Dive Brief:

• Rocky Mountain Power is not embracing renewable power, contrary to the Utah utility's claims, according to a new report from the environmental organization HEAL Utah.
• The group claims RMP has worked to make clean power more expensive for corporations as well as lowering the price it pays to those who produce renewable generation.
• The utility responded to the report saying it must supply power at the lowest possible cost, which doesn't include renewables, and also needs to avoid cross-subsidization when distributed resources are connected to the grid.

Dive Insight:

Rocky Mountain Power touts its commitment to renewable energy, often referring to its Blue Sky Renewable Energy program, but a new report casts doubt on those claims and accuses the utility of working to undermine the clean power industry in Utah.

"Rocky Mountain Power’s attorneys and executives quietly but relentlessly work very hard to actively thwart renewable energy entrepreneurs and the families and companies who want to buy renewable power. Those policy actions have largely been hidden from the public, in arcane regulatory processes," the group said in a statement accompanying the report.

According to HEAL Utah, RMP lobbied to make renewable generation more expensive for corporations looking to go green — so much so, that despite a 2012 law allowing businesses to buy clean energy direct from the generator, no company has taken advantage of it due to high fees. And the company's Blue Sky program gives customers the impression, according to HEAL, that their money is going directly to purchase clean energy instead of funding grants for local projects and purchasing renewable credits from projects that may not be located in the state.

“If you listen to the way they talk about (Blue Sky) at farmers markets and festivals, they will tell people, ‘if you buy these credits, you are buying renewable energy.’ And that is fundamentally not the case,” Matt Pacenza, director of HEAL Utah, told the Standard Examiner.

RMP spokesman Paul Murphy responded, telling the news outlet that “right now, there is a cost to add additional renewable energy to the system."

"We can’t take those costs and put them on the backs of other customers," he said.

RMP's generation mix includes more than 60% coal, 14% natural gas and 9% renewables, mostly wind and some solar.