PacifiCorp Tax Break Should Be Reversed, Wyoming Tells Justices

Merit Energy Co. isn’t “engaged in the transportation business” for purposes of a sales tax exemption when it uses PacifiCorp electricity to transport oil from its wells, the Wyoming Department of Revenue told the state high court Friday.

The department wants the Wyoming Supreme Court to overturn an administrative ruling granting PacifiCorp a sales tax refund on Merit’s behalf for electricity Merit purchased from March 2020 to March 2023. “A business that only hauls its goods is not in ‘the transportation business,’” the agency argued in its opening brief.

Wyoming imposes tax on the sale price paid to public ...