Sen. Pete Campos Senate District 8 | Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
The New Mexico Supreme Court has granted a stay to Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), delaying the implementation of customer bill credits ordered by the Public Regulation Commission (PRC). These credits, averaging $8.19 per month, were intended to reflect savings from Energy Transition Act (ETA) bonds related to the closure of the San Juan Generating Station.
The 2019 ETA legislation aimed to reduce customer bills and provide financial support for coal workers and affected communities through state-backed bonds. However, PNM has postponed issuing these bonds until after its next rate case with the PRC. This delay allows PNM to potentially offset any rate increases with savings from the bonds.
Although PNM has distributed transition funding for severance, job training, and community support, customers continue to pay for the closed coal plant until the Supreme Court's stay is lifted. The delay in bond issuance permits PNM to collect a roughly 10% rate of return from customers, resulting in over $100 million in excess profit during an 18-month period.
Ona Porter from Prosperity Works criticized these actions: “These delay tactics are unconscionable. Every week the bond issue is delayed means increased costs for PNM customers, many of whom are at the financial breaking point with the rising costs of everything. They deserve the bill reduction they were promised.”
Cydney Beadles of Western Resource Advocates expressed concern over continued financial burdens on customers: “By granting PNM’s requested stay, customers continue to bear the financial burdens of the shuttered San Juan Generating Station while the rate credits that should be going to them remain in limbo.”
Camilla Feibelman from Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter highlighted that “PNM is saving money by retiring the aging San Juan coal plant, but it’s holding back those savings from customers... Customers should not be paying PNM for a plant that has closed.”
The court's decision keeps customer savings unresolved since August as stakeholders await further legal proceedings.
