Blackstone buying PNM

[Paul Kinzelman]

I may have posted about this before, but in case I didn't...

Blackstone (a hedge fund) is applying to buy PNM, which is NM
electricity provider
(for those readers not in NM). PNM is already investor owned which is a
problem
in itself but this buyout will make it worse.

Municipally owned utilities always do better for the consumer. I want to
highlight
also Dennis Kucinich's book about his experience along these lines:
https://amazon.com/Division-Light-Power-Dennis-Kucinich/dp/1638772347

The Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) must approve the purchase and
they have
been holding public hearings and I testified at the first one and plan to
on the second one as well. Please consider showing up at the next
hearing which is
May 21, 10am, at the PRC building, 4100 Osuna Rd NE, 87109

=====================================
This is my first testimony:
Comments for the PRC hearing on Blackstone buying PNM
-Paul Kinzelman, Feb 5, 2026

There are plenty of people who are presenting data as to why the selling
of PNM to a large vulture hedge fund is bad for the consumer based on
Blackstone's sordid past doing this sort of thing to other communities.

But I'd like to suggest another perspective.  Private ownership of
inherently monopolistic entities whose only goal is profit is a terrible
model.  A public necessity (like electricity) should not be run by a
private company because they care only about squeezing every last penny
out of their customers. Citizens' needs are simply not relevant no
matter what they claim.

Free market competition is impractical because you can't have multiple
companies each running their own power lines.  A private company must be
heavily regulated to limit its greed. But even better would be to not
have them private in the first place. Critical utilities (which should
now include internet) and life-and-death services should not be
privately owned. The proper metric for this kind of company is quality
of service, not profit. Remember that some of the wildfires that
devastated CA recently were in large part due to private electric
companies cutting expenses to maximize profit.

Profit-motivated monopolies that own life saving products can raise
prices based on only profit considerations. The life-saving Epi-Pen is
the poster-child of the problem. A company took over the distribution
rights for a device that delivered a $1 dose of a drug with a device
manufacturing cost of $10. They increased the price to over $600. People
die when this happens but private companies don't care.

The same thing happened with insulin. And for diabetics, if they can't
afford insulin after a company raises the price, they die. This is what
companies who have a monopoly do when selling critical products because
their decisions are based exclusively on maximizing their profit.

So the proposal before the PRC is to change PNM from being run by a
company based in NM whose officers live in our community, to a faceless
out-of-state corporation with no ties to NM. Their track record doing
this sort of thing to other communities is abysmal. The fig-leaf of
their colorful slides and glossy brochures can't hide the damage they
have done with similar purchases elsewhere. This sale would be a
travesty and a huge leap in the wrong direction. You would be taking a
bad model (private ownership) and making it much worse (private
out-of-state ownership). At the very least, guaranteeing them a profit
of 10% is outrageous and that should be eliminated.

And if you care about quality service for less cost to the consumer, you
should be considering making PNM be a transparent publicly-owned utility
instead of an opaque corporation.

For a deeper background on this sort of thing, please read Dennis
Kucinich's excellent book "Division of Light and Power" about his
experience as mayor fighting to keep Cleveland's electric utility
publicly owned with far lower rates than if the power company were
privatized.

========================
This is what I'm planning to say May 21 hearing:

I would like to remind you of your  mission from your PRC web page:
prc.nm.gov
We serve New Mexico by ensuring safe operations and reliable utility
services at fair, just, and reasonable rates consistent with the
State’s legal, economic, environmental, and social policies.

From your own website then, your primary responsibility is for service
to electricity users, not the owners. There is nothing in your mission
about return on investments to the owners.

In addition, your own Utility Division, according to NMSA 62-19-17C,
"shall represent the public interest'.

The proposed merger virtually guarantees (by raising rates to satisfy
that return) an almost 10% return. So PNM customers will be footing
the bill for that return. How is that in the public interest?

On the other hand, you have Blackstone's statements:
https://www.blackstone.com/the-firm/
"We seek to deliver outstanding performance for institutional and
individual investors."
and
https://www.blackstone.com/our-businesses/infrastructure/
"... with a focus on delivering stable, long-term capital appreciation
together with a predictable annual cash flow yield."

Blackstone is all about profit.  I found nothing on the Blackstone
website about concern for the customers of the companies they manage
and nothing about the quality of services of the companies they
own. And if those companies are critical resources (like hospitals and
energy companies), that could be disastrous for lives that depend on
them.

I'm sure you're aware of the report on nmfce.org but I would just like
to reiterate the importance of that report which shows what a disaster
this purchase would be for the customer due to their demonstrated lack
of integrity and concern in managing other acquisitions. They've
already demonstrated a contempt for the law in their TXNM stock
purchase.

https://www.prc.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/PUA-Rulemaking-Rule.pdf
I would also like to remind you of the rule 17.1.120.9E:

The Commission shall include in its order a statement of reasons for
adopting the rule. All persons heard or represented at any hearing or
who submit any comments to be considered in connection with the
proposed rule shall be delivered copies of the order and the rule
adopted thereby.

Again, critical companies like PNM should not be privately owned
because the goal is profit and not service. The merger will make the
situation a lot worse and less transparent.

An opaque company running a critical monopoly is a recipe for
disaster. Public benefit will not be a priority.

If you break that egg, you can't get it put back together again.