In what some saw as a void of opportunity to weigh in on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed rate increase, a group of the utility’s customers gathered for their own public “people’s hearing” on Saturday.

A row of five chairs reserved for utility executives and members of Utah’s Public Service Commission sat empty in the front row of a conference room at the Salt Lake City Public Library’s Marmalade Branch while electricity customers shared their personal testimony to a video camera.

“We’re going to send [the recording] to the Public Service Commission as a replacement for the hearing that they were not willing to have,” said Luis Miranda, a campaign organizer for the Sierra Club’s Utah chapter.

Utah’s Public Service Commission is currently considering Rocky Mountain Power’s request to raise its electricity rates for customers by 18% — down from a 30% increase the company initially requested last year. But pro-coal lawmakers and clean energy advocates alike say customers will end up paying the difference in the long run through Rocky Mountain Power parent company PacifiCorp’s Energy Balancing Account (EBA).

The hearing process has been mired in legislative and procedural drama. Legislators tried and failed this year to abolish the EBA for Utah customers. They have also repeatedly asked Rocky Mountain Power to separate from its parent company so that Utah customers did not pay for “poor regulatory decisions” in other states.

Saturday’s testimonies, however, were largely personal.

Jeffery White, a tiny homes architect and self-described senior citizen, said he hoped for “peace” in his retirement years.

Instead, “I find myself, like so many others, at the kitchen table doing math, trying to stretch a fixed income across food, medicine and power bills,” White said. “Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed hike isn’t just a number. It’s a sentence. It leaves people like me in cold homes staring at dark ceilings.”

The meeting, organized by a coalition of clean energy advocates, focused on Rocky Mountain Power’s renewed commitment to coal and natural gas after previously promising to amp up its clean energy portfolio.

“I feel a sense of betrayal as a homeowner,” said Paul Zuckerman, who said he moved to Utah in the 1970s and “fell in love with the clean air environment.”

Utah lawmakers last year passed two bills to keep the state’s two biggest coal plants alive and allow Rocky Mountain Power to pass the associated costs onto Utah customers.

Shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway, which owns PacifiCorps and Rocky Mountain Power, will consider two proposals ahead of their May 3 shareholder meeting that ask the company to evaluate the financial impacts of its energy-saving initiatives. One proposal suggests the company’s “voluntary environmental activities” are “unnecessary” and do not benefit company shareholders, according to a proxy statement.

The other suggests Berkshire Hathaway’s fossil fuel investments are, in fact, harming the company and its shareholders due to increased insurance rates fueled by climate disasters.

Berkshire Hathaway’s board of directors has recommended voting “no” on both proposals. Organizers of Saturday’s meaning said the proposals would, at least, provide an “accounting of corporate climate change-related activities” and provide information that would benefit “shareholders and RMP ratepayers alike.”

But ratepayers are hit harder by Rocky Mountain Power’s policies, customers said.

“Don’t make the most vulnerable among us pay the price for someone else’s profit,” White said like he was addressing the Public Service Commissioners.

The utility’s customers who attended Saturday morning’s event said they were unwilling to pay more to burn coal and accelerate climate change.

“The people of Utah already pay a high enough price for climate change,” said Emma Verhamme, a Salt Lake City resident and RMP customer.

Verhamme listed, at length, the ways, she said, Salt Lake residents have “paid” for climate change: the dry Great Salt Lake, less snowfall in the winter months, more intense wildfire smoke in summer months, unhealthy air quality that keeps kids inside at recess some days.

“Personally, I don’t want any of that,” Verhemme said.

Some customers might, however, be willing to pay more to invest in renewable energy, said Ted Gurney.

“If they spend it on what we like, we’ll pay the rent,” Gurney proposed.

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.

WASHINGTON CITY, Utah — There’s nothing too unusual about the fact there are so many short-term rentals in this Washington City neighborhood, but what occurred over the weekend has been a shock to the community.

On Monday, those seen in the Sendera at Sierra Hills neighborhood were walking to the popular pool with its lazy river and big slide, as well as those cleaning the many vacation rentals.

Maggie Adler has been part of cleaning crews in the neighborhood that service bigger family homes. She estimates that only 20 percent have full-time residents, while the other homes are rented out.

On Sunday morning, a cleaning crew came upon a gruesome discovery, finding the body of a 47-year-old woman who had allegedly been stabbed multiple times.

“I was not involved in the cleaning of that house,” Adler said. “We have another unit just right behind it. So we got to see all the action. As a cleaner, that’s your biggest fear, walking into a home and finding a dead body.

“Nobody wants to do that.”

Multiple Hazmat cleaning crews were seen arriving at the home on Monday. Washington City police said the victim was from California and had been staying at the rental since Thursday. They say the victim was stabbed late Saturday and her body was discovered about six hours later.

“You would think that a vacation rental area had a lot of cameras. Unfortunately, this one does not. But we have canvassed the ones that we do have,” explained Washington City police Lt. Kory Klotz.

With some of the video that was obtained, police were able to see two people of interest leaving in the victim’s car. That vehicle was found in another state and police are coordinating with law enforcement in that area to find the suspects.

“We do not believe that there’s anybody currently here that was involved in this incident,” Klotz added. “We do believe [the persons of interest] were acquaintances of the victim at minimum.”

Police said one thing that has been different about the investigation is the tourists, who Klotz shared have been very forthcoming and have played a larger role than usual when helping to piece together what happened.

“It just kind of left an eerie feeling through the neighborhood all day yesterday, even today, you know, it’s just so tragic,” Adler shared. “So, so tragic.”

Shaylee Allred’s childhood love for reading reignited in 2023, but it was one particular cowboy romance series she read at the end of that year that prompted her to get more involved with the bookish community.

“I read a series called ‘Chestnut Springs’ by Elsie Silver. It’s one of my favorites,” she said of the five-book saga. Allred loved the series so much that she went to a book convention in South Carolina in 2024 just to see Silver.

“Once I saw that event and witnessed it, I was like, ‘We need one of these in Utah,’” the Orangeville resident said. Around the same time, Lovebound Library, Utah’s first romance-only bookstore, opened in Salt Lake City.

That series of events inspired Allred to organize Romance Out West, a romance book convention, set to take place at Sandy’s Mountain American Expo Center on Saturday.

“There’s a lot of readers in Utah,” Allred said, “and there’s not a lot of book conventions on this side of the country.”

The convention’s name is only a reference to it being in the West. Authors from all over — published both independently and traditionally — will be present at the convention, representing all subgenres from contemporary to paranormal and everything between.

Book conventions, Allred said, are a great place to find new authors and bookish friends. “It’s a great place to learn more about yourself and the books you read.”

Allred said there will be upward of 75 different authors who will sell and sign books, as well as around a dozen vendors who create or sell bookish goods, including Lovebound Library and local candlemaker The Nerf Herder Co. There will be several Utah-based authors who will be at the convention, including Tiana Smith, Sariah Wilson and Amilea Perez.

Perez, a University of Utah student, writes Indigenous fantasy and is currently working on an Aztec fantasy series, “The Mexica Chronicles,” based on two siblings who have to compete in a tournament.

The first book in the series, “Tournament of the Heirs” was released last October, and Romance Out West will be her first author event. Perez said she is excited to meet fellow authors and new readers, especially because such events are rare in Utah.

Perez independently published her book because she wanted to share the story with the world as soon as possible. Conventions like Romance Out West, she said, can help indie authors like her get the word out about their work to a wider audience.

“Conventions like this are really great for meeting new readers and also for catching readers who might not have read your book otherwise. In meeting you, it’s more personal,” she said, adding that such connections can help readers better understand the stories.

That sentiment fits in with Allred’s overall goal with Romance Out West — to foster connectivity.

“I just want Romance Out West to be a safe and comfortable space for readers — romance readers — to just join and share their common interests,” she said.

Tickets to the convention are available for purchase and cost $60.