Our Environmental Commitment

Protecting and enhancing the environment is at the forefront of our business strategy. We strive to be good stewards by conserving natural resources, developing renewable resources, reducing emissions, protecting habitats and more.

Air Quality

We employ innovative air quality initiatives to reduce environmental impacts. With our primary focus on reducing or avoiding emissions altogether, we continuously develop and implement strategies to improve our emissions performance. Since 2005, we’ve added 2,500 megawatts of lower-carbon-emitting energy to our resource mix and have avoided nearly 9 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Wildlife & Habitat Protection

To reduce environmental impacts, we address wildlife protection, wetlands preservation, reducing hydroelectric facilities’ impact on fish, plant relicensing, and bird interactions. We also use land reclamation techniques to restore habitat after completing mining operations.

Energy Efficiency

Saving energy conserves natural resources, reduces emissions and keeps electricity costs low. Together with our Rocky Mountain Power customers in 2012, we achieved peak load reduction of 356 megawatts and saved more than 280,000 megawatt-hours of electricity. Rocky Mountain Power provides customers with wattsmart energy-saving information and programs. These measures help customers save money and can help them reduce their carbon footprint.

Learn more about wattsmart programs »

Renewable Energy

We have achieved national recognition for our strong commitment to renewable energy. According to the American Wind Energy Association, PacifiCorp (Rocky Mountain Power is a division of PacifiCorp) is the second-largest regulated utility owner of wind resources in the nation, second only to our sister utility MidAmerican Energy Company.

To support renewable energy, Rocky Mountain Power has:

1. Made wind a key component of our Integrated Resource Plan – Rocky Mountain Power is taking the lead to meet our customers’ growing energy needs with safe, reliable service, while also respecting the environment and keeping prices low. Our Integrated Resource Plan studies the feasibility of adding cost-effective renewable resources to our generation portfolio.
    
2. Helped bring new wind projects on-line – As of the end of 2012, our portfolio included more than 1,000 megawatts of owned wind generation capability. We also have long-term purchase agreements for more than 800 megawatts from wind projects owned by others.
   
    Wind power fact sheet with map
    
3. Grown our Blue Sky renewable energy program – Our voluntary Blue Sky^SM program is a way for customers to help support even more renewable energy development in the western region and increase the demand for renewables.
   
   For the past several years, Blue Sky has ranked in the top five utility green pricing programs by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for the number of customers buying renewable power and for green power sales volume.
   
   As a company, we have more than 88,000 customers participating in the Blue Sky program. Sign up for Blue Sky »

Paperless Billing

The only thing better than recycling paper is saving paper. With nearly 25 percent of our customers choosing paperless billing we are saving more than 203,000 pounds of paper envelopes and bills each year.

Sign up for paperless billing »

Recycling

Reuse, reduce, recycle. This slogan has been a part of American culture for decades, but it’s an everyday activity for us.