OPINION: Why Blackstone must be stopped

I trusted my doctors. When I walked into the hospital, I expected care — not chaos. Instead, I encountered overworked nurses, misdiagnoses and delays that turned a routine recovery into a traumatic ordeal. Why? Because my care, like so much else in America, had been hijacked by private equity.

I’m not alone. A 2024 Joint Economic Committee report found that private equity (PE) ownership of hospitals leads to worse outcomes, understaffing, overbilling and closures — especially in rural, low-income states like New Mexico. Our state ranks highest in the nation for risk from PE health care takeovers, with more than a third of our hospitals already under their control.

Now, one of the worst offenders — Blackstone — wants to buy something even more critical: our electricity.

Blackstone is attempting to acquire Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state’s largest utility. If their track record in health care is any indication, this would spell disaster for ratepayers and communities. Electricity, like health care, is not a speculative asset. It’s a public necessity. Yet Blackstone’s business model — loading companies with debt, slashing services and extracting profits — suggests they’ll treat our grid no differently than they’ve treated hospitals.

The New Mexico Legislature already recognized the dangers of PE ownership in health care. When a private equity firm tried to buy Presbyterian Health earlier this year, lawmakers passed the Health Care Consolidation Act to bring oversight to these transactions. If PE control was too dangerous for our hospitals, why is it acceptable for our energy?

This takeover comes at a time when energy insecurity is already widespread. In New Mexico, low-income households spend up to 16% of their income on utility bills. Many face impossible choices between paying for food, medicine or electricity. A recent global study confirmed what we’ve long suspected: Energy poverty severely harms public health — contributing to asthma, heart disease, mental distress and even premature death when homes can’t be safely heated or cooled.

If Blackstone gains control of PNM, it gains control over who gets to survive increasingly extreme weather — and who doesn’t.

But it gets worse. Blackstone’s interest in our energy system isn’t about public service — it’s about propping up its broader fossil-fueled portfolio. The firm is heavily invested in methane-based “blue hydrogen,” natural gas pipelines and artificial intelligence-driven data centers that devour electricity and water. Despite their greenwashed branding, these projects are fossil fuel expansions in disguise.

Take the stalled Escalante hydrogen project. Blackstone-backed Tallgrass Energy pitched it as a coal plant conversion to clean hydrogen. In reality, it’s a methane-burning facility with carbon capture that was pushed onto the Navajo Nation without proper consent. Now the pipeline is likely to carry natural gas — not hydrogen — despite what residents were originally told.

Blackstone’s spin about “long-term capital” and “modernizing infrastructure” masks a harmful legacy: mass layoffs, price hikes and environmental degradation. As one Diné community organizer put it, they take our water and power — and leave us the pollution.

This fight goes beyond Blackstone. It’s about values. Do we let secretive global investors dictate who gets care, power or a livable climate? Or do we take a stand?

A 2023 Nature study makes it plain: The only path to deep emissions cuts is economic equity. The rich must consume less so that everyone can live more securely. The message is clear: Sustainability requires limits on overconsumption.

Blackstone represents everything New Mexico can’t afford: secrecy, extraction, environmental harm and decisions made by private entities — not the people.

Rejecting their takeover of PNM isn’t just smart policy. It’s a moral line in the sand.

Let’s keep the lights on — for justice, for health, for community.

Let’s stop Blackstone.