[Lwvcnmtopics] NM PRC meeting today 3.17 & Happy St. Patrick's Day to all

[George Richmond]

Several very important actions taken to protect consumers or in PRC 
speak Rate payers.  This was an A meeting

A) Early four preople presented at Public Comments, including Ona 
Porter,Founder of Prosperity Works,  who many of you know.

The point:  With the economy hurt by Covid, particularly in restaurants, 
hospitality and entertainment, many people are not working or working 
fewer hours and may not be able to pay all their bills.

While the PRC has ordered smaller utilities/co ops not to cut off non 
paying clients until May and larger ones like PNM not to cut off until 
August, some co ops have sent out demand or threatening letters to scare 
people in to paying when they may not be able to.

So while the letters, which the PRC has, do not actually say that power 
will be cut off, which would violate their order, the attempt to 
threaten people is upsetting and so the PRC will send out letters to 
Cease and Desist.

B) Letter to Utilities about their problems with natural gas suppliers.  
The PRC is working to learn about the problems of Feb 11-18 when TX has 
a major energy outage (which the state is working to resolve now) to 
find out what the impact will be on rate payers (consumers of 
gas/electric) on their bills.  The first step was to check with the NM 
Attorney General who is also doing an investigation to avoid conflicts.  
PRC learned the AG has not yet started their questions as they are 
working with Federal Energy Regulators to go back to wellhead suppliers 
or the producers of the natural gas to learn about production and 
contracts with the downstream gas buyers, like PNM or NM Gas.

The PRC is looking at the impact on consumers when they get their bills 
to learn how the high, sometimes 100X higher, gas prices will be billed 
to customers.  The larger utilities can create 24 month payment plans to 
ease the burden.  For the electric coops, who may not have the same 
resources, the problem is different.

Questionnaires are likely to go out in a week or so with responses made 
know in mid or late April

C) Hearing Examiners  At today's meeting several of the Hearing 
Examiners presented material regarding proposed orders which are 
reviewed and approved by the five commissioners.  It is very clear to me 
that the examiners are very capable and replacing them at retirement is 
a major challenge.


I am not in a position to review/analyze the PRC in NM v. other state 
PRC or PUC agencies, but I am very comfortable with the NM PRC.

George Richmond, Observer to the NM PRV

-- 
George M. Richmond
152 Juniper Hill Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87122-1913

C: 505-280-2105
E: geomrich1 at comcast.net


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