The state panel that oversees public utilities in Wyoming has filed notice that it will appeal the ruling of a federal judge who sided last month with the Equality State’s largest energy supplier in a closely watched rate hike case.
Lawyers representing the Wyoming Public Service Commission gave notice earlier this month that they would ask the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to weigh in on the matter. A group known as Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers, which challenged the rate hike request proposed by PacifiCorp, also filed notice that it would appeal.
The new court documents merely inform the court that the commission and advocacy group intend to appeal. The actual legal arguments will come later, and the case will likely stretch into next year.
PacifiCorp, which operates in Wyoming under its subsidiary Rocky Mountain Power, filed the lawsuit last year after the commission reduced what had initially been a 29.2% rate hike, which was the subject of contentious public meetings due to the historic size of the proposed increase.
The 2023 rate case ultimately resulted in a 5.5% general rate hike in January 2024, along with a pair of temporary upward fuel cost adjustments.
The lawsuit alleged that state regulators wrongly reduced the rate hike by ignoring federal requirements, costing the utility $23 million. Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers, meanwhile, asserted the rate hike would have forced Equality State customers to subsidize out-of-state users.
Some state leaders have also suspected that PacifiCorp has attempted to shift too much of the costs of a regional power system to customers in Wyoming.
The lawsuit never made it to trial. Instead, U.S. District Judge Kelly H. Rankin granted the utility’s request to decide the case in its favor without a trial, arguing the facts in the case were not at issue.
The lawsuit named Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers as a defendant, as well as commissioners Christopher Petrie and Michael Robinson and then-commissioner Mary Throne. Throne has since left the panel and has been replaced by Chris Boswell, who is also now listed as a defendant in the suit.
