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SALT LAKE CITY — Rocky Mountain Power and its parent company PacifiCorp on Monday updated its 2023 Integrated Resource Plan, which lays out the long-term future for the company.
The updates included some impactful, Utah-specific changes related to the rollback of renewable energy initiatives and recommitment to coal.
The company's initial resource plan, released in March 2023, called for the retirement of Utah's last two remaining coal-fired power plants by 2032. Under the updated plan, Utah's Hunter and Huntington plants won't cease operations until 2036 and 2042, reverting back to the vision laid out in the 2021 plan.
"That continuance of the coal plants and the inability to replace that capacity with something else, I think, is really kicking the can down the road and is going to hurt our energy planning in the future," Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, told KSL.com.
When the company initially released its plans in March 2023, Blouin applauded it, saying, "The expedited closures of Utah's coal plants mark the beginning of a new era of opportunity for our state."
Rocky Mountain Power and PacifiCorp said the change of plans was largely driven by developments around the Environmental Protection Agency's Ozone Transport Policy, which is aimed at preventing ozone-causing pollution generated in one state from increasing ozone in neighboring states.
Notably, the federal court in July granted a stay in a case brought against the EPA by Utah, preventing enforcement of the policy — which could have put limits on how much coal the two Utah plants could burn — while the lawsuit plays out.
In addition to walking back on its plans to phase out coal in a quicker manner, the company's updated plan also calls for less renewable energy development than the original rendition, despite the Beehive State's immense potential for various forms of renewable energy production.
Originally, the plan sought an increase of nearly four times the company's current wind and solar resources to a total of 20,000 megawatts by 2032, in addition to 7,400 megawatts of energy storage by 2029. Much of that has been axed in the new plan.
"It is particularly disappointing to see PacifiCorp renege on its commitment to purchase more renewable energy when we are in the middle of an ongoing air quality and climate crisis," said a statement released Tuesday by the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.
Additionally, the long-term plans released in March 2023 called for the development of two advanced nuclear energy projects near the sites of the Hunter and Huntington power plants. Those plans are no longer in play, per Monday's update.
Though the company didn't overtly say so, Blouin and environmental advocacy groups believe the latest legislative session might've played into Rocky Mountain Power's decision to update the plan how it did.
Utah's recent legislative session demonstrated a lack of seriousness in diversifying our energy needs. Several bills focused on investing in and promoting fossil fuel energy production while neglecting the imperative to transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy sources.
– Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah
A blog post released Tuesday by Utah Clean Energy says the group "anticipate(s) that there will be substantial near-term consequences from bills like HB191 and SB224 on Utah's energy future."
HB191 prevents the Public Service Commission from approving large electric utilities from retiring certain power plant facilities as part of a rate case, or electricity resource planning proceeding, or other proceeding unless certain conditions are met.
SB224 created a new cost-recovery mechanism to enable Rocky Mountain Power to recover costs for existing power plants governed by the Public Service Commission in order to keep those facilities running when neighboring states stop paying for the facilities. It also makes changes, which Utah Clean Energy calls "highly problematic," to how "proven dispatchable" resources are regulated by the Utah Public Service Commission.
"Utah's recent legislative session demonstrated a lack of seriousness in diversifying our energy needs. Several bills focused on investing in and promoting fossil fuel energy production while neglecting the imperative to transition toward cleaner and more sustainable energy sources," said the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah.
Blouin said the fact that the update was released after the session and after many in the Utah Legislature "sent a strong message that they want to see coal remain a significant part of the (power) generation ... in Utah" was concerning, though not surprising.
Speaking at the University of Utah's Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment's 29th Annual Symposium in March, Utah Clean Energy CEO Sarah Wright pointed out that compared to other states in the Mountain West, Utah lags behind the rest when it comes to electricity generated from renewable energy.
"We need political leadership, and we need the policies, the programs, the investments (in renewable energy)," Wright said.
