By Kennedy Maize
Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho are making preliminary moves that could split up investor-owned PacifiCorp, based in Portland, Ore., and owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
PacifiCorp has two operating subsidiaries, Pacific Power, located in Portland, serving Oregon, northern California, and southeastern Washington, and Rocky Mountain Power, located in Salt Lake City. Rocky Mountain Power serves Utah, Wyoming, and southeastern Idaho.
The utility has some 2.1 million customers and one of the largest electric transmission systems in the U.S. Rocky Mountain Power has slightly more customers than Pacific Power. The two operating companies also reflect a distinct regional red-blue political tension. Pacific Power’s customer base is largely Democratic. In 2024, Kamala Harris won California by 20%, Oregon by 14%, and Washington by 18%. Trump won Idaho by 36%, Utah by 22%, and Wyoming by 46%.
In March, the Utah legislature passed and Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a resolution that would “encourage” formation of a interstate compact among the three Rocky Mountain Power states. The three are already members of the existing Western Interstate Energy Compact, which also includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.
The resolution “calls upon the states of Wyoming and Idaho to join Utah in establishing an interstate compact focused on regional energy collaboration” based on the circumstance that “Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho share a unique geographic and economic landscape rich in energy resources, including fossil fuels, renewable energy potential, and critical minerals essential for modern energy systems” and that the states “face similar challenges related to energy production, transmission, and distribution, including grid reliability, increasing energy demand, economic impacts of transitioning energy systems, environmental concerns, and federal regulatory burdens.”
In a news conference Mar. 20 in Salt Lake City, Cox said that Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho “share much in common. We share similar geology, similar economies, and, most important, similar values.” He said an interstate compact “would truly protect our energy future.” He added, “Sadly, we know Utahans are paying more for power because of decisions being made in coastal states, places like Oregon and Washington.”
Cowboy State Daily, Wyoming’s state-wide online news service, said its state would be looking to be a major electricity supplier in a new three-state utility to supplant PacifiCorp. Rob Creager, executive director of the Wyoming Energy Authority, told the daily, “I think the goal is to essentially to say, ‘Hey, you know, these power issues and these energy issues are so much bigger than one state that it’s really got to be a regional approach to figure it out.’ We’ve got plenty of energy and they need it. So, let’s send them some Wyoming energy.”
Wyoming Republican Rep. Jefferson Moss of Saratoga Springs told Cowboy State Daily that Wyoming and Utah legislators met at a conference in California last summer sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). “Wyoming leadership happened to be at that conference and then that’s when we had a good discussion and it was just high-level at the time,” he said. He balked at describing it as a red state-blue state divide.
ALEC is a non-profit organization of conservative state legislators that describes itself as “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.” Wikipedia says “ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening labor unions, and opposing gun control.”
Attempting to oust a large, well-financed private utility would be a daunting, perhaps insurmountable, task, even with the full support of the three states. The idea of possibly splitting off from PacifiCorp doesn’t appear to have reached very far into the practicalities. It’s unlikely the politicians pushing it have any idea how much time, effort, and money it would cost.
What would the new entity look like? Would it be investor-owned or a public power system jointly owned by the three states? How would it finance and legally acquire PacifiCorp’s power generation, high-voltage transmission lines, and local distribution lines?
How would the new multi-state utility work with Salt Lake based Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, which serves municipal utilities in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming?
The very first step, forming an interstate compact, requires congressional action. Article 1, section 10 of the U.S. Constitution states, “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
Ballotpedia explains that “although this language appears to prohibit any interstate compact without congressional consent, it has only applied in practice to compacts that would affect the distribution of powers outlined in the rest of the Constitution. Consent is given in the same manner as passing a bill through Congress.”
The Western Interstate Energy Compact, originally the Western Interstate Nuclear Compact, and functioning as the Western Interstate Energy Board, “was created to aid in the development and management of new energy technologies for the sake of all member states, which could then benefit the rest of the country in terms of economic growth and energy sustainability.” It received congressional consent.
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