A new report shows that Wyoming’s total energy costs are the highest in the nation, but it might be a little misleading.
The report from WalletHub looks at the costs of electricity, natural gas, home heating oil and car fuel in each state. The goal was to better understand how monthly energy costs are affecting people’s wallets.
And what the study found does not bode well for Wyoming.
A Wyomingites’ average monthly energy bill is almost $1,600. The next most expensive states are North Dakota at $840 and Iowa at $798. This study actually made national headlines, including the New York Times, that highlighted Wyoming for having high energy costs.
But Anthony Ornelas, administrator of the Wyoming Office of Consumer Advocate, said the inclusion of diesel and gas skews the report.
“Obviously in Wyoming, we drive more miles than most other states,” Ornelas said.
More miles means more money at the gas pump. But if you look just at electricity rates, the average residential Wyomingite pays much less than the national average.
The latest U.S. Energy Information Administration data show electricity rates at 12 cents per kilowatt hour in Wyoming, compared to 16 cents per kilowatt hour in the nation.
“Although rates have been rising over the last couple of years, in both the natural gas and the electricity markets, we have remained either in the lowest quartile or really near the lowest quartile,” Ornelas said.
It is true: Utility rates have been increasing in the Cowboy State. Wyoming’s largest public utility, Rocky Mountain Power, bumped up electricity rates by about eight percent on the first of this year. This was largely due to the rising costs of delivering power and the unpredictability of climate, according to the company.
Ornelas said rising rate costs are a trend for many reasons.
“We're kind of in a transition period, frankly, in a lot of utilities – not just in Wyoming but across the nation,” he said, “as we try to comply with stricter federal regulations, environmental regulations, aging generation and transmission fleets. And they need to build new facilities, both for those purposes and to meet increased loads, which are coming down the system.”
Just this month, the company temporarily increased the rates by about 12 percent. The latter still has to be officially approved by the Wyoming Public Service Commission later this year for the increase to continue. If not approved, a rebate would be issued to customers. Ornelas added that it’s possible there are more rate hike requests to come.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated on July 25, 2024 to reflect that the prices per kilowatt hour are in cents, not dollars.
