Nevada is in Crisis. Here’s How it Can Get Back on Track.

Nevada is in crisis. 

Rising utility bills have - in the most extreme cases - climbed to over $1,000 a month. Meanwhile, the state is losing ground on emissions reduction goals, which is driving pollution and worsening health outcomes for Nevadans. As temperatures climb higher and higher,  air conditioning in the heat of summer becomes the difference between life and death. As the state warms and drought worsens, bigger and more catastrophic wildfires plague the landscape and threaten homes and businesses. 

 The state can ultimately link its problems back to one source - fossil fuel emissions. 
 
 …

But it wasn't always this bad. Nevada used to be a leader in the West in charging forward on affordable, reliable energy goals. So, what has changed? And what caused Nevada to fall behind? 

On this episode of Two Degrees Out West, learn about the state’s most pressing challenges and some of the things that can be done to bring Nevada back. 

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

It is Hosted by Dave Papineau

Want to be part of 2 Degrees Out West?

• Email us with thoughts, suggestions, and interviewees at dave.papineau@westernresources.org.
• Follow us @westernresourceadvocates on Instagram.
• Create a clip sharing "our Bright Climate Future for the West" and send it to us at dave.papineau@westernresources.org. to be included in one of our next episodes.
• Join our email list to stay updated on when new episodes are released and calls to action on how you can help the West.
• ...

Transcript

NV Report_mixFINAL
[00:00:00] Dave Papineau (Host): Nevada is in crisis. Rising utility bills have in the most extreme cases, climbed over a thousand dollars a month. Meanwhile, the state is losing ground on emissions reductions goals, which is driving pollution and worsening health outcomes for Nevadans. As temperatures climb higher and higher in the heat of summer, air conditioning becomes the difference between life and death.
[00:00:25] And as the state warms and drought worsens bigger and more catastrophic, wildfires plague the landscape threatening homes and businesses, the state can ultimately link its problems back to one source fossil fuel emissions. But it wasn't always this bad. Nevada used to be a leader in the West in charging forward on affordable, reliable energy goals.
[00:00:46] So what changed and what caused Nevada to fall behind on this episode of Two Degrees Out West? Learn about the state's most pressing challenges and some of the things that can be done to bring Nevada back. Welcome to Two Degrees Out West, a podcast for advocates and decision makers seeking solutions to climate change and its impacts around the West On two degrees out west.
[00:01:07] We talk with our climate experts and advocates to bring you the stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home. 
[00:01:16] Emily Walsh: My name is Emily Walsh and I'm the Nevada Clean Energy Policy Advisor for WRA. What that means is when NV Energy puts forward an application to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, I read and analyze that application and then put forward expert witness testimony that gets added to the legal case record and ultimately helps the commission with their decision.
[00:01:37] I also assist with the development of policy and looking forward to legislative changes that would benefit Nevadans. 
[00:01:45] Dave Papineau (Host): Emily says that for a variety of reasons, Nevada is in a tough spot. 
[00:01:50] Emily Walsh: Unfortunately, Nevada is on the front lines of experiencing climate change. Uh, we are seeing this mostly with the amount of extreme heat that Nevada is seeing.
[00:01:59] Um, we're seeing more days over a hundred degrees, and Nevada has two of the fastest warm cities in the us, the two metropolitan areas. One in the North Reno and the one in the South Vegas are both in the top five fastest warming cities. Reno, Nevada is actually the fastest warming city in the continental United States.
[00:02:18] With that warming, we're also seeing, uh, more drought, and this is like all a cascading effect. All of this is to say, you know, Nevada is really experiencing a lot of changes and experiencing a lot of changes quickly that the state isn't necessarily prepared for. 
[00:02:35] Dave Papineau (Host): So what is the source of all these problems?
[00:02:38] Emily says, in large part, we can trace these issues back to rises in emissions. 
[00:02:42] Emily Walsh: First and foremost, it's that Nevada has goals and statute for emissions reductions, and emissions are ultimately leading to this extreme heat. And then the air pollution, the trout, and the catastrophic wildfire that comes with it.
[00:02:54] But those vol goals don't have teeth necessarily. There's nothing in them that requires us to get to them. They're more aspirational than anything. Since, uh, the past few years, unfortunately though we've gone off track. You know, we are seeing instead of progress with the electricity generation emissions, we're seeing more emissions.
[00:03:15] We are seeing more reliance on fossil fuels, specifically methane gas and new combustion turbines. We're seeing that our transportation electrification efforts have effectively stalled and ultimately there just isn't the guidance at the state level that we previously had to help all of these industries decarbonize 
[00:03:35] Dave Papineau (Host): when it comes to emissions, not only is Nevada not making progress, they're actually backsliding.
[00:03:41] Things are getting worse actively. Emily says part of that conflict is Nevada is growing and needs more power. Legitimately. The key is ensuring that power is coming from the right sustainable resources. 
[00:03:55] Emily Walsh: The state is experiencing a, a. Period of growth and to meet that growth. We do need more power. We need more electricity, we need more cars, we need more trucks, but we also need to plan proactively for that.
[00:04:08] And unfortunately, we are seeing even increased emissions compared to previous years instead of decreases, which would get us towards meeting those aspirational goals, 
[00:04:18] Dave Papineau (Host): operational goals, things were not always like this though. 
[00:04:21] Emily Walsh: Nevada was for a period, actually like a climate leader in the West. We had a 250 page climate strategy plan that the executive branch had, you know, come up with.
[00:04:34] And then. Posted for every single industry to follow. This was a policy pathway for how to decarbonize every single industry in that end depth greenhouse gas emissions from, again, transportation, agriculture, actual industry, and specifically electricity generation. When we got our new administration, unfortunately though that plan was removed and it was absent and the entire website was down for a year and a half, and now it has been replaced granted with a much, much shorter document.
[00:05:09] That also doesn't chart a path for each industry the way that the previous plan did. Being a state that is mostly arid high. Altitude desert, we are going to be on the front lines and experience those changes in precipitation, those changes in temperature more than another state, that doesn't have as many mountains, doesn't have as many rain shadows, and ultimately is just wetter overall.
[00:05:36] Dave Papineau (Host): Not only that, but Emily says major utilities in Nevada have failed to meet their climate goals. 
[00:05:42] Emily Walsh: Additionally, what has changed is that our primary utility envy energy has deviated from their previous, you know, climate friendly and green energy friendly plants.
[00:05:57] Dave Papineau (Host): A really good example of climate backsliding Nevada is what happened with Nevada's Vol coal plant. Al 
[00:06:02] Emily Walsh: coal plant, which was the last operating coal plant in the state of Nevada, was supposed to be replaced with a hundred percent clean energy resources, specifically solar and storage. 
[00:06:13] Dave Papineau (Host): A lot of the backsliding vol me came from weaknesses in the State's IRP process.
[00:06:18] We've talked about IRPs at length on the podcast because they're a really important element of our work. But as a quick refresher, they're basically the process by which a utility shows its work to the public and the state's regulators, and makes a plan for where the energy is going to come from.
[00:06:31] Utility regulation commissions ultimately have the final say on rate increases and energy choices. If you wanna learn more about integrated resource planning, we actually have an entire podcast just on that topic. Because both integrated resource plans and decisions made at public utility commissions are absolutely critical to our work.
[00:06:50] You can find those episodes in the show notes 
[00:06:55] Emily Walsh: via. The integrated resource planning process, which is how NV Energy goes to the Public Utilities Commission and asks for approval to bring on new generating resources. They actually completely did a one 81st. They said those solar and storage projects were needing to be shelved and canceled, and that they wanted to replace those projects with their own self-developed resources.
[00:07:21] Then, and another amendment is what they're called. They said, oh, actually we still want to bring on those replacements and specifically a self-owned battery and so storage. But we also need to alternatively, instead of completely closing almi, transition it from. Coal to methane gas. Now, in the most recent IRP proceeding, which was filed in June of 2024, they actually want to not only do that transition of coal and natural gas instead of shutting down balmy, but further add more turbines.
[00:07:55] We're also seeing other fossil fuel resources in NV Energy fleet experiencing later retirement dates, extending their lifetimes and effectively locking Nevadans in to more greenhouse gas emissions from their electricity generation. The state, as I said, is experiencing a period of growth. We're seeing huge amounts of load growth, specifically from data centers and NV Energy's answer to meeting that load Growth is unfortunately also bringing on more and more new methane gas.
[00:08:26] Every time NV Energy brings on a new methane gas plant that is locking Nevadans into not only experiencing those emissions for the next 30 years, but paying for that resource over the next 30 years, even if it doesn't benefit them to the greatest extent, 
[00:08:41] Dave Papineau (Host): it's bad enough to keep coal power plants online.
[00:08:44] Coal is more price variable, often unreliable and contributes significantly to carbon emissions and local pollution. Switching it to solar would've believed nevadans of these issues. Instead, new methane emissions posed their own challenges that only set Nevada back further. 
[00:08:58] Emily Walsh: Methane is really. Powerful as a greenhouse gas emission because it is actually more effective at trapping heat in the short term than carbon is.
[00:09:08] So when we are using and burning methane gas, we are exacerbating climate change by specifically adding particles to the atmosphere that trap heat at a greater rate. There is something to be said because it is more efficient than carbon when we're burning it, so we do get more energy. Unfortunately, the detrimental effects vastly outweigh the benefits, especially when there are alternatives that the utility hasn't maybe evaluated a hundred percent.
[00:09:37] This could include geothermal or again, solar and storage, so we could be soon seeing utility scale batteries that could power us overnight. Instead of building a new combustion turbine and burning that fossil fuel, releasing those particles into the atmosphere, 
[00:09:55] Dave Papineau (Host): climate impacts and climate warming emissions are a serious problem.
[00:09:59] Underlying that problem is another issues that consumers feel every day. Price hikes. Fossil fuel emissions are more volatile than renewable resources, and Nevadans are suffering from high bills and volatile price changes 
[00:10:13] Emily Walsh: when NV energy builds a new fossil fuel plant. Rate payers end up paying for that plant via their rates over a course of 30 years, but what NV Energy doesn't pay for that just gets passed a hundred percent to customers is fuel costs.
[00:10:28] Nevadans actually experienced huge spikes in their utility bills in 2022 and 2023 because they were directly exposed to the cost of methane gas that the utility had to procure to burn in these combustion turbines. We saw people experiencing higher bills and bills that were up to 50% more expensive than they normally were or had been the year before.
[00:10:51] When NV Energy builds one of these fossil fuel combustion turbines, they do so with the knowledge that they are not the ones going to foot the bill or be exposed to volatile fuel prices because those pass a hundred percent to Nevadans. 
[00:11:04] Dave Papineau (Host): That contrast sharply against renewable energy. Which Emily says comes with set contracts that lock in rates for a given period of time.
[00:11:11] Emily Walsh: Those prices are stable. There is a contract, and that price remains the same for 30 years or 10 years, or 20 years, whatever the length of the contract is. Envy Energy has this moral hazard of making decisions on behalf of Nevadan. Without actually suffering any of the consequences that is clearly exhibited when we look at fossil fuel spikes and its effect on Nevadans bills.
[00:11:35] Dave Papineau (Host): FME is an example of the trends across Nevada. Emily says The energy prices in Nevada are increasing for the average family, and as long as the state maintains dependence on fossil fuels, there's not a clear relief on the horizon. 
[00:11:47] Emily Walsh: Unfortunately, the energy burden that Nevadans face is also increasing.
[00:11:52] Energy burden is how much an average family spends on their bill. It's what percentage of your income you actually have to spend on your utility purchases. Since 2020, we've seen the energy burden in Nevada rise with more and more people being affected, and ultimately more and more people being severely affected or being quote unquote, severely energy burdened.
[00:12:14] This is when your utility bill is approaching over 5% of your income. When we look specifically at low income Nevadans, that number jumps up even more. So it is the least of us that is really bearing the brunt of these fossil fuel purchases and investments by the utility. 
[00:12:33] Dave Papineau (Host): So not only are things getting more expensive, they're getting more expensive for the people already, most burdened by energy bills.
[00:12:40] And on top of that, emissions in local pollution are rising. 
[00:12:45] Emily Walsh: You know, we are already suffering the effects of all of this particle matter in the atmosphere. We're experiencing the extreme heat. We're seeing more and more people, as I said, having to go to the emergency room, to the er, or even dying from extreme heat in our state, and we're actually footing the bill for it too, via our electricity bills.
[00:13:06] Dave Papineau (Host): Unfortunately, Nevada has another fret on the horizon. One. A lot of places around the United States are currently facing AI-driven data center growth. If you're a listener of the podcast, you'll know data centers spell big trouble for the west and the climate. If we don't act quickly. Emily's going to talk a lot about data centers specific to Nevada, but if you wanna learn more about the topic in general for the West, we have a whole podcast that I'll link in the show notes.
[00:13:33] Emily Walsh: As I kind of referenced before, one of the big things driving a lot of these new procurements is data centers. They're very high load, meaning they require a lot of power all the time. Customers, NV Energy is having to expand their current. Whole infrastructure system to meet this specific kind of customer in a way that we haven't ever seen before.
[00:13:55] This is meaning that there's being more investments to the system, which envy energy ultimately can recoup from rate payers. They're having to build new transmission lines. They're having to build new distribution, which is like the polls and the boxes you actually see in your neighborhoods. They're having to build new generation, like those additional gas turbines at vol meat 
[00:14:14] Dave Papineau (Host): to make this all even worse.
[00:14:16] All this data center demand might not even actually materialize, meaning regular people could be left holding the bag 
[00:14:24] Emily Walsh: and this is all to meet a load that we don't even know of is going to arrive. Data centers are very interesting in that. The developers usually put forward a few projects in multiple areas.
[00:14:37] You'll have one developer putting a project forward in the Reno Tahoe Industrial Complex, but you'll also have them bidding that same project in Arizona or in Utah or in Texas, and they're just shopping around for the best deal, and the energy can't act as though that is nebulous, though they actually have to make these investments and expand the infrastructure to meet their expected load.
[00:15:02] To meet that expected load, NV energy is going to have to build out their infrastructure and effectively double the entire system of what is already built in Northern Nevada. This means that we're going to see unprecedented levels of investment and. If that data center load doesn't materialize, all of that investment ultimately falls back onto residential customers or small general service customers.
[00:15:28] Think your mom and pop stores, or even alternatively, you know, even your targets in Walmarts to pay for and unfairly so because we're not the ones driving that investment and driving that load growth. One of my favorite, or I guess you could say least favorite fun facts is that by 2035. NV Energy is going to have to build more generation and transmission and distribution infrastructure in the north than what currently serves all of residential Las Vegas Valley in the South.
[00:16:02] That is a huge amount if you really think about every single person, every single house, every single apartment, and all the energy we use to power those houses, to keep people's houses cool. To cook dinner, to run Xbox for kids. All of that is going to have to go just to data centers in the north in the next 10 years.
[00:16:23] Dave Papineau (Host): To contextualize all of this, it's helpful to understand some of the structural issues Nevada has. 
[00:16:28] Emily Walsh: As I kind of mentioned before, the integrated resource planning process or IRP is how NV energy. Decides what to procure to meet our energy needs. This is a litigated process, so NV Energy puts forward an application to the Public Utilities Commission, which they eventually either approve, deny, or approve in part, and deny in part, what we are seeing in terms of the IRP and what the challenges are facing Nevada is that our IRP process is a little bit broken.
[00:17:01] First and foremost in my opinion, is that the utility looks at existing projects or bids, so things that could be. Built right away and uses those that inputs to this huge model that effectively selects things. What is best practice is ultimately actually to let the model pick from nebulous or what are called placeholder resources, and then NV energy should put out an RFP afterward to actually make sure that those resources can be built.
[00:17:31] Dave Papineau (Host): Emily says, this process is backwards. 
[00:17:34] Emily Walsh: It's kind of like putting the cart before the horse. In other states, we do use placeholder resources, and then the RFP drives those procurements in Nevada. Again, that's a little bit backwards. The other thing is just how our IRP is structured in statute, so not only is.
[00:17:51] B Energy bringing forward all of these resources they wanna procure, but they're all effectively quote unquote, baked in to this application as an intervener, meaning a party that has been granted access to the litigated proceeding and is going to evaluate the application, provide testimony. One of the things we face is that.
[00:18:11] These resources are preselected. So while we may have concerns about the model or about the assumptions that go into it leading the model to effectively choose certain resources over another, we are ultimately forced to more look at the actual resources that Envy Energy did pick instead of the model that picked those resources.
[00:18:31] If we do make substantial changes to the model, it makes the whole IRP and the application thrown into question because if the model has changed so greatly that new resources are chosen, that erases almost, you know, six to nine months of work on the utility side. So it's so hard to really dial down into what is this model doing?
[00:18:54] Are these resources for the best, for Nevadans? Are they the most cost effective? Are they the cleanest, are they the most reliable? When we can barely litigate the model itself, most of the attention is actually on what the utility brings forward. So when there is something like a combustion gas turbine that is being added, we are able to evaluate that.
[00:19:15] But again, it's hard to really disprove when we aren't able to make changes to the model or evaluate what would've changed if the model had been different. 
[00:19:25] Dave Papineau (Host): And another problem, ERP approval dime in Nevada is very short. 
[00:19:29] Emily Walsh: The IRP has an approval deadline of 210 days. This shortened timeline puts a lot of pressure on the public Utilities Commission and interveners like WRA to dig into this thousand page application and find tiny, minuscule pieces of data that maybe aren't completely correct, and then not only identify them and present a quasi-judicial legal case around them that can be added to the legal record.
[00:19:55] But when there are. Excel files upon Excel files and spreadsheets upon spreadsheets. Supporting this huge application, which again is thousands of pages long, they're usually up to 29 volumes or more. It's hard to make sure that we are seeing literally every piece of what is going into that. There needs to be a longer timeline so that the commission can do the best job they can, and furthermore, just less pressure.
[00:20:25] So that we can make sure that we are truly reviewing the application to the best of our abilities. In the best interest of Nevadans, 
[00:20:34] Dave Papineau (Host): Emily says it hasn't been all bad. WRA has been able to positively impact the RRP process, and that leaves hope for further improvement of the process going forward. 
[00:20:43] Emily Walsh: One of the.
[00:20:44] Issues that we also saw in the past, but we aren't necessarily seeing now, is that NV energy was relying a lot on the amendment process. So while a full IRP application usually requires 210 days to be decided, an IRP amendment has a much shorter timeline. It also doesn't require the utility to put forward updated models or spreadsheets to necessarily support its application.
[00:21:11] It's able to rely on old data from the last, or most recent IRP, but when we're seeing huge load growth, you know that data is changing almost daily, and so it's really important that the model is able to use the most recent data to effectively make decisions that Nevadans, again, will pay for and suffer the consequences for.
[00:21:31] Or alternatively benefit from. WRA was part of multiple efforts to change the amendment process, basically to limit the amount of amendments NV energy could do and limit what could be included in amendments. The Public Utilities Commission is currently engaged in a rulemaking To that end, and we're really close to getting final regulations that are going to make NV energy use the full IRP process more and put forward substantive support for all IRP applications.
[00:22:02] Not just the full ones. Amendments are now going to be used to truly be amendments. You know, if we have a 150 megawatt battery and it needs to be changed to a 200 megawatt, that's something that should be in an amendment. But what shouldn't be in an amendment is completely canceling huge solar projects that total over a gigawatt worth of energy.
[00:22:25] Or alternatively, bringing forward a new combustion turbine to a previously closed. You know, methane gas site, that is what NV Energy had been doing in the past. We saw most of what happened with vol e play out through amendments, so luckily we are going to see that less, but it has been an issue that's been plaguing the utility regulation sphere in Nevada for a long time.
[00:22:49] Dave Papineau (Host): Nevada, like many other states, does have emissions reductions goals, at least on paper. So why are we seeing so much reliance on fossil fuels? 
[00:22:59] Emily Walsh: Nevada has these statewide and industrywide climate goals. NV Energy has never really taken this seriously because again, those goals don't have teeth. They're just aspirational.
[00:23:08] So the only thing that they've ever really planned for in the IRPs is net zero by 2050. Previously, we were on a pretty good trajectory. The utility was making emissions reduction gains and following kind of a glide path scenario, if we could call it, where we're seeing constant emissions reductions over time.
[00:23:27] Unfortunately via all of these amendment processes to the IRP and just the changes that we experienced in the last five years. We are not on that glide path anymore. We actually saw an increase in emissions year over year for a few years, and we are not meeting the projections that we were supposed to in the 2021 IRP.
[00:23:50] We were projected by 2025 this year to have decreased our emissions on NV energy system by three and a half million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions that ultimately. Hasn't happened. And not only that, those emissions projections are now so delayed that we're seeing almost a 10 year delay in achieving that projected emissions reductions target for 2025.
[00:24:13] So we're not actually going to see that level of emissions reductions until about halfway between 2035 and 2030. 
[00:24:22] Dave Papineau (Host): The results of this for Nevada are devastating. 
[00:24:25] Emily Walsh: So in effectively four years, we've lost. 10 years worth of time. This is kind of what I call backsliding and delays. Furthermore, to actually hit the 80% reduction target in emissions that the wider scientific community agrees is necessary to stave off the major impacts of climate change.
[00:24:46] We were initially going to hit that in 2038, according to the 2021 IRP. We're now not even supposed to hit that until 2046. So again, so again, another almost decade of delay happening between the 2021 IRP, it's subsequent amendments, specifically the fourth and fifth, and then the 2024 IRP. We also saw the baseline increasing, and that's how we can say that emissions are increasing instead of decreasing.
[00:25:14] Dave Papineau (Host): Emily says, because of this, Nevada's baseline is getting worse. 
[00:25:18] Emily Walsh: When we look at emissions reductions, projections, we usually see decreases across the line. You know, maybe there are some periods where. Emissions hold steady, but generally it's a downward trend. How we can gather that Emissions are actually increasing, though, is that the baseline or the starting point for those emissions reductions?
[00:25:36] Projections is actually increasing year over year. In 2021, we were just below 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. By the time the Fifth Amendment came around, that number had increased to almost 11, and so as a starting. We saw almost a million metric, tons of carbon dioxide equivalent increase instead of the decrease that we were hoping to see.
[00:26:01] Between the filing of the Fifth Amendment, which was in late 2023 and the filing of the full 2024 IRP application, we actually saw a quarter of a million metric ton increase to the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions levels, and that was just within about six months or so. So instead of meeting those emissions reductions targets or even following their charted path, NV energy has unfortunately been quote unquote backsliding increasing their emissions instead of decreasing and then delaying the timeline on which we are expected to meet those emissions targets, 
[00:26:37] Dave Papineau (Host): increased emissions, higher pollution levels, weak clean energy targets, regulatory systematic struggles, and higher electricity bills.
[00:26:43] All of this is really bad. What can Nevada do to right the ship? 
[00:26:47] Emily Walsh: Nevada has a few options to kind of like help turn the ship around as you say. The first thing would be maybe going back towards a wider comprehensive climate plan that we already did have reinstating paths or pathways for every sector of our economy to decarbonize.
[00:27:03] We do need to see more executive and legislative action on these topics if we're actually going to be serious about. Making life for Nevadans better, protecting them financially from risks that come with climate change, and ultimately just providing a healthier and better environment for people to live here in the state.
[00:27:22] Dave Papineau (Host): As we've learned from our experiences in different states, a strong IRP process with greater transparency is going to be critical going forward. 
[00:27:29] Emily Walsh: Some of those specific policies could again be fixing the IRP process, which we already are working on. We're engaging in rulemakings, creating new regulations, and trying to identify places where the IRP and the RFP or the request for proposal process can be fixed.
[00:27:48] We ultimately just need more state level leadership. We need to put our money where our mouth is if we care about Nevadans. The challenges that they face both inside their homes and outside their homes. As I talked about, the energy burden is only increasing on Nevada families, especially when you look at low income families.
[00:28:06] We're also seeing higher rates of asthma and ultimately just more unhealthy air that our residents are subject to. We also need to make sure that any load growth that is coming from data centers is actually going to materialize. So there are a few things that we could put into place to make sure that the people who are driving all of this utility investment and potentially even increased emissions, are actually paying their fair share.
[00:28:29] Nevada needs to be aware of the load growth coming and handle it as responsibly as possible so that our rate payers and our residential customers are protected. First and foremost, we shouldn't be giving line extension subsidies or basically. Discounts on connection to the utilities framework, to these big data centers who can pay for it.
[00:28:50] We also need to make sure that any new generation that is brought on to meet this load growth is ultimately going to be clean, whether that be solar and storage, geothermal, wind, et cetera, et cetera. We don't want to be adding new emitting resources to our grid to meet load that isn't actually serving Nevadans.
[00:29:11] Furthermore, we can make sure that if that load doesn't materialize, there are penalties, specifically financial. Um, we can make sure that if a data center says they need 50 megawatts of energy and then they only use 10, that the generation capacity that was brought on to meet that total 50 megawatts is covered by a lower service fee or a cancellation fee that ultimately the data center would put.
[00:29:36] And 
[00:29:37] Dave Papineau (Host): some reason for optimism. All of these policy ideas are things other states have done. There is a blueprint and Nevada has been a leader before. 
[00:29:45] Emily Walsh: All of these things are policy opportunities and options that do exist in other states. We are not existing in a microcosm alone. These challenges are coming to states all across the mountain west, and ultimately all across the country.
[00:29:59] And we can be proactive, but if we also want to, we can look at a few other states and say, Hey, what is working and what isn't? One of the other main things that we could do on the regulatory side is creating a customer class. Just for these data centers, the way that rates are conducted in Nevada is basically customers of a certain type that all share similar qualities are put into.
[00:30:24] Things called customer classes, so residential rate payers that all live in single family homes are put into a single family residential class. Mostly because we use energy in very similar ways. The investments needed for our distribution, like our meters or our telephone poles that also take power cables are all the same, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:30:46] Other kinds of customer classes include multifamily, uh, residential, so that's anyone living in an apartment. We also have small general service. This is your basic stores. We have large general service. These are maybe your department stores. We have industry. There's customer classes for every kind of customer.
[00:31:05] Currently though, data centers are just being lumped in with a. Kind of large general customer class by identifying specifically how data center customers use energy and the cost the utility incurs to serve them. Specifically, we can make sure that in a rate case, any cost that the utility is incurring to serve these data customers.
[00:31:27] Is recovered ultimately by those data center customers and not shifted to residential or other customers who would just bear the brunt of that financial burden. 
[00:31:38] Dave Papineau (Host): Emily also says that making stronger climate goals means making them more enforceable. 
[00:31:43] Emily Walsh: We could also beef up our emissions reduction goals in statute.
[00:31:47] We could give them quote unquote teeth. You know, we could make some, specifically for the electricity generation sector, we could chart policies in statute that would help agriculture or transportation decarbonize as well. But ultimately, we need to make it so that those goals are actually state policy and not just something aspirational.
[00:32:08] We can't start moving towards those mile markers unless we actually get serious about it. And unfortunately, the way that they are in statute right now is more just something for end up to keep track of rather than for the state to take seriously in other policy matters. Um, WRA is committed to not only protecting Nevadans and making sure that any data centers that come to our state are managed.
[00:32:33] Responsibly and paying their fair share. But we also are actively looking for new and innovative policy solutions to both protect the people of Nevada, but also the economy and the environment of Nevada. We recognize as an organization that, you know, this growth is coming. It's not something we can stop, so we want to ultimately make sure that it's just handled in a way that is proactive.
[00:32:59] Intelligent and cognizant of the burden that could arise if it isn't handled well. We don't want to see our water being used for the cooling of data centers when there's other options or other technology. We don't wanna see residential customers, uh, having increases in their bills and creasing their already severe energy burdens because data centers aren't.
[00:33:22] Actively paying their fair share. We want to make sure that there are mile markers, and again, like a glide path towards 2050. So we aren't just hoping for some future where in 2049 we're gonna suddenly turn off all of our methane gas generation fleet. We want to make sure that facing climate change and the effects of it that actually affect Nevadans every day are handled in a way that is not only like.
[00:33:50] Humane, but business friendly as well. We wanna make sure that climate change and the effects of it that Nevadans deal with every day. Is considered very seriously and we want to plan for a better future that we can not only pass down to future generations, but for all of us here who are still gonna be living in the next 25 years.
[00:34:12] WRA is proactive in looking towards policy solutions and potential legislation that we could get passed in the state to better protect Nevadans and make sure that, you know, our economic interests are balanced with our environmental and our health interests of our residents. We aim to protect not only the environment and the people of the west, but also the economy.
[00:34:33] We recognize that this growth is coming and we're not trying to stop it, but we wanna make sure that it is handled well and that ultimately whatever costs that are incurred by the utility or other parties in serving these data center loads are really carried by the data centers and not. Put onto residential rate payers.
[00:34:52] We also want to, you know, look at better policies to make sure that wildfire mitigation on behalf of the utility is being paid for in a fair way and not again, being put onto rate payers unfairly. We wanna make sure that new generation that's being brought on is primarily clean and not going to add to our already as exacerbated pollution issues and the smog and leading to asthma that.
[00:35:16] A lot of Nevadans face via living in our, unfortunately, like polluted cities, we don't want to see that Reno is the fastest warming city in the us. As a native Nevadan myself, it's really upsetting that my hometown is the fastest warming city in the continental us. That is crazy. But I also can actually look at my own life experience and see that change in real time.
[00:35:41] When I was a kid, we would see huge winter storms and huge snowfall, and unfortunately sitting here now in November of 2025, we're about to break the record for the latest freeze in the history of, you know, Reno. So all of these things that Nevada is facing is here and now. It's not an option to just wait around for somebody to do the work or wait around for some Hail Mary that is suddenly going to solve all of our problems.
[00:36:09] We need to be proactive, looking forward and solving policy problems that ultimately really affect real people.
[00:36:22] Dave Papineau (Host): Nevada may seem to have a lot of ground to cover, but the state's challenges are not insurmountable by taking the steps. Emily mentioned electrifying transportation, increasing regulatory transparency and committing to stronger climate targets. Nevada can get back on track as a state on the front lines of the impacts of climate change.
[00:36:39] Nevada must take action. WRA is fighting hard for regulatory reform before the Public Utility Commission of Nevada. And we're looking to see and implement both state and local policies that will help drive the changes we know we need to see.
[00:36:56] If you're concerned about Nevada's backsliding and want to get into fight to right the ship, consider donating to support W's work. A small amount goes a long way. Even just $5 is a meaningful step towards a better future for Nevada and the West. Donate today and drive state level climate action in Nevada and the West.
[00:37:18] Sign up for our email list and follow us on social media for the latest news and progress in our region. Lastly, we'd like to thank our sponsors who are enable our work in the West. Our champion sponsor is First Bank. Our signature sponsors are Denver Water Torch, clean Energy, Scarpa, goco, and Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
[00:37:38] Our supporting partners are BSW Wealth Partners, Meridian Public Affairs Group 14, engineering and Kind Design. Thank you for listening.