SW New Mexico News

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled last month that the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) must apply the Energy Transition Act (ETA) in the process of closing the San Juan Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant west of Farmington. 

The ETA, signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in March, allows the Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM) to sell bonds paid off by utility customers to cover the costs of transitioning from coal to renewable energy sources. These costs include decommissioning fees, severance packages and job-training programs. 

Opponents of the ETA believe the law mainly benefits utility stockholders at the cost of customers who may pay higher electricity pricing. 

“The ETA is the enemy of the poor,” Mariel Nanasi, executive director of New Energy Economy, recently told the Associated Press.

Leading up to the Supreme Court ruling, the PNM, an investor-owned utility, had strategically filed an application to the PRC to close the coal power plant back in July, a few weeks after the ETA was signed into law. In response, the PRC tried to avoid abiding by the ETA by adding the abandonment proposal to an existing docket it had opened before the law had been signed into effect. 

“The PRC was diligently working to uphold the New Mexico Constitution and the due process rights of the public, but that was cut short by the Supreme Court order,” Nanasi told the Associated Press. 

For Democrats and the Navajo tribe, the Supreme Court order is a “major win,” Jonathan Nez, Navajo president, recently told the Associated Press. 

“This is a great day for the rule of law in New Mexico,” Sen. Jacob Candelaria told the Associated Press on Jan. 29. “The Legislature passed the Energy Transition Act, the governor signed it and finally today after over a year of political game playing by the PRC, that’s done.”