Across Idaho, families are paying more for everything. The cost of groceries, housing, and fuel continues to rise, and every household is learning to stretch a dollar further just to stay even. But as ordinary people tighten their belts, Idaho Power is asking for another rate hike. This time, it is a $199.1 million increase that would raise bills by about 17 percent for residential customers. For most families, that means an extra $20 or more on every bill.
The Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on Monday, October 27, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 447 Seastrom Street in Twin Falls. Idahoans have every right to show up and speak out.
Idaho Power justifies this increase by claiming higher costs for energy production, grid modernization, and wildfire mitigation. Their filings with the Commission break the request into categories:
$73 million for new generation and storage projects
$53 million for transmission and distribution upgrades
$25 million for wildfire prevention and insurance costs
$20 million for labor and staffing
$28 million for deferred expenses and “other investments”
These may sound like necessities, but each of them feeds directly into Idaho Power’s regulated rate base. This is the pool of assets on which the company earns a guaranteed return. The more they spend, the more they are allowed to profit.
It is the oldest trick in the book. Idaho Power is playing the role of the used-car salesman: start with an inflated price, let the regulators “negotiate” a small reduction, and still walk away with a fat profit. The company gets to play generous while the public walks off the lot thinking they got a deal, only to realize they paid more than retail.
And if you think that sounds like an exaggeration, look at their books.
In 2024, Idaho Power’s parent company, IDACORP, earned $289 million in net income, nearly $300 million in profit before any new rate increases. For 2025, they are projecting earnings around $310 million. While asking ratepayers to pay more, they are also drawing down tens of millions of dollars in what is known as Accumulated Deferred Investment Tax Credits. These are federal tax benefits originally granted decades ago to help utilities build infrastructure.
Today, those same credits function like a yearly tax coupon, allowing Idaho Power to reduce what it owes the federal government and keep more of its profits. It is not cash in the bank, but it works the same way. By lowering their tax bill, they increase their bottom line. So while you pay more, they pay less.
It was not long ago that the monthly service charge on Idaho Power bills was about $4. That fixed fee later rose to $15, and now the company wants to make it $25. This charge is the part of the bill customers pay even if they use no electricity at all.
By shifting more of the cost into fixed fees, Idaho Power guarantees a steady flow of income that no amount of conservation can reduce. Families who cut their usage to save money will see little relief, while the company’s profit remains secure.
The unfairness does not stop there. Homeowners who invested in solar panels to generate their own energy are now being penalized. Idaho Power has cut the export credit it pays to solar users for the power they send back to the grid, from roughly $0.06 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) last year down to about $0.025 per kWh today.
That is a reduction of more than 60 percent. Yet at the same time, Idaho Power continues to charge customers roughly $0.08 per kWh for the electricity those same solar users help produce. They pay you two and a half cents for what they turn around and sell for eight.
While the company tells the public it supports clean energy, it is undercutting the very people who produce it at home, all while using regional programs and out-of-state markets to claim environmental credibility.
Adding insult to injury, this year the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1183, the Wildfire Standard of Care Act, legislation championed by Idaho Power and written to shield utilities from liability. If Idaho Power files and follows its wildfire mitigation plan, it now gains legal protection from damages even if its equipment or negligence sparked the fire.
California enacted a similar law, Assembly Bill 1054, that granted PG&E liability protections and access to a $21 billion Wildfire Fund. Those same policies now exist in Idaho, quietly insulating utilities from the consequences of their operations. What makes this especially concerning is that Idaho Power’s new battery-energy storage systems, or BESS, are covered under the same protections, despite growing evidence that lithium storage sites can pose serious fire and contamination risks when mishandled.
I opposed this bill because I have seen what happens when government favors corporate protection over public responsibility. The full scope of the wildfire-liability issue deserves its own discussion, and I will be publishing a follow-up article devoted entirely to it. For now, what matters is that Idaho Power continues to secure new legal shields and regulatory advantages while asking ratepayers to cover a $199 million rate hike.
Since 2018, Idaho Power has compelled Idaho ratepayers to participate in the Western Energy Imbalance Market, operated by the California Independent System Operator. This means an out-of-state entity, subject to California regulation, now influences how Idaho’s energy is dispatched, traded, and priced.
No Idaho family ever voted to join this market, and the Legislature never authorized it. Yet through this arrangement, Idaho’s locally generated power is being shaped by California’s regulatory framework and its energy priorities.
The company is already preparing to deepen that entanglement by moving toward the Extended Day-Ahead Market, another California-run program that will further integrate Idaho’s grid into a regional system. In this market, CAISO decides which power plants run, when they run, and how much electricity is sold across state lines, all according to California’s regulations and environmental priorities. These markets may be presented as cooperative, but in reality they surrender control of Idaho’s power to outside regulators while tying our future to California’s energy agenda.
At the same time, Idaho Power continues to push transmission projects designed to export electricity out of state rather than strengthen reliability for Idaho’s own citizens. Idaho’s energy independence is quietly slipping away, one market at a time.
None of this is about survival or necessity. It is about expansion, asset growth, and guaranteed profit. Idaho Power remains a government-protected monopoly. It faces no competition, controls the grid, and is insulated from risk by state regulation.
Every time the company builds a new line or substation, it adds to its rate base and locks in a new stream of profit, paid for by Idaho families who have no alternative provider. The $199.1 million increase is not about keeping the lights on. It is about keeping the dividends flowing.
When ordinary Idahoans are forced to make hard choices about groceries and fuel, they deserve honesty and fairness from the companies that hold monopoly power. Idaho Power’s actions show the opposite. This is not stewardship. It is exploitation disguised as infrastructure.
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission will take public testimony on Monday, October 27, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 447 Seastrom Street in Twin Falls. This is your opportunity to be heard.
Idaho Power will have lawyers, consultants, and lobbyists in the room. All they need from you is silence. If you believe Idaho should belong to its people, not to corporate monopolies and out-of-state markets, then show up, speak up, and make your voice count.
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Upcoming Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) Hearings on Idaho Power’s $199.1 Million Rate Increase
Twin Falls, Idaho
Monday, October 27, 2025
4:30 – 7:30 PM (MDT)
American Legion Post 7, 447 Seastrom Street
Public hearing to take testimony for the record.
Call 1-415-655-0001, meeting no. 2861 226 2356.
Boise, Idaho
Thursday, November 20, 2025
4:30 – 7:30 PM (MST)
Idaho Public Utilities Commission Office, 11331 W Chinden Blvd., Building 8, Suite 201-A
Public hearing to take testimony for the record.
Call 1-415-655-0001, meeting no. 2869 634 4628 (to speak) or 2870 376 5372 (listen-only).
Boise, Idaho – Technical Hearing
Tuesday through Friday, December 2 – 5, 2025
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (MST)
Idaho Public Utilities Commission Office, 11331 W Chinden Blvd., Building 8, Suite 201-A
Formal technical hearing for cross-examination and witness testimony.
Public may listen online at idahogov.webex.com (Meeting No. 2633 075 2869) or call 1-415-655-0001.
Written Comments
Public comments will be accepted through Thursday, November 20, 2025, via the IPUC website’s Case Comment Form or by email to secretary@puc.idaho.gov, referencing Case No. IPC-E-25-16.
Brilliant report, Rep. Leavitt. It doesn’t get any more outrageous than this! But will our voices matter? This sounds like a fait accompli — the monopoly wins every time.
Before long, Idaho and the entire West will resemble Spain and other European countries where power fails regularly and is completely unaffordable.
Will our voices matter if the decision is already made and Idaho Power is the only game in town? Has Idaho Power or any other monopoly ever backed off exploiting taxpayers just because we opposed their actions? This is why citizens become demoralized and apathetic.
And shame on the legislature for passing a bill giving Idaho Power liability protection for wildfire suppression. We opposed that bill and wrote to legislators, but big Power lobbyists and politicians likely backed by power company donors drowned out our puny inputs.
Liability protection for wildfire follows in the footsteps of vaccine manufacturers and pesticide manufacturers. NO ACCOUNTABILITY for harms! The pesticide issues will become even worse if Idaho’s Congressman Mike Simpson achieves (or already has achieved) liability shields in the recent appropriations bill.
I’m over on the western side of the state where Avista (out of WA) controls energy. Are they doing the same thing? I’m a CA escapee and I have seen PG&E flaunt their power at every turn with the utilities commission rubber stamping every rate increase.