Rule change may undermine renewable efforts

Most of us would be happy to learn that the mix of fuels powering our TVs and refrigerators is moving toward sun and wind and away from water-guzzling coal and nuclear plants.

New Mexico has a law requiring that gradual transition to renewable energy, because as we all know, the health and safety of our kids and New Mexico’s drought-prone climate depend on it.

So should we be letting PNM rewrite the rule that enforces that law?

This month, industry forces convinced the Public Regulation Commission to consider changing the rule in way that is likely to undermine New Mexico’s renewable-energy law.

The law says utilities like PNM must produce 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020.

But it’s enforced by the Public Regulation Commission through its Reasonable Cost Threshold rule. Using this cost threshold as an excuse, PNM lingered at 6 percent renewable energy into 2012, despite a legal requirement of 10 percent by 2010.

Just three months ago, the PRC revised the rule after an 18-month process that included public hearings and input from all sides.

But PNM and other anti-renewable forces are already on the attack to change it again.

With the convenient turnover of two PRC seats, PNM and New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers have convinced the new commission to consider deleting a few lines of text. The change would make renewable energy seem more costly, which in turn makes it easier for utilities to claim they can’t meet the legal requirements at a price below the Reasonable Cost Threshold.

Congratulations to PRC Commissioner Karen Montoya, who voted against reconsidering only a narrow section of this rule that has already been thoroughly considered — and that doesn’t say what opponents claim it does.

Now that the PRC will be considering this issue over the next two months, we urge commissioners to ask tough questions and consider that selective editing at the behest of industry forces could mean the difference between doubling New Mexico’s renewable energy within eight years or allowing utilities to dodge the law for the foreseeable future.