PRC, utility companies show plenty of chutzpah

It’s safe to say no admirer of trustbuster Teddy Roosevelt serves on the state Public Regulation Commission.

The PRC has entangled itself with a giant Connecticut-based energy company that wants to acquire New Mexico’s largest electric utility. With that decision, the newly appointed three-member PRC could not have gotten off to a worse start.

New Mexico previously employed an elected five-member commission to regulate public utilities. That panel 15 months ago unanimously rejected Avangrid Inc.’s proposal to acquire Public Service Company of New Mexico, commonly called PNM.

Every consumer knew the companies would not accept defeat after only one round. They appealed the PRC’s decision to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Instead of letting the legal system work, the new version of the regulatory commission joined the utility companies in asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal.

That would enable the PRC to reconsider the proposed acquisition.

“It serves the public interest and conserves the resources of the court,” the PRC and the utilities stated in a motion. Hardly. This power play can only benefit captains of industry.

In the most galling part of the court filing, the companies want the PRC to decide on the acquisition by April 12. If they get their way, New Mexico’s biggest public policy question of this century could be made in about one month. The companies believe putting the case in front of the new regulatory commissioners provides a fast track to the outcome they want.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham supports Avangrid acquiring the New Mexico company. Lujan Grisham appointed the three new public regulation commissioners.

The fact that the PRC joined in the motion for reconsideration calls into

question its motivation. Why are utility regulators party to a court motion with one company they oversee and another that wants to establish a western base in New Mexico?

Based on appearances created by the court filing, the governor’s handpicked commissioners are eager to undo the old PRC’s decision.

PNM executives would benefit financially from the proposed merger with Avangrid. A rush to judgment is in their interest.

But it’s a fairy tale for the companies to claim the deal they covet serves the public interest. A hearing officer for the PRC concluded in 2021 that a merger of the two companies would do more harm than good.

The hearing examiner was thorough. His conclusions came after a year of work and covered 445 pages.

Appeals of PRC decisions go directly to the state Supreme Court. That system has been in place for more than two decades. If the PRC erred or was unfair in deciding a case, a regulated utility’s recourse was the five justices.

This time is different, based on nothing more than the political climate. Avangrid and PNM prefer to take their chances with Lujan Grisham’s appointees instead of the

Supreme Court.

It’s a messy situation from the public’s standpoint. One of the new regulatory commissioners, Patrick O’Connell, has disqualified himself from rehearing the acquisition.

Before his appointment to the PRC, O’Connell publicly supported the acquisition while working for an advocacy organization.

With O’Connell sidelined, returning the case to the PRC would create the possibility of a tie vote strangling the proposal. That makes the idea of the Supreme Court ceding its authority all the more impractical.

The state Senate could have eliminated the possibility of the PRC operating as a two-member panel in the acquisition case. Based on O’Connell’s conflicts of interest, the Senate could have rejected him during confirmation proceedings.

In typical fashion, the Senate Rules Committee made only a cursory examination of O’Connell during a truncated hearing. The full Senate confirmed him 31-3.

Voting for O’Connell might give senators a better chance of Lujan Grisham signing their bills into law. But it kept open the possibility of 1-1 stalemates on the PRC.

In addition to his stand for the acquisition, O’Connell might have more conflicts. He worked previously for PNM and New Mexico Gas Co.

From the start, Avangrid and PNM have paraded their political connections, even when they meant little in New Mexico.

George Pataki, who was a three-term Republican governor of New York, wrote

The New Mexican to extol Avangrid and support its proposal. Pataki’s testimonial only made the company look desperate.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who served two terms, was no more persuasive.

He vouched for Avangrid in another piece for The New Mexican. An un-silent majority rebutted the governors by pointing to Avangrid’s deficiencies in serving customers in Maine.

I expected PNM and Avangrid to try to get their case before what they perceive as a malleable regulatory panel. I didn’t believe the regulators would sully themselves by consorting with the very companies that need their votes.

The old elected PRC often was an inept group. The new one has started badly. Its stumbling would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.