Fresh off their defeat of the PNM/Avangrid merger (an effort on which we didn’t disagree with them), the radicals at New Energy Economy are pushing a far more concerning plan. They want to make ALL utilities government-run. A group of more than a dozen far-left legislators (list on page 5 of the document above) has petitioned the Public Regulation Commission to “study” the issue.
Reading through the proposal it is no surprise that this is part of a push to hasten the abandonment of “traditional” energy sources in favor of unreliable wind and solar. As frustrating as PNM’s government-regulated monopoly model may be, the thought of these people running a utility is even more frightening.
Ironically, as is so often the case with government-ownership of ANYTHING, the real question is WHO owns it. Right here in New Mexico the City of Farmington owns and manages its own utility. That is the entity pushing to keep the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station open and use carbon capture technology to do it.
There is nothing to be done at this point. If this proposal is adopted, the PRC will study the issue. Nonetheless, the LAST thing New Mexico needs is a new area of our economy for the State to manage, especially along the lines proposed by the most radical “environmentalists.”
Perhaps the PRC should ALSO undertake a study of what a free market utility market might look like, especially one untethered from the Energy Transition Act.
As a Lineman employee of a Rural Electric Co-op from Northern New Mexico believe that some form of Government should intervene in governing these Rural Electric Co-ops through out the state because with the Loans of Grant money that is being provided yearly to these
Co-ops are obviously not being used for the
right reasons which is to keep up with maintenance and infrastructure. They need to do away with Board memberships because it’s all politically ran by radical lefts who cheat the voting system for their own gains.
Evidently the meaning of the term “rural” escapes you. Moving responsibility from local supervision and control to a State bureaucracy does little to alleviate any perceived problems. Ceding control to Santa Fe and State legislators will likely increase rural electrical costs and provide little access for grievance resolution. It may also open the system for wide spread, and clandestine, patronage and corruption. I cite the deplorable condition of the national power grid…
Investigate results of Australia, England, Germany when they pursued “renewables”, and electric costs tripled, with people losing their homes. This is the direction of government-controlled (not necessarily owned) industry/business. It is called national socialism, and IS NOT a rightist movement. But it is autocratic, oligarchical, authoritarian, feudal. Somewhat left of crony capitalism, but not that far.
Because the government-owned utility worked so well in Puerto Rico…
I knew there had to be a reason that the left-greenie Hearing Examiner, Ashley Schannauer, and the radical green group, the New Energy Economy, pushed so hard to dump the PNM/Avangrid merger. And voila, there’s the reason – they want to make PNM a government-run/owned utility!! That’s just what NM needs is our electricity “powered” by radical, and I do mean radical, enviros. What could possibly go wrong?!!
There’s a reason why most Americans refer to Communists (DemocRATs) as not only Ignorant and Incompetent, but extremely dangerous to American society.