Texas eyes NM's top oil-producing counties
A Texas House committee plans to examine the legality of annexing New Mexico counties at a hearing later this month. The committee is looking at Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt counties. Eddy County and Lea County are the top two oil-producing counties in the state.
Two New Mexico representatives from the area introduced a state constitutional amendment in January that would have allowed three or more counties to secede from New Mexico and join Texas. But that proposal didn't gain any traction at the Roundhouse.
The Texas lawmakers plan to study the legal, fiscal and economic implications of taking the counties.
If Texas passes a bill in favor of absorbing the counties, New Mexico and the U.S. Congress would have to approve the deal.
AG Torrez wants answers over inflated PNM bills
Attorney General Raul Torrez's office has asked the state's largest utility provider to explain its billing practices.
The request to PNM came in a hand delivered letter last week.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the letter follows customer complaints to utility regulators and on social media. The summer was one of the hottest on record and electricity use broke records, too.
A Department of Justice said the complaints follow a pattern. Many of the bills are estimated rather than based on actual meter readings. PNM cites "unforeseen circumstances" that kept the utility from reading the meter. The ratepayer is stuck with a bill much high than they normally receive.
PNM said in an email to the Journal that the company is experiencing a meter reader staffing shortage.
The staffing shortage comes as PNM seeks to roll out smart meters which would transmit energy usage readings wirelessly. A group called New Mexicans for Utility Safety is challenging approval of the smart readers in the New Mexico Supreme Court.
New Mexico's catastrophic wildfires require bipartisan solutions
Wildfires have become more frequent and ferocious in recent decades. But Public News Service’s Roz Brown reports that there is a bipartisan effort to find practical solutions.
