2026 Legislative Priorities

In the Governor's 2026 State of the State speech she claimed climate leadership, and announcing a "blue-ribbon commission" to study the affordability of a clean energy future, announcing:

But here's the thing about building a clean energy future: we must make sure New Mexicans can afford it. We've seen what's happened in other states — utility rates skyrocketing while families struggle to keep up. That's why I'm calling for a blue-ribbon commission to develop a strategy to leverage and utilize private and public investments, grow our economy and protect consumers and businesses, while meeting exploding energy demands with more clean power.

What she didn't say? That oil and gas production in New Mexico more than doubled during her tenure, a very significant cause of the catastrophic growth in climate warming emissions that are leading directly to the deadly climate disasters and drought we are all experiencing. And she didn't even mention the growing threat of fascism and ICE abuses of immigrants and citizens alike. Her claims to care about making "our energy costs affordable" ring false, given administration support for hyperscale data centers and backroom dealings supporting the private equity takeover of our utilities by BCP and Blackstone.

Keeping energy affordable in New Mexico is not a question for future findings of a "blue-ribbon commission." Utility affordability demands action NOW, while we can still act to prevent the takeover of our utilities by private equity companies and prevent data center developers from developing fossil fueled and water guzzling hyperscale data centers that will harm our communities. We must demand more than lip service to protect New Mexicans from voracious industry extraction. We must pass legislation that will protect us from authoritarian regimes and oligarchs bent on extracting oil and gas from the land, water from our aquifers, and hundreds of millions from our wallets to build out the energy infrastructure necessary to power their AI/Crypto empires.

OUR LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

HB 9 - THE IMMIGRANT SAFETY ACT

There have been multiple deaths and other serious abuses in immigrant detention centers in New Mexico in recent years, with a rapid deterioration in due process and violations under the current federal administration's mass deportation agenda during both apprehensions and detentions. The Immigrant Safety Act will ensure New Mexico's public bodies do not enter into agreements to voluntarily apprehend or detain community members for federal civil immigration enforcement. The Immigrant Safety Act is a critical step to protect New Mexican families by closing existing gaps in state law and prohibiting new detention contracts.

The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee will hear HB9, The Immigrant Safety Act, on Thursday, Jan 22 starting at 1:30, or 15 minutes after the House completes its floor session. The meeting will be in Room 317; To attend by zoom--Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86074155262

TODAY: Call (best!) or email committee members and your Representatives and ask them to vote Yes to pass the Immigrant Safety Act.

CONSUMER AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE:

- Rep Joanne Ferrary: 505-986-4844
- Rep Angelica Rubio: 505-986-4210
- Rep John Block: 505-986-4453
- Rep Stefani Lord: 505-986-4453
- Rep Andrea Romero: 505-986-4327
- Rep Liz Thomson: 505-986-4425

EMAIL RE IMMIGRANT SAFETY ACT

THE MICROGRID OVERSIGHT ACT - Not yet deemed germane.

In 2025 a last minute amendment to HB 93 exempted microgrids from meeting Renewable Portfolio Standards in New Mexico. As a result fossil fueled data center projects, like Project Jupiter with its proposed 14 million tons of climate warming emissions (same as the coal fired Four Corners Power plant!), or the QTS data center that Blackstone is planning, could wipe out any and all progress on climate that New Mexico has made. In response Senator Jeff Steinborn has proposed the Microgrid Oversight Act which:

- Makes a microgrid over 20MW subject to PRC oversight and Renewable Portfolio Standards. This includes any microgrid that becomes operational after May 2026.
- Instructs the PRC to promulgate rules regarding the microgrid renewable portfolio standard, including compliance, accurate metering, energy auditing, recordkeeping and reporting (including both energy sources and total water usage.)
- Ensures that excess energy sold by the microgrid to a public utility, or energy sold by a public utility to a microgrid may do so only if the purchase does not increase rates for existing customers of the utility or otherwise adversely impact ratepayers.

HM 6 - A MEMORIAL TO STUDY THE IMPACTS OF PRIVATE EQUITY INFRASTRUCTURE OWNERSHIP

Sponsored by Representative Patricia Roybal-Caballero, HM 6 makes the point that certain industries and systems constitute essential services upon which the public depends for health, safety and basic daily services, including gas and electric utilities, water and wastewater systems, telecommunications infrastructure, health care delivery systems and other services that operate as natural monopolies or are supported by public financing, and calls for the Legislative Finance Committee to convene experts from various state agencies to to jointly study and report on the impacts of private equity ownership and control of essential utilities and critical infrastructure in New Mexico.

The study would include the impact of ownership and capital structure on utility rates, rate filing frequency and long-term affordability for consumers, as well as workforce impacts.
The study would make a determination on whether and under what conditions the state should limit, condition or prohibit the acquisition of controlling interests in essential services by private equity entities, including the development of clear definitions, thresholds and criteria to distinguish acceptable forms of private investment from ownership structures that pose unacceptable risk to the public interest.
The memorial requests the Public Regulation Commission to pause cases related to the Blackstone and BCP buyout of PNM and NM Gas Company until the study is complete.

A MEMORIAL TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF STATE INVESTMENT IN UTILITIES OPERATING IN NEW MEXICO - Not yet filed.

Sponsored by Senator Harold Pope Jr, this memorial will call for a pause on proposed private-equity acquisitions of the state’s electric and gas utilities—not to halt progress, but to unlock a transformative investment opportunity for New Mexico. The memorial urges New Mexico to study an alternative path: New Mexico becoming a meaningful, influential investor in its own energy future, while utilities remain investor-owned and professionally operated.

The proposal does not call for public takeover of our local utilities. These companies would remain investor-owned, regulated and professionally managed—but with New Mexico as a prominent, values-driven investor at the table. By investing in utility ownership and transmission capacity, New Mexico could:

- Export clean wind and solar power to Western markets,
- Generate consistent, long-term revenue for the state budget,
- Create thousands of rural construction jobs and permanent operations jobs
- Stabilize electricity costs for New Mexico households and businesses.

Unlike existing utility-ownership models that send all the profits to Wall Street and private investors, this approach would keep energy value circulating inside New Mexico, funding schools, infrastructure, public service, and create family-supporting union jobs that are central to our employment commitments.

ETA FINANCING ORDER AMENDMENT - NOT YET FILED

In 2019, the legislature struck a bargain via the Energy Transition Act: it allowed PNM to recover hundreds of millions for stranded assets upon closure of its coal plants from customers in return for a rapid and permanent exit from fossil fuels —a commitment PNM publicly accelerated to 2040 and promoted widely in the media. PNM has already benefited substantially from this bargain. It obtained a financing order of $360 million for San Juan, which customers are now paying, and plans to collect an estimated $300 million more when the Four Corners Power Plant is abandoned in 2031.

But on December 30, 2025, PNM issued a notice that it is wants to build a new 300 megawatt methane gas. A gas plant of that size is not a short-term investment; it carries an average operating life of approximately 40 years, making a mockery of the ETA.

Third Act New Mexico has worked with sponsoring Senators Harold Pope Jr., Liz Stefanics and Debbie O'Malley to develop this simple amendment, which adds two sentences to the ETA’s financing-order section clarifying that a utility that chooses to invest in or build new natural gas resources is not eligible to seek additional ETA securitization for abandoned coal plants. If PNM prefers to build new gas generation, it remains free to do so—but it cannot ask New Mexico ratepayers to simultaneously finance both a fossil-fuel future and a fossil-fuel exit. The Legislature must ensure that a deal made with the people of New Mexico is a deal that is kept.

DRIVER PRIVACY AND SAFETY ACT - NOT YET FILED

Because New Mexico has no limits on ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) use, the data can be accessed broadly by outside agencies, including ICE. This Act would establish guardrails so surveillance data cannot be misused against immigrants, patients seeking medical care, or protesters. The Legislature must adopt these protections to safeguard privacy and prevent federal overreach.

The most prominent seller of ALPR cameras, Flock, allows police departments to make the data from their plate readers available to other departments across the country in what amounts to a giant nationwide warrantless surveillance infrastructure.

ICE is making use of local automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems in the Trump Administration’s mass deportation efforts, and a Texas police officer used such data to track a woman who had an abortion in New Mexico.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Peter Wirth and Rep. Christine Chandler of Los Alamos, would restrict out-of-state agencies from conducting searches related to immigration, investigations into legal and “protected health care activity” in the state, and pursuits of a person based on participation in constitutionally protected activity.

New Mexicans should be alarmed that federal agents are building the capacity for mass surveillance and tracking of everyone, citizens and residents alike.

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