution controls.

The plan’s proposal introducing CCUS at certain Wyoming coal units comes with a hefty price tag to be shouldered by ratepayers who have already been tapped to pay millions of dollars for a carbon capture compliance surcharge that barely covers the cost of studying its viability. As it stands, Rocky Mountain Power currently projects costs upwards of $1 billion dollars per unit. The technology is still largely experimental, and hasn’t actually been shown to capture carbon at a meaningful rate. To implement CCUS at Wyoming plants is to extend dependence on aging fossil fuels when renewable alternatives are much cheaper. 

Across the west, states like Utah and Wyoming passed a litany of legislation that directly interfere with the free market by propping up fossil plants despite their staggering cost compared to renewable energy and federal restrictions on power plant emissions. In Utah, State Representatives passed several bills doubling down on coal, thereby passing a lifeline to Rocky Mountain Power at the expense of Utah ratepayers without effectively planning for the transition to clean energy. One bill, SB 224, would force customers to pay potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to keep coal plants burning coal into the future, even if it's uneconomical, keeping ratepayers on the hook despite data from PacifiCorp themselves detailing how 60% of their plants are more expensive to run than to replace with alternative sources.

“PacifiCorp’s 2023 IRP update is deeply disappointing for any Utahn that desires to breathe clean air,” said Chapter Director for the Sierra Club in Utah, Luis Miranda. “The Hunter and Huntington coal plants have gone unchecked and unregulated for decades, and while neighboring states retire and replace fossil plants with cleaner and cheaper alternatives, Rocky Mountain Power insists on keeping customers and communities hooked on expensive and health-threatening fossil fuels when it should be prioritizing long-term planning in the transition from fossil-powered energy to support job creation in the rural communities that have powered Utah homes.” 

“Proposing Carbon Capture Utilization Storage in Wyoming is to completely disregard the impact that its egregiously expensive cost will have on ratepayers,” said Chapter Director for the Sierra Club in Wyoming, Rob Joyce. “To plan for CCUS when they haven’t actually been shown to be effective is an irresponsible investment on ratepayers’ dime. Billions of dollars are on the line that would be better invested in cheaper, renewable energy.” 

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