A fuel charge going down. It's the same quiet line on your bill I keep warning you about, and for once it's running the other direction. It's Power Bill. Liberty wants a cut in Missouri, Wyoming's arguing over a hike, and I want to know which one outlasts the other. Missouri first, and how long that relief actually sticks around. One tap on follow, and we'll be back in your ears before you know it. Here's The Joplin Globe:
The Missouri Public Service Commission has set an intervention deadline of Oct. 16 in a case filed by Liberty requesting a decrease in its fuel adjustment clause. Under Liberty's request, a Missouri residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month would see an estimated $3.22 decrease per month over the six-month period from December 2026 through May 2027.
Back on the fourth I said a fuel adjustment that goes down was one I'd take. Still taking it. Liberty's fuel-charge cut in Missouri, about three twenty-two a month at a thousand kilowatt-hours, now has a hard date. The PSC wants anyone intervening in by October 16. And look at the window. December 2026 through May 2027. Six bills. It's a fuel clause doing exactly what fuel clauses do, passing costs straight through. This time they just happen to be going down. Which it never gets credit for. It barely gets noticed at all. The same line item that creeps up without anyone clocking it is the one sliding down here. Most people won't spot either move. Nine days to intervene. Who's got a lawyer ready to file on a fuel case by the sixteenth? Not the household saving three bucks. It's still Liberty's request, and that estimate is Liberty's. So when your December bill shows up, find the fuel line. If it didn't move, you know which case to ask about. And come June it can swing right back. Base rates don't do six-month round trips. Buffalo Bulletin, with Ann Jantz:
A Rocky Mountain Power proposed 2026 general rate increase of 8.8% had those in attendance at a Monday public comment hearing questioning why. The hearing was for the Wyoming Public Service Commission that is gathering public comment for the commission’s Dec. 1 evidentiary hearing to consider the merits of this rate increase.
Rock Springs, Monday night, Western Wyoming College. The question in the room was basically one word: why? Ten-point-two percent for residential in April 2025, twelve-point-three the April before that, and now 8.8 on top. And I'm going to be strict about that 8.8. I haven't seen it broken out as a residential-class number, so I can't give you a household dollar figure yet. When you open the filing, look for the typical residential bill impact. That's the line that lands on your kitchen table. PacifiCorp's Stacy Splittstoesser gave the reasons: customer demand, reliability investments, higher operating and power costs. Demand from whom, though? People showed up asking whether any of this actually helps them, and the December 1st evidentiary hearing is where that answer has to go on the record. Which is a useful contrast with the Liberty piece we just did. That fuel clause drifts down for six months and expires in May. A general rate case resets the base, and nobody schedules it to come back down. You might also like The Data Center Daily, a daily briefing on AI compute, hyperscaler capex, the power grid, semiconductor supply, and energy markets reshaped by intelligence at scale. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
We're watching the Oct. 16 deadline for parties to apply to intervene in Liberty's Missouri fuel adjustment case, and the Dec. 1 evidentiary hearing on Rocky Mountain Power's proposed 8.8% increase in Wyoming.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at whatever caught your attention. That's Power Bill for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.