PacifiCorp has stripped every planned new wind and solar project from its long-term energy blueprint for Wyoming, a move that also eliminates renewable additions in Utah, Idaho, and California through 2045. The decision, embedded in the utility’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan circulated to state regulators in March, represents a significant shift in the company’s resource strategy.
Rocky Mountain Power, the PacifiCorp subsidiary that serves Wyoming customers, filed the updated IRP in multiple state proceedings this spring. The plan is now under formal review in Idaho (Case PAC-E-25-12), Utah (Docket No. 25-035-22), and Wyoming, where the Public Service Commission requires utilities to justify their resource choices regardless of where the company is headquartered.
In Utah, the proceeding is already contested. Environmental and consumer groups have filed technical comments and testimony challenging the plan’s assumptions, arguing that abandoning renewables could lock ratepayers into decades of fossil fuel price exposure and future carbon regulation risk. No commission in any state has yet issued a final order on the IRP.
What the plan actually removes
The 2025 IRP covers the planning window from 2027 through 2045. According to WyoFile reporting distributed by the Associated Press, the updated plan contains zero new wind or solar capacity additions across PacifiCorp’s service territory during that entire period. The WyoFile/AP report did not specify how many megawatts of previously planned wind and solar were removed, and PacifiCorp has not released a public summary comparing the 2025 IRP to its previous resource plan. The Idaho docket page contains the full IRP filing, including the company’s demand forecasts and resource selections, but no side-by-side scenario analysis showing projected costs or emissions under alternative paths has surfaced in the public record as of May 2026.
Because neither the WyoFile/AP reporting nor the publicly available docket summaries specify the megawatt totals removed, the precise scale of the reversal remains unverifiable from published sources. Readers seeking those figures can review the full IRP documents posted in the Idaho docket.
Washington already rejected a related PacifiCorp plan
The IRP fight is unfolding against a backdrop of regulatory friction. In a separate but related proceeding, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission rejected PacifiCorp’s clean energy implementation plan update, finding it fell short of the state’s clean energy standards. That decision does not directly govern the IRP proceedings in Idaho, Utah, or Wyoming, each of which operates under its own statutory framework, but it signals that at least one jurisdiction views PacifiCorp’s recent planning as inadequate.
The Washington rejection also raises a practical question for the company: whether regulators in other states will view it as a warning sign or treat it as irrelevant to their own proceedings. PacifiCorp serves customers under different legal mandates in each state, and outcomes could diverge sharply. Wyoming, for instance, has no renewable portfolio standard, while Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act sets binding decarbonization targets.
Why Wyoming’s stake is distinct
Wyoming sits on some of the strongest wind resources in the United States. Removing new wind capacity from a 20-year plan for the state raises questions that go beyond electricity rates: it touches economic development, landowner lease income, and the state’s role in regional energy markets.
The Wyoming Public Service Commission has not yet issued an order or scheduled evidentiary hearings on the 2025 IRP. The commission’s formal review process appears to be in its early stages. Until Wyoming regulators weigh in, the plan’s standing in the state remains an open question.
What ratepayers should know
An integrated resource plan is not a construction order. It is a planning document, subject to regulatory approval, public comment, and revision before any resource decisions become final. The contested status of the Utah docket and the multi-state review process mean the plan could change substantially before PacifiCorp commits capital to any specific generation mix.
Customers of Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, or California can track the proceedings through their state commission’s public docket system. Most commissions accept written public comments during designated comment periods, a process that does not require legal representation.
Regulatory proceedings that will shape PacifiCorp’s resource mix through 2045
The formal orders and written decisions that emerge from Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming will determine whether PacifiCorp’s pivot away from renewables survives regulatory scrutiny or gets sent back for revision. Each commission will weigh the plan against its own mandate to ensure reliable and affordable power, and in some cases, increasingly clean power. Those proceedings, not the IRP filing itself, will ultimately shape the region’s electricity mix for the next two decades.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
