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There are a lot of energy-related bills in this year’s Wyoming legislative session. Two have received a lot of public outcry recently. One would roll back electricity sales tax, which could cripple small towns, as it’s a revenue they depend on. Another would likely make it more expensive to have rooftop solar. Opponents say it’d remove most of the incentives to use the technology. Wyoming Public Radio’s Caitlin Tan and WyoFile’s Dustin Bleizeffer break the proposals down.
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A bill that some say could devastate the rooftop solar industry passed a Senate committee. It would likely lower how much solar users are compensated for the electricity they put back into the power grid and add fees. Supporters say it’s necessary to prevent a utility cost shift to non-solar users, but many say that’s not currently happening.
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If you live in Wyoming and are struggling to pay your electric bill or natural gas bill, there might be federal aid next year. It’s somewhat uncertain with the new Trump administration, but Wyoming is moving forward with its program anyways and wants to hear from residents.
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Wyoming lawmakers tabled an interim bill that would have shaped the future of wildfires and electricity companies, and in turn your electric bill. The bill would have let utilities off the hook for some liabilities if they made a wildfire mitigation plan. The discussion was booted until next summer over concerns and confusion.
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Wyoming’s largest electricity provider is proposing to raise rates for the third time in a year. Rocky Mountain Power filed the 14.7 percent request with the Wyoming Public Service Commission (WPSC), which is in charge of regulating public utilities, on Aug. 2. If approved, it’d amount to about $17 extra per month for the average customer.
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A new report shows that Wyoming’s total energy costs are the highest in the nation, but it might be a little misleading.
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Now that the legislative session is over, lawmakers are meeting periodically to discuss what issues they need to address next session. A growing theme is the coal industry’s hardships, with big asks from the industry itself and grim updates from utilities that currently depend on the energy source.
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The parent company Rocky Mountain Power is asking the U.S. District Court to overturn the Wyoming Public Service Commissioners’ decision in January to only approve a part of the company’s proposed electricity rate increases. The commission rejected part of the increase that would have helped pay for things like higher fuel costs to the company and rising insurance costs partly due to wildfires linked to their infrastructure.
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The largest electricity provider in Wyoming is proposing rate hikes to customers again. Rocky Mountain Power, a division of the six-state utility PacifiCorp, is asking the state to approve an average of a 12.3 percent hike to its 144,511 Wyoming customers’ bills.
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Several bills that made it out of the session attempt to protect Wyomingites from the rising costs of electricity.