Hundreds oppose proposed TXNM Energy sale to Blackstone at public hearing

It was standing room only inside the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission meeting room on Thursday as hundreds showed up to oppose the sale of the company that runs New Mexico’s largest electricity provider to a New York-based private equity firm.

The crowd spilled out the front doors of the room and some attendees held banners and signs, including two that read, “Blackstone wants your PNM power” and “No private equity in public utilities.”

“We want the commissioners to see just how educated and informed our people are and where we’re at with this acquisition,” said Alicia Gallegos, Pueblo Action Alliance youth justice organizer.

In May, TXNM Energy Inc., the parent company of Public Service Company of New Mexico, announced it reached an agreement to be acquired by Blackstone Infrastructure for $11.5 billion. It had filed the sale with regulators just a few months later, in August. 

PNM has about 550,000 customers in New Mexico. TXNM also runs Texas-New Mexico Power Co., which largely covers areas in Texas. New York-based Blackstone is one of the world’s largest private equity firms with more than $1 trillion in assets under management.

Blackstone’s acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals outside of the PRC, for which transaction hearings will begin in May.  It still has yet to gain approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

But the deal got the OK on Friday from the Public Utility Commission of Texas following a regulatory settlement reached with intervenors in December, and it has already been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. 

TXNM said the Texas regulatory approval “confirms that the acquisition is in the public interest.”

But New Mexico residents on Thursday, by and large, denied that the deal would benefit them.

Isabel Parlett, who lives in Santa Fe, said before and during the hearing she planned to sell her Blackstone stock despite the private equity firm “tripling in value” because she felt the company “does not have the interests of the people of New Mexico at heart.”

“They exist to extract wealth quickly, when they see an opportunity,” she said. “And I think because an electric utility isn’t something we can comparison shop for, it seems to me (the sale) would be disastrous in terms of giving them that power to raise rates, to deteriorate service.”

If the sale is approved, Blackstone would pay $61.25 per share in cash upon the deal’s closing, TXNM officials have said. Blackstone would also take TXNM private. 

TXNM is hopeful the sale will go through after a proposed 2021 sale to Avangrid Inc. was shot down by the commission. Avangrid later terminated the agreement, the Journal previously reported. 

The deal with Blackstone, officials have said, would keep PNM locally managed with headquarters in Texas and New Mexico, and it would retain the employees and honor union agreements.

The two companies have also promised a $25 million investment toward clean technology “at no cost to customers,” and a $105 million rate credit over four years — which they said would lower the average monthly bill by 3.5%.

But the 3.5% would be “hardly enough to buy a fast-food (meal), which is an insulting supposed benefit,” said Vittoria Judy with Youth United for Climate Crisis Action.

Albuquerque resident Andrew Keleher was one of a handful of people to request that the commission approve the deal.

“This doesn’t change the PRC’s regulatory nature,” he said. “They’ll still be the ones setting the rates. They’ll still be the ones approving profit margins.”

New Mexico State University student David Wichman said “this deal asks New Mexicans to surrender long-term control of our energy future in exchange for short-term promises that simply don't add up.”

“PNM is more than a utility,” he said. “It is public trust. It powers our homes, businesses and our (transition) to cleaner energy. Turning that responsibility over to one of the world's largest private equity firms, whose primary obligation is to ... generate rapid returns for investors, creates fundamental conflict with public interests.”

Angelina Crowley with the Party of Socialism and Liberation said what Blackstone is doing is “attempting to position themselves as a monopoly in the energy sector” by having control over the entire energy grid.

“Blackstone is making empty promises to New Mexicans without any proof that they will fulfill these promises,” she said.

Gregory R.C. Hasman is a general assignment reporter and the Road Warrior. He can be reached at ghasman@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3820.