Supreme Court Denies Attorney General's Motion to File Reply Brief in PNM/Avangrid Merger Appeal

The Office of the Attorney General (AG) filed a Motion for Leave to File a Reply Brief in the Avangrid/PNM merger appeal to answer claims that were made by New Energy Economy and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) about Attorney General Balderas’ failure to protect New Mexicans during the merger case. The motion was filed in violation of Supreme Court rules and alleged that the PRC and New Energy Economy introduced new matters before the court. We filed an objection and denied the AG's allegations as spurious, and today the New Mexico Supreme Court denied the AG’s Motion.

Attorney General Balderas didn’t follow the rules and winged in a brief after the time had expired, but the much more important issue is: if the AG has a statutory duty to protect ratepayers why does he continue to actively support this awful buyout of PNM by Avangrid?

This comes at a time when we continue to receive news of Avangrid and Iberdrola's brazen disregard for the law and lack of concern for customers:

1. Avangrid suing their customers, garnishing wages during COVID to collect electric bills; settlement of $3M approved by Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority

2. The Prosecutor's Office requests a fine of 84.9M Euros for Iberdrola and prison for four of its directors for inflating energy costs and draining a reservoir

3. Spanish court orders Iberdrola to dismantle 60% of 500 MW operational PV solar plant – building a plant on property that was illegally expropriated

4. Mexican regulator fines Spain's Iberdrola unit USD $466M for creating shell corporations to avoid laws prohibiting private sales between generators and industrial consumers.:

5. Avangrid fails to connect new homes in New York – new homeowners and builders frustrated by Avangrid service incompetence.

Avangrid and Iberdrola have continued to demonstrate their disregard for the law and for their customers, making headlines for garnishing customer wages, energy market manipulation, delaying interconnections, illegally expropriating land and creating shell corporations to avoid regulation and competition. This is why we continue to oppose this dangerous merger proposal: it will stymie competition in the energy sector, raise prices for New Mexican's, and delay the transition to renewable energy that is urgently required now.