Complaints about natural gas and electric public utilities in the state of Washington during 2014were the highest among industries regulated by the state Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), it reported. Consumers filed 535 complaints against gas and electric utilities out of a total of 1,205, which resulted in $160,000 in utility bill credits and refunds as a result. The complaints resulted in about $28,000 of bill credits and refunds. Complaints against telephone utilities were close behind (526) and resulted in the largest refunds and credits ($127,800).

Wyoming has intervened in a pending lawsuit seeking to halt the leasing of all U.S. coal reserves on federal lands, Gov. Matt Mead said. The legal action brought by the Western Organization of Resources Councils to stop coal leasing until the Bureau of Land Management updates a 1979 environmental analysis of regional leasing programs. Mead said BLM has not used the targeted program for decades and the state and federal officials “comprehensively review the environmental impacts of every individual coal lease through a multi-year process.” The state’s filing argued that BLM should not be obligated to update an analysis of a program that it no longer uses.