The Public Regulation Commission continues to struggle when it comes to protecting you and me from monopoly utility abuses.
The latest example is the commission’s approval of Public Service Company of New Mexico’s 2026-27 generation and storage expansion plan. The plan moves 130 megawatts of planned capacity from the San Juan area to other communities. The previous commission purposefully placed projects in the San Juan region to mitigate local economic devastation caused by closure of the San Juan coal plant. Now this struggling community will face greater job loss and tax revenue shortfalls than it had imagined.
Critics argue that PNM and the PRC illegally ignored Energy Transition Act location requirements and that PNM deliberately excluded San Juan community stakeholders from planning discussions, failed to disclose relocation issues in its public notices and torpedoed new plant opportunities in the San Juan area. The PRC decision caught many San Juan community stakeholders by surprise. Fifteen legislators have signed a motion to reconsider the PRC decision, and a separate motion to reconsider has been filed by the hard-hit San Juan Central Consolidated School District.
Broken ETA commitments have become a PNM habit. They have cost ratepayers dearly. In every case, PNM failed to timely notify stakeholders and regulators of major changes in its plans, limiting PRC options.
PNM refused to refund ratepayers $115 million in promised coal plant closure cost savings until costly legal action forced the issue.
PNM failed to issue bonds covering $360 million in energy transition expenses, potentially costing ratepayers hundreds of millions. Interest rates soared and promised customer savings have evaporated.
PNM missed a deadline to send promised money to worker and community transition funds within 30 days of the San Juan coal plant closure. They paid only after a separate PRC order forced them to do so.
PNM failed to implement ETA required efficiency programs under the commission’s approved San Juan Generation replacement program. PNM claimed an unsuccessful solicitation attempt relieved it of any obligation to follow through. The PRC recently ordered them to try again.
The current plant location controversy. The case record shows tardy and half-hearted attempts to keep generation capacity in the San Juan Consolidated School District. This time, the PRC caved to PNM claims it only had to try, not actually succeed, in implementing commission orders.
PNM’s behavior is reprehensible, but it’s also predictable. No less frustrating is the PRC’s failure to adapt to how PNM and other monopoly utilities behave. It must learn to act before harm is done. The PRC plays catch up because it naively assumes utilities will comply with commission orders with little or no follow up. It often falls to outside stakeholders to point out noncompliance issues. Monitoring and enforcement of orders should be the PRC’s responsibility, not the public’s.
Though there are many PRC cases and orders, every big-ticket issue could be monitored by a single full-time, senior staff person charged with compiling a list of commission ordered actions and implementation dates, checking progress, and reporting to commissioners and stakeholders monthly on emerging issues. The commission should then dust off its power to levy fines so there are consequences for nonperformance. Issues in the current plant location controversy likely would have been identified long ago under this process.
The Legislature promised more funding for the PRC now that commissioners are appointed. They can help put a flat-footed PRC on its toes by funding this type of position.
It’s not rocket science. It’s commonsense oversight and management.
Steve Fischmann is a former New Mexico state senator and served both as a member and chair of the PRC from 2019-22.
The Santa Fe New Mexican observes its 175th anniversary with a series highlighting some of the major stories and figures that have appeared in the paper's pages through its history. The collection also includes archival photo galleries.
