It was on May 19, 2025 that TXNM Energy, the parent company of Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), announced it had entered into an agreement where Blackstone Infrastructure would acquire TXNM Energy. PNM is the largest electricity provider in New Mexico serving nearly 550,000 customers.
PNM issued a press release on the sale that said in part:
“The acquisition agreement keeps PNM headquartered in New Mexico and retains local management and employees, while providing financial strength for long-term investment to support New Mexico’s transition to carbon-free electricity and to serve growing electricity demand. … Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone Infrastructure will acquire TXNM Energy for $61.25 per share upon closing, reflecting a total enterprise value of $11.5 billion, including net debt (excluding securitization debt) and preferred stock. TXNM Energy’s stock would no longer be publicly traded.”
On Sunday July 26 and August 6, the Albuquerque Journal published on its editorial opinion pages the below 600 word “Local Columnist” opinion columns. The July 26 column is by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The August 6 column is by Jaemes Jaemes Shanley, a retired businessman and President of the Mark Twain Neighborhood Association. Read together, the articles reflect a truly remarkable contrast of opinions regarding the Blackstone Infrastructure Partners proposal to buy TXNM Energy, the parent company of Public Service Company of New Mexico.
July 26, 2026
OPINION: Private capital, public oversight: The case for letting the PRC do its job
By New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Should New Mexico buy its own utility?
This question has nipped at the state’s heels for years and has resurfaced in full force as Blackstone Infrastructure Partners proposes to buy TXNM Energy, the parent company of Public Service Company of New Mexico — the state’s largest electricity provider. New Mexico’s climate goals, electricity rates and energy reliability are at stake in the answer. New Mexicans deserve a full accounting of the facts.
Start with the most basic fact: New Mexico already has an answer to who decides the future of the state’s utility landscape. The Public Regulation Commission is a public, independent body created to objectively review cases exactly like this one, account for public comment and protect the state’s energy consumers.
In 2023, New Mexico strengthened the PRC to ensure independent oversight, transparency and accountability. The commission enforces consumer protections, reliability standards, renewable energy requirements and long-term planning obligations. Those authorities remain fully intact regardless of who owns our utilities. If a transaction is approved, the PRC can impose enforceable conditions, backed by law, to protect the public interest. And this commission has shown it will use its teeth: Just this month, the PRC found that PNM and Blackstone violated state law by executing a $400 million stock transaction without the commission’s approval and recommended maximum penalties.
The commission ordered the companies to reverse the transaction and prove that ratepayers won’t bear the cost of the reversal.
Weighing complex evidence, evaluating public comment and issuing enforceable rulings is what the commission exists to do. We need to let it do its job.
Second: The PRC — and the PRC alone — sets electricity rates statewide. In New Mexico, neither utilities nor their owners exercise authority on rates. Any proposed adjustment is subject to rigorous financial review, public hearings and formal approval. This means that whether the utility sells, and to whomever it is sold, New Mexico’s consumers will remain protected by the PRC.
Third: We need the investment of private partners to ensure a reliable energy grid and achieve our climate goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. Whoever the private partner is — Blackstone today, Avangrid in 2020, or other deals in the future — we must be pragmatic about what significant, well-regulated capital could offer us. Grid reliability is fundamental to public safety, economic stability and quality of life for New Mexicans. Extreme heat, wildfire risk, population growth and rising electricity demand strain our infrastructure. Meeting those challenges and our climate mandates will require meaningful investment in new energy generation, transmission, storage and grid modernization. When properly regulated, long-term private capital can help build out our clean energy grid while preserving public oversight through the PRC. New Mexico should send a clear signal that we welcome responsible investment and the jobs that come with it — and an equally clear signal that the PRC will hold any partner, in this deal or the next one, to the same high bar of ratepayer protection.
Some have proposed that the state purchase PNM using permanent funds. Legislative analysts have noted that the State Investment Council’s roughly $75 billion in assets could, on paper, cover the cost of such a purchase.
The reality is more complicated.
A state acquisition would strain the general fund, diverting resources from education, healthcare and public safety. It would demand higher taxes or increased debt to fund both the initial purchase and the ongoing technology investments needed to maintain grid reliability.
And the assumption that public ownership means better management doesn’t survive a look at the closest real-world example: In Los Angeles, the city-owned Department of Water and Power’s botched 2013 billing system rollout triggered years of litigation and cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Public ownership is not a guarantee of accountability.
This is why New Mexico separates ownership from oversight, so an independent PRC can hold any owner, public or private, to account without conflicted interests. We do this to strengthen — not weaken — accountability to ratepayers.
The PRC must determine whether Blackstone’s proposed purchase of PNM serves the public interest and whether any commitments made are sufficient and enforceable. This process should be allowed to play out. My administration will continue to ensure the regulatory framework is strong, independent and accountable to the people of New Mexico — not to any ownership interest.
Should New Mexico buy its own utility? I say no. We already have a regulatory body that has proved it will protect New Mexican ratepayers. We need well-regulated private capital to realize our energy goals. And a purchase with state funds would be much more expensive and complicated to execute than its proponents have acknowledged.
Whether or not you agree with me, I think we can agree on this: The path forward requires informed debate, respect for our regulatory institutions, and a clear-eyed commitment to reliable, affordable and clean energy for every New Mexican.
August 9, 2026
OPINION: The governor doesn’t get it, let’s hope the PRC does
BY Jaemes Shanley, retired business executive and president of the Mark Twain Neighborhood Association in Albuquerque.
In her column published by the July 26 Sunday Journal, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham admonishes us to “let [the Public Regulation Commission] do its job” and implies it is adequately empowered to regulate any owner of Public Service Company of New Mexico or its parent company to protect and ensure “reliable, affordable and clean energy for every New Mexican.”
In telling us “we need investment of private partners to ensure a reliable energy grid and achieve our climate goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045,” she reveals her understanding of “capital” does not differentiate between sources that loan money to independent public companies and those that leverage their funds to fully acquire and privatize those public companies in order to extract into their own accounts every penny of future value growth.
The former is an unrestricted standard business practice. The latter is what has allowed Blackstone to become a formidable global financial titan since its modest inception in 1985 and has made its principal owner, chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman personally worth an estimated $50 billion and a consequential campaign funder and adviser to Donald Trump.
The governor’s naivety on this score appears to be shared by New Mexico’s chambers of commerce and various unions. As evidenced by outspoken citizens in multiple open public meetings since February, it is not shared by the general public, whose interests the PRC is mandated to serve.
The PRC’s decision on Blackstone’s acquisition of TXNM Energy must be based purely on whether it serves the public interest — not on whether it is legal, and not on whether a few million dollars in trivial community benefits justify handing over billions in future company value to private hands.
Texas utility regulators have shown their true colors by rolling over without a whimper. Let’s hope New Mexico’s regulators are made of better mettle.
Electricity will be the most essential energy resource for the future march of human progress. It will matter enormously how New Mexico navigates its electrical energy priorities, infrastructure development, allocation and rates. The critical bottleneck will not be capital availability, regardless of who owns PNM. It will likely be transformers, an essential enabler of the grid and one that is already constrained in the U.S. by inadequate manufacturing and critical component supplies controlled by China.
Whether needed capital for PNM infrastructure comes from private equity or borrowing from private capital markets, it will be financially managed the same way, as a balance sheet asset expensed through amortization. Blackstone is not a charity. Any portion of its upfront sprinkling of “community benefits” will be recouped down the road and, if its well-documented history is any guide, in spades.
The public understands quite clearly the challenges the Public Regulation Commission will face in regulating a PNM that is fully privatized and buried in Blackstone’s investment portfolio, no longer subject to the financial transparency and reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The army of financial engineers, lawyers and quants working for and within Blackstone will be able to run circles around the comparatively meager staff resources of New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission.
It cannot be in the public interest for an essential utility monopoly to be privately owned. New Mexicans should not be deprived of the opportunity to directly acquire and own shares of a publicly traded company whose value growth is driven by the rates they pay.
When their “job” is to serve the public interest, it is not enough to just let regulators “do it.” The public must demand what the job actually looks like.
https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/opinion-the-governor-doesnt-get-it-lets-hope-the-prc-does/3095896
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
The sale of PNM electric utility to Blackstone was to be completed in 2026. However, the sale was delayed earlier in 2026 when opponents objected to Blackstone’s purchase of $400 million in stock of TXNM Energy, the parent company of PNM, without pre-approval from the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission (PRC). The $400 million stock sale was publicly reported by both companies, but regulated utilities must receive Public Regulation Commission (PRC) consent for large stock purchases.
In July, the PRC voted 2 to 1 confirming a hearing examiners determination that the $400 million stock purchase was illegal and had to be reversed completely with no financial consequences to ratepayers. PNM has moved to do that although there is some question as to whether or not Blackstone received dividends while they held the shares which have not been reimbursed.
PRC ordered the companies to undo the stock sale transaction and allowed the parties to continue their application process for the sale instead dismissing the application outright as opponents had hoped. PNM said it had secured funding to reverse the problematic $400 million stock sale to the buyer without PRC regulatory approval.
On Friday, July 17, 2026 Blackstone said it had extended the acquisition timeline until May 31, 2027 “to allow for further time to obtain regulatory approvals.” The transaction has received approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). New Mexico PRC approval remains the last major hurdle.
New Energy Economy, a Santa Fe-based group opposed to the deal, had hoped the improper stock sale would end the purchase attempt. New Energy Economy said this in a statement:
“We are pleased that the Commission adopted the Hearing Examiners’ findings that Blackstone and TXNM violated New Mexico law and that the unlawful $400 million stock transaction must be unwound at shareholder — not ratepayer — expense… However, the Commission should also have denied the merger application.”
Blackstone’s purchase of $400 million in stock of TXNM Energy, the parent company of PNM, without pre-approval from the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) should have gutted the acquisition. It is evidence of the type of bad faith conduct the state and the PRC can expect in the future once Blackstone takes over PNM and has complete control over all of its assets. Corporate profits always Trump’s what is in the best interest of the public.
Any argument that New Mexico is too poor and cannot afford to buy PNM is difficult to believe. New Mexico is the second largest oil and gas producer in the country with historic revenues in the billions of dollars boosting the economy. For the last 3 years, New Mexico has experienced dramatic surplus revenue from oil and gas production. Recent reports indicate that the state is projected to collect unprecedented revenues, with estimates reaching billions of dollars alongside general fund surplus’ also in the billions of dollars.
The New Mexico Land Grant Permanent Fund (LGPF) is a significant financial resource for the state. The LGPF is one of the largest permanent funds in the United States, providing over $1 billion annually. It serves as a permanent fund that generates revenue primarily for public education, including schools and universities, among other beneficiaries and it could also be used in part to acquire PNM.
The New Mexico Legislature should explore the acquisition of PNM especially now that the state is experiencing very historic and very dramatic increases in revenues from the state oil and gas revenues that could be used to acquire the the utility.
The links to quoted or relied upon news sources are here: