In general, public power utilities are good at working across the aisle with congressional or executive branch representatives from either major political party. Indeed, most issues that impact the reliability of electricity, the cost of service, workforce issues, infrastructure needs, and safety are not inherently ideological or partisan matters. Still, there are areas worth watching. With a change in the White House, there will be a new set of cabinet-level officials and staff in important agencies that regulate the energy industry. Especially in agencies regulating the environment and public lands, the regulatory emphasis will certainly shift.
If control of the House and Senate stays under the status quo, as currently forecast, that branch would not be likely to take actions too far afield from the past few years, even with a different White House. This means even with a major election mostly behind us, there will still be a need for considerable bipartisan work in both branches of government for new regulations or legislation relating to issues that matter to western utilities, such as wildfire prevention and suppression, vegetation management, relicensing of hydropower projects, treatment of hydropower as a renewable resource, funding of low-income energy assistance, comprehensive energy legislation, incentives for research, advanced technology or climate-related policies.
Energy policy has a way of sitting for years at a time and then moving quickly under the right circumstances. It will be an interesting year and 1 in which electricity users will want to stay aware and involved.