Home › Mountain West energy costs
Mountain West energy costs: cheap power, divided gas
The eight Mountain states post some of the country's most comfortable electricity numbers — 11.52¢ per kWh in Idaho to 15.00¢ in Nevada in 2024, every state below the 16.48¢ U.S. average — and a Census-division average of just 14.92¢ in July 2026, second-lowest in the nation. The surprise is natural gas: delivered residential gas ran from $8.22 per Mcf in Montana, the cheapest in America, to $20.47 in Arizona, the fifth most expensive. RECS put Mountain households at 78.9 MMBtu of energy use and $1,653 of spending a year, close to the national use average at a below-average cost.
| State | Electricity 2024 | Avg use / month | Avg bill 2024 | Gas per Mcf 2024 | Propane Oct 19, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | 14.91¢ | 1,075 kWh | $160.24 | $20.47 | Not surveyed |
| Colorado | 14.92¢ | 674 kWh | $100.57 | $10.58 | $2.362 |
| Idaho | 11.52¢ | 944 kWh | $108.73 | $8.51 | $2.586 |
| Montana | 12.66¢ | 852 kWh | $107.91 | $8.22 | $2.168 |
| Nevada | 15.00¢ | 930 kWh | $139.39 | $18.69 | Not surveyed |
| New Mexico | 14.20¢ | 654 kWh | $92.88 | $9.05 | Not surveyed |
| Utah | 12.22¢ | 774 kWh | $94.57 | $13.15 | $2.329 |
| Wyoming | 12.47¢ | 863 kWh | $107.65 | $12.39 | Not surveyed |
Electricity, use and bills: EIA-861 Table 5A (2024). Gas: Natural Gas Annual Table 23 (2024). Propane: Heating Oil and Propane Update, week of October 19, 2026; four Mountain states are not in that survey — see below.
Desert cooling and high-plains heating live in the same region. Run your own kWh and therms at your state's published averages.
Open the energy cost calculatorCooling country and heating country in one division
The Mountain division contains both ends of the American climate. Arizona households averaged 1,075 kWh a month in 2024 — cooling-driven use in the same league as Florida and Texas — and paid the region's joint-highest average bill, $160.24, despite a mid-table price. Colorado, at the opposite pattern, used only 674 kWh a month and paid $100.57, because in much of Colorado gas, not electricity, carries the winter heating load and summers are comparatively mild. New Mexico posted the region's lowest average bill, $92.88 on 654 kWh, and Utah was close behind at $94.57. Reading any Mountain state's bill without its usage figure inverts the conclusion: Arizona's electricity is not expensive, its summers are long; Colorado's bill is not low because its power is cheap, but because so much of its home energy arrives as gas instead.
Gas: the region's real divide
Delivered gas is where Mountain households genuinely split into winners and losers. Montana ($8.22 per Mcf), Idaho ($8.51) and New Mexico ($9.05) occupy three of the four cheapest positions in the entire national table — states close to production with comparatively compact distribution systems. Arizona ($20.47) and Nevada ($18.69) sit near the top of the same table, above California, despite bordering those cheap-gas states. The delivered price is mostly pipes, not molecules: it bundles the wholesale gas, interstate transport and the local distribution company's network costs, so a fast-growing desert metro can pay more than double what a northern plains state pays for the same fuel. On the unit most bills use, that is roughly $0.79 per therm in Montana against $1.97 in Arizona (dividing by 10.37 therms per Mcf — arithmetic on the published prices).
Propane, and the states with no published price
EIA surveys residential propane weekly in only four Mountain states. In the week of October 19, 2026 those four — Montana at $2.168 a gallon, Utah at $2.329, Colorado at $2.362 and Idaho at $2.586 — all sat below the $2.689 U.S. average. For Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming the survey publishes no state average, and this page prints none: a propane household in those states has no official benchmark on this site, only its supplier's invoices. Heating oil is not surveyed in any Mountain state, reflecting how rarely it heats homes here. For the coming season, the Winter Fuels Outlook groups the Mountain states with the Pacific in its West region, forecasting November-to-March spending of $590 for gas-heated homes (up 7%) and $1,151 for electric-heated homes (up 9%) — the West is the one region where EIA expects gas spending to rise this winter, on colder forecast weather after an unusually warm prior winter.
Sources: EIA — Electric Sales, Revenue & Average Price 2024, Table 5A (Form EIA-861) · EIA — Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A (July 2026) · EIA — Natural Gas Annual 2024, Table 23 (Form EIA-176) · EIA — Heating Oil and Propane Update (week of October 19, 2026) · EIA — Winter Fuels Outlook, October 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook (published October 6, 2026) · EIA — Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2020, Table CE1.1. Last verified: October 2026 — energy prices move with seasons and markets; confirm the current rate on your own bill.
Related guides
Natural gas prices by state · Electricity prices & average bills by state · Pacific energy costs · Winter heating costs 2026–27 · All 50 states