Hearing Examiner Orders Blackstone Briefing and Reply Briefs, Extending Decision into June

Yesterday the Hearing Examiners issued an order directing the parties in the Blackstone acquisition case to file their briefs in the Show Cause matter related to Blackstone's illegal stock purchases by May 20th and to file any reply briefs by June 1st. What does this mean? It means that a decision on the Blackstone acquisition is not happening anytime soon, and in the meantime, the people have time to make their case to the PRC that a private equity buyout of our largest utility is NOT in the public interest. 

The Hearing Examiners also asked all parties to present their ideas for a potential remedy if the Commission finds that the stock transaction at issue is found to have contravened Section 62-6-12. As we argued before and will argue again, the legislature has already clearly defined what the remedy is:

“Any consolidation, merger acquisition, transaction resulting in control or exercise of control, or other transaction in contravention of this section without prior authorization of the commission shall be void and of no effect.” (Emphasis added)

That is the remedy and the Commission has no way around it.

A failure to follow that legislative directive would violate the New Mexico Constitution's Separation of Powers clause: 

Art. III, § 1. Separation of powers

The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial, and no person or collection of persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution otherwise expressly directed or permitted.

So the Commission must order the stock transaction "void and of no effect." What does "void and of no effect mean"? 

As the NM Department of Justice brief in this case clearly laid out, if any action is deemed void "it would be “as if [it] never happened” (citing to BOKF, N.A. v. Unknown Heirs of Pacheco, 2025-NMSC-029, ¶ 56). It means the illegal stock transaction is void and must be reversed, and all subsequent actions, including the vote of the Blackstone Board and shareholders to approve the proposed merger and the merger application itself, is also void.

The next PRC open meeting is this week, Thursday, at 10:00AM. We encourage you to show up in person at the Capitol Building, Room 309, or via zoom (email public.comment@prc.nm.gov to get the link) to tell the Commission that Blackstone and PNM are not above the law.