Sierra Club Flunks Wyoming’s Biggest Utility for Dragging Its Feet on Clean Energy

Instead of cashing in on cheaper wind and solar and saving customers billions, many utilities are sticking with coal and gas. That’s the takeaway from the Sierra Club’s latest “Dirty Truth” report, which grades 75 power companies on how seriously they’re phasing out coal and shifting to lower-cost renewables. Wyoming’s largest provider, Rocky Mountain Power, landed a “D,” Kiowa County Press reports.

Emma Jones, an organizer with the Sierra Club’s Wyoming chapter, says the mark reflects a pattern: the utility is slow-walking near-term clean-energy purchases while leaning on aging fossil-fuel plants that keep getting pricier.

“Rocky Mountain Power is stalling on a lot of near-term clean energy procurement, and instead they’re relying on a lot of aging fossil fuel resources that are just getting more expensive,” she said.

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The report’s broader picture pairs neatly with the Trump administration’s energy posture — pushing oil and gas production, slowing coal retirements, and rolling back clean-energy momentum under the banner of “energy dominance.” Jones argues that approach won’t show up as savings on Wyoming power bills and could leave the grid more exposed just as data-center demand for artificial intelligence ramps up.

“The moves to prolong the life of coal and actively hurt clean energy development are really short-sighted,” she said. “And it doesn’t improve energy security.”

State leaders have fought to keep coal plants open, often to protect jobs. But fresh analysis tied to Rocky Mountain Power’s integrated resource plan points in a different direction: ramping up renewables and transmission would more than offset job losses from retiring coal and gas, boosting Wyoming’s economy with both construction work now and durable, good-paying jobs over the long haul. As Jones puts it, if the goal is reliable power at a fair price — and a healthy jobs pipeline — speeding the transition beats standing still.