Bombshell Abq Journal Report: Behind redactions, PRC examiners hide doubts about NM Gas Company Sale to private equity investors

On Sunday the Albuquerque Journal revealed that despite publicly endorsing Bernhard Capital Partners (BCP)'s buyout of NM Gas Company, Hearing Examiners (HE) had reservations about whether the deal would preserve PRC oversight authority but hid those concerns from public view. A version of the Hearing Examiners' order that enabled recipients to uncover redacted portions was mistakenly emailed to parties and posted online where it was discovered by reporter Justin Horwath.

This unredacted version vindicates precisely what New Energy Economy argued in this case: private equity ownership compromises the PRC's ability to regulate New Mexico utilities. If the actual owners of a utility are unknown, the PRC cannot verify their qualifications or preserve regulatory oversight as required by the public interest standard for utility acquisitions.

The reporter, Justin Horwath, lays out the issues raised by the HE's:

In a May 20 report, hearing examiners Patrick Schaefer and Elizabeth Hurst recommended that commissioners approve the sale of New Mexico Gas Co. to Bernhard Capital Partners, saying publicly they found “sufficient evidence that the Commission’s jurisdiction would be preserved.”

But passages hidden by redactions and reviewed by the Journal show the hearing examiners expressing doubts about that conclusion and questioning whether the commission would know enough about the ownership structure to effectively regulate the utility after the deal closes.One condition imposed by the hearing examiners requires Bernhard to disclose all funds involved in the ownership chain.“(E)ffective jurisdiction requires the Commission to know which entities actually bear the equity contribution obligations and whether any entity outside the proposed participating ownership chain continues to hold material rights or obligations connected to the acquisition financing,” the hearing examiners wrote in one redacted passage.

The contradiction goes to the heart of one of six legal tests utility acquisitions must satisfy: whether the commission’s jurisdiction will be preserved.

We have one question: Why was this condition hidden from public view? 

New Mexico law is clear: “all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts” of public officials. (NMSA 1978, §§ 10-15-1(A), 14-2-5). On June 15th, just 7 days ago, the NM Supreme Court reaffirmed that fact when it ruled that no government agency in this state can use its own internal policies to keep public records secret, reaffirming that “The citizen’s right to know is the rule and secrecy is the exception.”

The PRC responded to the Journal's questions that the redactions were made "in accordance with a protective order issued under New Mexico law," but the redacted portions of the order - a recommendation that approval be conditioned on knowing who/which entities will own NMGC - cannot pretend to be "trade secrets" that fall under that protective order.

The practical effect of the hidden portions of the HE order is not protection of BCP or NM Gas Company. The practical effect is protection of PRC Commissioners should they choose to follow, modify, or ignore those recommendations. If the public does not know that caution has been advised, it cannot object if and when those recommended conditions are not adopted. 

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PRIVATE EQUITY WANTS NEW MEXICO TO BECOME A SERVER FARM FOR THE PROFIT OF AI OLIGARCHSIT'S TIME FOR NEW MEXICANS TO INVEST IN OUR OWN FUTURE

The secrecy surrounding the Hearing Examiners redactions is just one example of the "economic development at all cost" ethos that has been dominating energy policy in New Mexico under the current administration. Examples abound at the legislature, beginning with SB 170 in 2025 - the "build it and they will come" legislation - that allows utilities to build capacity to serve data centers and then ask for reimbursement from ratepayers later, continuing with the last minute deal to pass HB 93 to allow these data centers, like Project Jupiter, to avoid complying with climate emissions reduction goals, and culminating in the failure to pass the Microgrid Oversight Act in 2026.

At the PRC overtly anti-democratic practices extend beyond redacted decisions to include exclusion of qualified experts and testimony at the behest of private equity corporations, closed meetings where substantive matters like Blackstone's illegal stock purchase are discussed, time limits on public comment that are waived for legislators but strictly enforced for the public, resulting in silencing the people, routine malfunctioning of audio for public meeting broadcasts, and the new PRCe360 system that makes it nearly impossible for the average person to submit a written comment without watching a tutorial and memorizing case numbers.

We might be accused of overly conspiratorial thinking, but the facts are clear. New Mexico is being targeted by private equity companies that want to take advantage of our resources for the benefit of their private investors - and our state leadership is helping them do it. Sean Klimczak, Blackstone’s global head of infrastructure, and an "expert witness" in the Blackstone case, recently admitted in an interview that the company wants to replicate its Indiana GenCo model nationally. GenCo is an alternate utility Blackstone funded that operates outside of regulatory oversight to serve large-load customers in Indiana. Mr. Klimczak is quoted saying:

“What it allows us to do is create a separate entity that is legally and practically distinct from the utility but provides meaningful benefit to the utility. [GenCo] is a sacrosanct independent entity that is providing more than 100 percent of the power that the data centres will need and it allows us to move as quickly as the hyperscalers need to create the required power generation while also building our own power.”

Blackstone's public claims that they are not planning to build data centers in New Mexico are ludicrous. Their national investment strategy is built on the expansion of AI. For all we know the secretive owners of the BCP infrastructure fund buying NM Gas Company could be Blackstone itself, ready to profit from gas supplied to its new fossil-fueled hyperscale data centers. (Blackstone lent BCP money for its acquisition of two gas companies in Louisiana.)

If we don't act now New Mexico will become a data center colony for the private profit of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Ellison, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Blackstone. As suggested in the recent editorial by the Santa Fe New Mexican, we do not have to take that road. New Mexico can invest in PNM, keeping leadership and control of the company and our energy future local, and developing our resources to serve our own people in accordance with our values.

The next PRC open meeting will be held on July 2nd and we expect a final order on Blackstone's illegal stock transaction to be decided on that date. It's time to show up and demand that the PRC reject private equity ownership of our utilities!