Lawmakers set out this session with Utah energy policy on their minds. One piece was exploring nuclear power production to reach their energy goals. They also see two neighbors as brothers-in-arms in their march for more energy.
To that end, Republican House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss is sponsoring a resolution to lay the bedrock of an interstate compact with Idaho and Wyoming to help chart Utah’s energy future.
The partnership is natural, Moss told a House committee on Feb. 25, because the three states not only ”share similar geographic and economic landscapes” but “similar goals, ideals, desires, on how we want to continue to develop out all of the above energy strategies.”
Although not explicitly referenced in the resolution, state lawmakers have been pushing Rocky Mountain Power to separate from its parent company PacifiCorp over proposed rate hikes. Increasing political differences between Utah, Idaho and Wyoming and other PacifiCorp states like Oregon, Washington and California have also driven the discussion.
Republican Sen. Scott Sandall said in the years since PacifiCorp was formed, the coastal states have “chosen a different political path.”
“Everybody agreed back then that low cost, reliable energy was the number one and two things that we were going for. Over time, that has changed,” he said. “The three states in this region have a little bit different goal, and they still revolve around reliable, dispatchable and low cost [energy].”
The proposal unanimously moved in committee and Moss said something similar is being explored in Idaho and Wyoming.
Although Republicans are not saying outright that this resolution is inspired by other PacifiCorp member states and the future of Rocky Mountain Power, Democratic Sen. Nate Blouin said the connection is hard to ignore.
“I don't know if I've totally made my mind up on where I'm going to land on this one yet,” he said. “But I definitely see it as stemming from the conversation around PacifiCorp, Rocky Mountain Power and splitting up that system into different pieces.”
While he’s all for regional cooperation, Blouin, who has a professional background in the renewable energy industry, worries about the consequences of shutting Utah off from other states’ energy systems.
“It creates what I would call an artificial barrier, an economic barrier on the system,” he said. “Anytime you're crossing transmission lines and crossing from one utility's territory into another, you're going to see additional rates tacked on to the cost of sending that power around the region.”
That, in his eyes, will lead to higher costs. Republicans, however, see the cost side of things in a different light.
Last year, GOP lawmakers passed legislation protecting Utah’s coal industry in an effort to push back on Biden-era policies they felt would ultimately lead to higher energy costs. Those changes resulted in new retirement dates for two of PacifiCorp’s coal-fired Utah plants and will keep a coal generator online at the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta.
At the time, Senate President Stuart Adams said Utah “will not pay for the mistakes of other states and we will not stand by and pay the price or suffer the consequences of their poor policy decisions.”
Now in 2025, the Republican leader said there is a lot of talk of cooperation between like-minded Western states on more than just energy, but issues like water and academia, too.
“There has been a ton of discussion, both between universities, legislators and governors in other states of trying to come together to try to do a regional type of an effort on multiple different issues.”
