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.
Legislators have drafted a constitutional amendment and companion legislation that would abolish the controversial Public Regulation Commission (PRC), New Mexico’s most powerful regulatory agency. The move came as a surprise to commissioners.
Sharp divisions surfaced on renewable energy and insurance rate regulation between Public Regulation Commission (PRC) candidates at an industry-sponsored candidates’ forum Wednesday, with District 4 Republican candidate Gary Montoya defending the use of coal-burning power plants while his opponent, Democrat Theresa Becenti-Aguilar, advocated more use of solar power.
State Insurance Superintendent John Franchini has said he plans to meet individually with members of the Public Regulation Commission to discuss how the division plans to fix serious problems pointed out in a recent national audit. “They may think they’ve figured out a ‘loophole’ [in the Open Meetings Act], but they’ll lose the public’s trust and confidence in the process. So what have you really gained?” says Sarah Welsh of the Foundation for Open Government.
Stephanie DuBois has worked as a dog trainer, bookkeeper and waitress, and managed the Deming Chamber of Commerce for three years. Outgoing Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is a former legislator who has overseen the state Land Office for the past eight years. The two are competing for a seat on New Mexico’s most powerful regulatory agency, the Public Regulation Commission. And each has a different vision on how the agency should be run.
Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Commissioner Sandy Jones’s quest to identify and fire the employee he believed leaked an audit report that was published Friday by The Independent is legally dubious, according to New Mexico…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC)’s Tuesday meeting erupted into a heated debate overa national auditors’ report that was sharply critical of the agency’s Division of Insurance. Although the report was released after a public records request, the agency announced that a new, more restrictive PRC-wide policy about employee contact with news reporters is being drafted.
The Public Regulation Commission doesn’t want to have a public discussion of a critical audit of the state Division of Insurance, PRC Commissioner Jason Marks charged Tuesday.
“They’re trying to cover it all up and keep it from…
Former Republican state legislator Ben Hall and former Democratic Doña Ana County commissioner Bill McCamley both want to clean up the powerful and scandal-plagued state Public Regulation Commission. The men, who are fighting over outgoing Commissioner Sandy Jones’s District 5 seat, both told The Independent they want to see increased PRC scrutiny of utility and insurance companies’ rate hikes, and increased accountability at the PRC’s semi-autonomous Division of Insurance. But the candidates differed on how they would achieve those goals.
Just a week after a deadly pipeline blast in California, officials from Mountainair were disappointed to find PRC commissioners reluctant to approve what they had expected to be a routine regulatory waiver.
“There’s this pattern of companies doing something but not doing enough, not taking things seriously enough,” Commissioner Marks said. “It’s not that they don’t care. The problem is that the responses aren’t sufficiently large, given the scale of the dangers.”
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…
The state Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has scaled down the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM)’s proposed renewable energy procurement portfolio, which depended heavily on traditional photovoltaic solar electric facilities to meet state-mandated renewable energy requirements.
The…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has fined Picacho Hills Utility Company owner Stephen Blanco $950,000 and the utility itself $50,000, for dozens of violations of state public utility law and PRC rules and orders.
The $1 million…
A contentious all-day hearing Wednesday left many Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico customers saying they see little hope for relief from a controversial 21.3 percent increase in their health insurance premiums. Even though the company’s cash reserves have now reached $7.2 billion, an expert witness for the Attorney General’s office’s, who reiterated earlier testimony that Blue Cross had not sufficiently documented its claimed cost figures, and whose analysis found the insurer’s rate filing had exaggerated company losses, said the 21 percent increase was “reasonable, given the circumstances.”
Controversy has surrounded the state’s approval of a 21.3 percent rate hike on 40,000 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico health insurance policyholders, but the state Division of Insurance approved Presbyterian Insurance Company’s even larger, 24 percent health…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC)’s Division of Insurance will hold a public hearing Wednesday in Santa Fe on Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico‘s controversial health insurance rate hike.
Blue Cross will be asked…
The state’s new Superintendent of Insurance, John Franchini, began work Monday — just two days ahead of a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the controversial Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico health…
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) will likely apportion much of a record $1 million to $1.5 million fine against the Picacho Hills Utility Company directly to owner Stephen Blanco, according to PRC chairman David King.…
A gas pipeline fire near the intersection of Golf Course Road and Paseo del Norte in Albuquerque Wednesday may have resulted from a short in an adjacent PNM electrical line, state Pipeline Safety Bureau (PSB) investigators suspect —…
The PRC voted Thursday to fine the small, 800-customer Picacho Hills Utility Company an unprecedented $1 million to $1.5 million in a case that involved allegations of embezzlement, witness intimidation, perjury, and a long-standing and unresolved threat to residents’ health: untreated sewer contaminating the affluent neighborhood’s golf course. The owner of the company claims the charges and fines are intended to force him to sell his utility — and its water rights, which he said were recently appraised for $18 million.
In light of public outrage over a controversial 21 percent increase in Blue Cross Blue Shield’s health insurance premiums — and revelations the increase may have been based partly on exaggerated losses — the New Mexico Division of Insurance is moving to require insurers to submit more information, including rate histories, when filing new rates.
