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 pages 600 word “Local Columnist” opinion columns. The July 26 column is by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The August 6 column is by Jaemes Shanley, a retired businessman and President of the Mark Twain Neighborhood Association. Both columns were published together on August 13 in a column published on www.PeteDinelli.com entitled in part “Governor Lujan Grisham’s Naivete On Blackstone’s Purchase Of PNM Exposed In Answering Question Should NM Buy Its Own Utility?”. (See postscript for link to read article in full.)
GUEST OPINION COLUMN
The following guest opinion column was provided by long time reader of www.PeteDinelli.com. The reader was born and raised in New Mexico, was self-employed in the private sector, is now fully retired, and has decades of experience with New Mexico Government and politics including lobbying. The article was provided with the understanding that the author’s identity would not be disclosed and identity would remain strictly confidential to preserve privacy.
THE CASE: NEW MEXICO OWNERSHIP WITHOUT STATE GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
The choice over PNM ownership is not between Blackstone and the State of New Mexico. A better option exists: a consortium of New Mexico investors and a public stock offering open to state citizens, with the State serving only as a sophisticated financier.
Electricity is a capital-intensive business under legal monopoly, not a pure public service. It needs patient capital, operational discipline, and reasonable returns on investment. Pure state ownership risks politicizing rates and capital decisions; distant private-equity ownership risks extracting value for outside limited partners. New Mexico already has the right public-control tool—an independent Public Regulation Commission that sets rates, enforces reliability, and can impose conditions on any owner.
The State should not purchase the utility. Doing so would put an $11-plus-billion enterprise on the public balance sheet, expose taxpayers to operating risk, and invite political interference. Instead, assemble local capital—pension funds, foundations, tribal enterprises, community banks, and individual New Mexicans—and back it with structured state financing drawn from permanent-fund liquidity.
As of late spring 2026 the State Investment Council oversaw approximately $74.8 billion in permanent, endowment, and reserve assets. The Land Grant Permanent Fund alone stood near $41 billion; the Severance Tax Permanent Fund and Early Childhood Education & Care Fund together added more than $25 billion. These funds are managed under deliberately conservative policies designed to preserve intergenerational capital and generate reliable distributions for schools and other beneficiaries.
A carefully structured financing package supporting a New Mexico-controlled utility acquisition could target a higher risk-adjusted return than the broad market indexes and fixed-income allocations that dominate the permanent funds—while still remaining far safer than pure private equity. The upside would flow back into the permanent funds or the general fund rather than to New York or overseas limited partners.
Ratepayers would become partial owners of the company whose bills they pay. Management would answer to a board with local roots rather than a private-equity hold period. The PRC would retain full regulatory authority. Value created by New Mexico’s growth and clean-energy transition would stay here.
GOVERNOR MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM
It is worth discussing Governor Michelle Lujan’s Grisham’s position on the sale of PNM. Critics have branded her naïve. That charge collapses under the slightest scrutiny. Michelle Lujan Grisham ranks among the most aggressive, accomplished, and politically skilled governors New Mexico has produced in generations. She has shown a rare instinct for national-scale politics, the steel to navigate complex institutional terrain, and the backbone to defend independent regulatory bodies even when the stance costs her support inside her own coalition. New Mexico has long struggled to produce leaders of genuine national stature; she remains one of the state’s few realistic prospects to break that pattern. Politics itself has always been an intense national preoccupation, followed by many with the same lifelong passion once reserved for Sunday football.
It is entirely legitimate to dislike particular leaders or policies. Disagreement is not a defect in the American system; it is one of its defining strengths. For all its excesses and current struggles for relevance, that system remains widely regarded as the best in the world. Governor Lujan Grisham’s insistence that the PRC be allowed to do its job, and her clear-eyed recognition that substantial private capital will be required to meet reliability and carbon-free goals, reflect pragmatic judgment—not innocence about private equity. One can prefer a different ownership model for PNM without dismissing either her record or her future.
CONCERNS OVER BLACKSTONE-STYLE PRIVATIZATION
The key terms of the Blackstone offer to purchase PNM must be reviewed and are:
- PURCHASE PRICE: $61.25 per share in cash (all-cash).
- ENTERPRISE VALUE: $11.5 billion (including net debt, excluding securitization debt, and preferred stock).
- PREMIUM: 23% above TXNM’s unaffected 30-day VWAP as of early March 2025.
- STRUCTURE: Troy Parent Co LLC (Blackstone Infrastructure affiliate) acquires TXNM; PNM stays headquartered in New Mexico with local management.
- INTERIM EQUITY: Blackstone bought $400 million of newly issued TXNM shares at $50/share in 2025. The PRC later ruled it illegal (no prior approval) and ordered a full reversal at shareholder expense, with penalties.
- TIMELINE: Originally H2 2026; extended to termination date May 31, 2027. Shareholder approval obtained August 2025.
- REGULATORY STATUS: Approved by PUCT, FERC, FCC, HSR. New Mexico PRC and NRC still outstanding. PRC process paused pending stock-sale compliance.
- COMMITMENTS: Keep corporate headquarters and local management in New Meico; honor unions; minimum 10-year hold; claimed $175 million customer/community benefits (including large rate credit); ring-fencing and continued PRC rate authority.
- TERMINATION FEES: Blackstone-side termination fee reduced from $350M to $175M in the July 2026 extension.
Blackstone-style privatization raises legitimate concerns about transparency and value extraction. Those concerns do not require state ownership. They require smart capital partnership and rigorous regulation. A New Mexico investor consortium, financed commercially by the State and overseen by the PRC, delivers local ownership, commercial discipline, reasonable returns, and continued ratepayer protection.
New Mexicans should not be mere customers of their electric system. They should have the chance to be owners but without turning the utility into a state budget line item or surrendering its future to the highest distant bidder.
CURRENT PUBLIC POSITIONS ON THE BLACKSTONE ACQUISITION
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham: In her July 26, 2026 Albuquerque Journal op-ed, she explicitly opposed the State purchasing PNM. She argued New Mexico needs well-regulated private capital to meet reliability and 100% carbon-free goals by 2045, that the independent PRC is the proper protector of ratepayers, and that a state purchase would strain the general fund. She does not endorse or reject the Blackstone deal itself; she insists the PRC process must run under strong independent oversight and highlighted the Commission’s order reversing the illegal $400 million stock sale.
Democratic Nominee Deb Haaland: Haaland has expressed clear skepticism. She has said New Mexicans “want a utility company that prioritizes ratepayers, not shareholders, and New Mexicans are rightfully skeptical about who Blackstone will prioritize.” She is “not convinced a private equity merger is the best way” to update infrastructure and harness renewables. She stops short of a formal rejection or a call for state/local ownership alternatives while emphasizing strict accountability on rates, community investment, and clean energy.
Republican Nominee Gregg Hull: As of mid-August 2026, Hull has not issued a detailed, widely reported public position specifically on the Blackstone–TXNM/PNM acquisition. His campaign has focused on economic growth, public safety, and government efficiency. The absence of a clear stance on this high-profile utility transaction is notable.
WHY LOCAL, CITIZEN OWNERSHIP MATTERS
Electricity is a regulated monopoly. Ratepayers have no alternative. Private-equity ownership creates incentives for value extraction that can conflict with long-term ratepayer and public-interest goals. The illegal $400 million stock purchase is an early warning. New Mexico can do better than pure Wall Street ownership or pure state ownership.
A practical, viable alternative exists. A consortium of New Mexico investors (pension funds, foundations, tribal enterprises, community banks, and individual citizen shareholders) supported by structured financing from the State’s permanent funds (SIC manages $75 billion). At a conservative 8% return on a New Mexico-held equity stake of $5–6 billion, annual value creation would be roughly $400–480 million — money that stays in New Mexico. Over a decade, the compounded benefit is measured in the billions, while the PRC retains full regulatory authority.
A DIRECT CHALLENGE TO CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR
New Mexicans deserve clear answers from Deb Haaland and Gregg Hull before November 3, 2026 election for Governor. They both need to answer with a press release or formal position paper the following questions:
- Will you support or oppose the Blackstone acquisition of TXNM/PNM as currently structured?
- Will you actively explore and advocate for a New Mexico-based ownership alternative — a consortium of local investors and citizen shareholders backed by smart permanent-fund financing — so that the value created by New Mexico ratepayers stays in New Mexico?
- What specific actions will your administration take to ensure the PRC has the resources and political backing to protect ratepayers regardless of ownership?
Electricity is the backbone of New Mexico’s future. The next Governor will shape whether New Mexicans or Wall Street own that backbone. The time for clarity is now.