{"id":501379,"date":"2026-03-03T14:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/501379\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T14:40:29","slug":"the-culture-war-is-coming-for-your-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/501379\/","title":{"rendered":"The culture war is coming for your electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and\u00a0The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a>, a nonprofit newsroom in Utah.<\/p>\n

Relations between states are becoming so strained over their different approaches to fossil fuels and renewables, some politicians are calling for a \u201cdivorce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah Republicans celebrated<\/a> last week when PacifiCorp, one of the largest utilities in the West, announced it would stop serving customers in Washington state. PacifiCorp mainly operates in Utah, but also in Wyoming and Idaho \u2014 and, to the chagrin of some Utah legislators, blue states like California and Oregon. Utah legislators had previously pressured to break their utility\u2019s ties<\/a> with states with more aggressive climate policies. Now, PacifiCorp is handing over its 140,000 customers in Washington \u2014 along with two wind farms, a natural gas plant, and other energy infrastructure \u2014 to Portland General Electric for $1.9 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want a divorce from the three states that don\u2019t look like Utah,\u201d said Mike Schultz, Utah\u2019s Republican House Speaker. \u201cThis is the first step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

In announcing the sale<\/a>, PacifiCorp noted that navigating \u201cdiverging policies\u201d among the six states it serves had \u201ccreated extraordinary pressure,\u201d a challenge that had affected its financial stability. Utah is still heavily reliant on coal<\/a>, while California, Oregon, and Washington have been moving forward with policies to shift away from fossil fuels. Washington, for example, aims to slash greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030<\/a>, using 1990 levels as a baseline. As of January, Washington required PacifiCorp to stop charging Washington customers for coal generation, reducing costs for ratepayers by $68 million<\/a> compared to the status quo \u2014 and potentially shifting coal-related costs back onto states like Utah.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just money driving the wedge, but also identity. \u201cAbsolutely, this seems like a culture war thing,\u201d said Matthew Burgess, an environmental economist at the University of Wyoming who studies political polarization. He sees Republican politicians playing up cultural tensions to appeal to their base, particularly in places where coal\u2019s long-term decline<\/a> has fueled economic anxiety and resentment. \u201cSome of this rhetoric that blames maybe what\u2019s happening in the industry on coastal progressives and their climate histrionics \u2014 you can see how that sort of message might be resonant or cathartic with those communities that are having real problems,\u201d Burgess said.<\/p>\n

As the divide grows<\/a> between blue states demanding clean energy and red states seeking to protect coal, oil, and natural gas, the economic realities of sharing the grid have become a point of contention. This is all unfolding at a time when concerns about rising costs have gripped the country. Electricity prices have climbed<\/a>, with the average U.S. home\u2019s energy bill 30 percent higher in 2025 than it was 2021 \u2014 a steep rise, but still in line with overall inflation. While Republicans often blame environmental regulations for rising electricity prices, Democrats typically blame Trump\u2019s attacks on clean energy<\/a> or the rise of energy-hungry data centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoProtesters gather during a Monopoly-themed rally to protest utility-driven rate hikes and obstacles to renewable energy at the corporate headquarters for Rocky Mountain Power in Salt Lake City in April 2025.
Bethany Baker \/ The Salt Lake Tribune<\/p>\n

The tension over sharing energy costs with blue states rose in Utah in 2024, when Rocky Mountain Power, Utah\u2019s largest electricity provider and part of PacifiCorp, proposed a 30 percent rate increase<\/a> for most of the state\u2019s customers. The utility said the increase was needed to cover the costs of building new infrastructure and complying with regulations in different states. Utah Republicans grilled Rocky Mountain Power<\/a> and suggested it could break up with PacifiCorp, its parent company, because of the progressive climate policies it had to comply with in California, Oregon, and Washington. Last year, Utah\u2019s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, signed a resolution encouraging an \u201cinterstate compact for regional energy collaboration\u201d with Wyoming and Idaho.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, we know Utahns are paying more for power because of decisions being made in coastal states, places like Oregon and Washington,\u201d Cox said at the time<\/a>. \u201cBut this is so much more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This theme has popped up in other parts of the country. Last September, five Republican-led states \u2014 Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas \u2014 asked federal regulators to stop a $22 billion transmission expansion designed to connect cities in the Upper Midwest to the Great Plains. They argued that sharing the cost of the project would effectively force their ratepayers to subsidize wind and solar<\/a> for the benefit of Democratic states\u2019 clean energy goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet as Republicans complain about the costs of building clean energy, Democrats are blaming the costs of keeping fossil fuels alive, noting that the Trump administration is forcing expensive coal plants to stay open past their retirement dates in Washington, Colorado, Indiana, and Michigan. The Michigan coal plant cost ratepayers $80 million in the first four months<\/a> of running it beyond its planned retirement date, according to the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cClean energy is just the way we\u2019re moving,\u201d said Meredith Connolly, director of policy and strategy at Climate Solutions, a clean energy nonprofit in the Pacific Northwest. \u201cIt\u2019s really a question of just how fast we get there, and do you create these headwinds that slow down the transition or try to give an unfair leg up to fossil fuels? Those are the silly things we\u2019re seeing that actually drive up electricity costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Next<\/p>\n

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\"Person<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s behind your eye-popping power bill? We broke it down, region by region.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are plenty of pressures affecting utilities \u2014 market forces, the scramble to procure more electricity to power data centers<\/a>, and even climate-driven risks. In many states, particularly in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, replacing outdated equipment, protecting power lines, and other measures to withstand more extreme weather conditions is the main driver of rising costs<\/a>. In California, infrastructure upgrades to reduce wildfire risk (and thus liability costs) are a key factor behind the soaring electricity bills. PacifiCorp, for instance, has faced a slew of lawsuits accusing it of sparking fires<\/a> in Oregon and California with poorly maintained equipment and has agreed to pay $2.2 billion in settlements.<\/p>\n

Some climate advocates worry about what would happen if splitting up the energy market along partisan boundaries became a trend. \u201cOur fates are tied across the energy market,\u201d Connolly said. \u201cAnd so these would be pretty artificial lines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and\u00a0The Salt Lake Tribune, a nonprofit newsroom in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1872,192,6382,111,79,6383],"class_list":["post-501379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-news-analysis","tag-politics","tag-science","tag-yahoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}