Rocky Mountain Power, Wyoming’s largest electric utility, has revised its long-range plans to avoid adding new wind or solar generation for the next two decades, records tied to the company’s planning show. The shift is part of a broader change across PacifiCorp’s six-state footprint, including Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and California, where the utility said it has no plans for additional wind or solar facilities from 2027 through 2045.
The company’s updated long-range planning outlook—according to the report distributed through the Associated Press—was released after PacifiCorp updated its document in March. The utility’s prior outlook had projected continued increases in new wind and solar, but the latest planning update changed that trajectory to what the company described as a flatline.
Rocky Mountain Power attributed the changes primarily to federal tax and policy adjustments, saying the updated assumptions are driven by the July 4, 2025 repeal of major portions of the Inflation Reduction Act. In its explanation, the company pointed to a law it described as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” and said it phases out or eliminates highly impactful tax benefits—particularly those supporting renewable solar and wind generation resources.
The planning change comes as Wyoming customers have seen rate increases in recent years. The report says rate hikes since 2020 amount to about a 20% increase for Wyoming customers, and it notes that in testimony to Wyoming officials in 2023, Rocky Mountain Power executives said renewables were not the driver of those higher bills. In that 2023 testimony, former Rocky Mountain Power President and CEO Gary Hoogeveen told officials that the company’s investment in renewables had mitigated increases in net-power costs—arguing that without those investments, the increase would have been higher by a specified amount.
Still, the company’s new planning assumptions reflect a change in the economics of renewables, particularly around federal tax credits. Rocky Mountain Power said federal tax credits had reduced the cost of wind and solar projects by about 30%, but that with the new phaseout schedule, projects would likely need to begin construction within the next year to qualify. The company also cited potential effects from Trump administration rollbacks for fossil fuel regulations and said those changes may make coal a more competitive fuel source.
The updated long-term plan also signals a shift in emissions expectations, according to the report. It says the company delayed some coal power plant retirement dates in recent years, including in Wyoming, and that its new outlook indicates its greenhouse gas emissions trajectory, which had been falling, will now go up.
Sierra Club’s Wyoming chapter took issue with what the plan communicates to the market. Emma Jones, identified as a Sierra Club Wyoming chapter organizer, told WyoFile that “The update does not look good at all for renewable energy.” She said integrated resource plans “continually change,” noting that regulated utilities like PacifiCorp are required to file new resource plans every two years and often update them between filings.
Jones also argued that even with the ability to revise forecasts, the documents carry practical impact because they create “signals” that influence investment decisions. She said that if Rocky Mountain Power is describing no new wind power for 20 years, it creates “a level of uncertainty for (renewable energy) developers,” according to the report.
Despite the company’s long-term retreat from new wind and solar, the report says PacifiCorp still has some additional projects planned to reach fruition. Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen told WyoFile that the company’s preferred portfolio includes about 1,200 megawatts of new solar located in Utah and more than 400 megawatts of new wind planned for Idaho, along with 26 megawatts of new wind located in Wyoming. Eskelsen also said some of those planned facilities would produce power dedicated to PacifiCorp customers in Oregon and Washington.
The report describes a potential knock-on effect for Wyoming’s wind industry as PacifiCorp’s role changes. It says PacifiCorp’s earlier development approach helped drive wind buildout in the state, but that its current planning posture muddies expectations for what comes next. The report notes that developers sometimes propose projects under their own names to build for the needs of larger utilities such as PacifiCorp or Black Hills Energy, and it explains how those utilities often solicit new generation through requests for proposal in which the utility purchases power from developers—or sometimes takes ownership after projects are built.
Industry expectations, the report says, now vary. Some observers speculated that Wyoming co-ops might step into the market for their own reasons, and that data centers could become a bigger driver for wind development. Others, including Jones of the Sierra Club, said federal policy changes may not permanently slow wind and solar because the technologies can gain efficiencies over time and become more competitive without tax credits.
Jones also warned that delays can affect customer costs. The report says she argued that even if PacifiCorp later decides to invest again in renewables, delaying cheaper renewable generation can ultimately cost customers money that could have been saved by moving earlier.