I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
In the midst of a fight with New Mexico regulators over a proposed 20 percent electricity rate hike, PNM Resources is also seeking a 10.9 percent rate increase on its customers in Texas.
The company is asking the Public Utility Commission of Texas – that state’s counterpart to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) — to approve a rate increase in order to raise $20 million the company says it needs to pay for system improvements, including transmission lines and meter replacements.
“TNMP has made substantial investments in its distribution system during the past two years to ensure its long-term reliability,” PNM Resources CEO Pat Vincent-Collawn said. “(I)t is crucial for the utility to timely recover its costs and be well positioned to continue to invest in its system.”
A stronger rate base is also necessary to maintain “solid credit ratings,” to attract capital for future projects, Vincent-Collawn said.
If approved, the new rates would go into effect in September 2011, according to the utility’s website. The average residential customer would see an increase of $10 in their monthly electricity bill, according to the filing.
PNM has sparred with the PRC over cost calculations cited as justification for another rate hike, delaying approval of its most recently-proposed rate hike on New Mexico customers until at least mid-2011.
PNM had proposed a rate hike totaling a 20 percent increase for southern New Mexicans and a 22 percent increase in the northern parts of the state, to take effect starting in April 2011. PNM has already raised electric rates on some customers by 24 percent over three years. The new rate hikes would raise electric bills on 500,000 New Mexicans by another 20 percent, on average.
PNM’s transmission and distribution system in Texas delivers electricity to residences and businesses over a 13,000 square mile area.
PNM Resources reported 2009 operating revenues of $1.6 billion. The utility supplies electricity to more than 875,000 residential and business customers in New Mexico and Texas.
