OPINION: New Mexicans deserve transparency, not Trojan horses in our energy system

New Mexico residents who heat their homes with natural gas are being asked to trust the private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners as it attempts to take over the New Mexico Gas Co. Families are told this buyout will bring investment and efficiency. Yet the public is being asked to rely on those claims without access to the history of the company that wants to control a monopoly utility that serves the majority of households in our state. The company’s history was largely barred from evidence at the Public Regulation Commission’s recently concluded hearing, leaving behind a seriously deficient case record upon which the PRC must base its decision.

That is unacceptable.

The PRC has a constitutional duty. It must carefully verify a proposed owner’s qualifications before New Mexico hands over control of critical services. Verification requires evidence. Evidence comes from testimony, documents and the track record of similar companies owned by the buyer. Known facts about past behavior determine what a company might do with our infrastructure and our wallets.

Instead, relevant information has been blocked from public view. Testimony from a utility lawyer with firsthand experience reviewing complaints from ratepayers at a gas company owned by BCP was reduced from 19 pages to two pages. Key exhibits were excluded. Depositions were barred from the record. Even questions about lobbying contracts and political contributions linked to prior acquisitions were shut down.

When the history of a company is kept off the record, the commission is left to evaluate the buyout without the most basic tool in public protection: proof of qualifications. Without a history of regulatory compliance, the commission cannot measure risk. Without risk, there is no way to determine whether customers benefit or whether service quality will be harmed. Any approval made under those conditions fails the public interest. That failure falls hardest on working families who cannot absorb higher bills and small businesses that require stable service.

New Mexicans deserve an honest evaluation, not blind trust in a multibillion dollar private entity firm that argues that its record is not relevant. Independent investigations have shown that companies connected to BCP’s founder, James Bernhard Jr., received no-bid contracts after Hurricane Katrina and after the BP Oil Spill. Audits later found waste, questionable billing and millions spent that did not serve the communities most harmed. None of this history is included in the case record. If the PRC does not act, it will make a decision in this important case without complete information.

Transparency is not a burden. It is an obligation that the PRC must insist upon. Without it, regulatory oversight is rendered meaningless and New Mexicans will be left unprotected from utility greed and mismanagement at a time when the basic cost of living is already a burden for so many families in our state.