HB 72: Electricity Rate Amendments already passed the house, and was radically amended in the senate to force Utah utility customers to foot the bill for uneconomic coal contracts. This bill WILL raise rates. Help us stop it.
HB 201 Energy Resource Amendments: Utah's Legislature is putting its thumb on the scale to disadvantage solar and wind in the market, in order to prop up aging and expensive coal and gas infrastructure. This bill would also disincentivize energy-efficiency programs that are often the most affordable options to keep utility rates from rising.
HB 241 Solar Power Plant Amendments: Removes support for rural landowners to build solar on their land, limiting homegrown energy production and revenue streams for farmers and ranchers.
The Utah Legislature is fast-tracking a slate of energy bills in 2025 that buck the State’s long-held tradition of supporting free-market principles and limited government. In a reversal of professed values, the majority party is proposing regulations that discriminate against lower-cost clean energy while deploying state agencies to distort and control energy markets. This year’s legislative agenda continues a dangerous trend where lawmakers orchestrate taxpayer-funded slush funds for fossil fuel and utility companies, while removing clean energy incentive programs and consumer protections for Utah ratepayers. We can’t afford more reckless energy policy that will lead to higher bills.
Tell your legislator to stop these corporate handouts, and the fossil-fuel favoritism that keeps our electricity bills rising.
HB 72: Electricity Rate Amendments
This bill was amended after passing the house, barely 24 hours before it was scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Committee on Tuesday, February 25, 2025. This bill was meant to protect ratepayers, but now it incentivizes Rocky Mountain Power to enter into long term, uneconomic coal contracts that will innevitably cost ratepayers. It removes flexibility in resource dispatch, abolishing a major benefit of our 6-state grid, and committing us to higher rates. This bill transformed from a ratepayer protection bill to a coal welfare bill, and they hope you won’t notice the 11th hour switch. Call your Senator NOW! Click here to check the bill status.
HB 241: Solar Power Plant Amendments
On Friday, February 14, 2025 this bill passed out of the House Public Utilties and Energy Committee with a vote of 9 to 1, with three absent legislators. Check out the robust committee discussion here, starting at minute -1:03:00. If it passes the House floor vote, it will be transfered over to the Senate for a committee hearing (committee TBD) and a floor vote. Click here to check the bill status. Take action above to stop this bill.
HB 201: Energy Resource Amendments
On Thursday, February 20, 2025 this bill passed the Senate on a party line vote. It has passed the House’s concurrance vote, similarly split along party lines. The bill will now head to the Governor’s desk to be signed. Take action to urge Governor Cox to veto this bill. Click here to check the status of the bill status.
Last year the Legislature passed HB 224, sponsored by Rep. Carl Albrecht and Sen. Scott Sandall, which effectively granted a blank check to multibillion-dollar utility companies and exempting them from wildfire liability caused by their negligence. Sen. Derrin Owens’s SB 161 granted the state extensive powers to use taxpayer dollars to assume control of an uneconomic coal plant that doesn’t even sell a majority of its power to Utahns. The cost of these new laws far outweighs their benefits, unless, of course, you happen to be a coal company or utility executive.
This year the legislature is proposing to continue the handouts, this time targeting the clean-energy competition. That’s why we need your voice. We need to take a stand to let them know Utahns don’t want our government picking winners and losers in energy markets. We need fair competition and a return to common-sense practices that ensure that the least-cost, least-risk resources supply our energy needs. We need to safeguard an energy future that ensures continued expansion of clean-energy jobs and affordable energy prices.
Our team has been campaigning to keep energy rates low, and ensure a healthy and affordable future for all Utahns. Read more from KSL about our recent activity at the Public Service Commission.
Photo Credit: Bryce Tucker, Deseret News
