Lujan Grisham unveils “State Energy Council” to study electricity cost, reliability issues

In a classic case of creating a problem only to now be concerned about the fallout of that problem, according to the Albuquerque Journal Gov. MLG has created a state energy council to study cost, reliability issues involved in New Mexico’s electricity grid. Furthermore, according to the article, “The 13-member council, which includes Cabinet secretaries and industry executives, will be tasked with studying how the state’s electrical grid can be updated while protecting ratepayers from cost increases.” As the Journal noted, “New Mexicans (are) facing rising electricity rates.”

This is exactly the opposite of what supporters promised from the ETA. The Gov. and numerous environmental groups claimed at the time and continue to claim that New Mexicans would benefit from lower costs.

If the Council doesn’t begin and end with a discussion of repealing the Gov.’s “Energy Transition Act” (ETA) of 2019 then it really isn’t worth convening in the first place. In fact, the Council should simply gather, pass a resolution stating that the Legislature should repeal the ETA and bring both natural gas AND nuclear into New Mexico’s long-term electricity mix (these two sources are not supported by the Act which mandates 80% renewable energy by 2040 and  100% zero carbon resources by 2045 for traditional utilities like PNM.

Until 2024 PNM had leases with Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona. Those agreements were ended thanks to the ETA in favor of solar and batteries.

The Rio Grande Foundation opposed and worked to stop the Energy Transition Act back and 2019 and we have continued to oppose it while calling out reliability and cost concerns. If we could make one other recommendation to the Gov. and this Council San Juan County where the San Juan Generating Station was (until recently) located would be a great location for a few natural gas plants.