by Joshua Bowling for Source NM
New Mexico residents filled a ballroom on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque on Tuesday to weigh in on a private equity firm’s proposal to take over the state’s largest electric provider.
Blackstone Infrastructure’s proposed $11.5 billion merger with TXNM Energy Inc., the parent company of PNM, has proven controversial since it was first announced in 2025. Residents opposed to the acquisition have often commandeered the public comment period during New Mexico Public Regulation Commission meetings, state lawmakers have taken differing stances on it and it became an important topic leading up to the June gubernatorial primary election.
Many of the people who came out to Tuesday’s public comment hearing opposed the proposed deal — at one point, a chorus of people in the crowd got out of their seats and chanted in unison that the proceeding was a “mockery of the democratic process” — and questioned why it was still on the table at all.
Earlier this month, the Public Regulation Commission decided in a 2-1 vote that Blackstone and PNM violated state law by conducting a $400 million stock sale in 2025 without first obtaining the commission’s approval. Climate advocates and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez raised questions about the sale’s legality in February and representatives from Blackstone and PNM denied any wrongdoing.
At the time, the commission imposed $300,000 of penalties on the companies and ordered them to undo the sale. TXNM last week said it took out a $400 million loan to undo the sale.
Opponents of the sale during Tuesday’s hearing questioned whether their rates would increase if the PRC approved the acquisition. Although the PRC oversees rate hikes, some residents said the issue of the illegal stock sale led them to question whether the utility couldn’t find a way to circumvent that regulation.
“If Blackstone is allowed to acquire PNM, there’s no question about our rates going higher,” Cynthia Rodriguez, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told utility regulators during Tuesday’s hearing. “There’s not a law that they are not going to find a way around.”
Albuquerque resident Jeanette Salazar approached the podium in front of utility regulators and told them she would rather see the state purchase a majority stake in the utility rather than have private equity involved. After noting her age of 83, she concluded by telling regulators she hopes to “live long enough to see this whole thing go away.”
A group of people who support the acquisition, clad in orange T-shirts denoting their labor union affiliations, filled the back rows of chairs in UNM’s Student Union Building.
Andrew Mayorga, a Laborers’ International Union of North America district council representative, spoke before utility regulators alongside 17-year-old Pablo Aguilera in an orange shirt of his own. Mayorga said he believes Blackstone will rely on union labor to modernize and upgrade PNM’s infrastructure, and kids like Aguilera who are on the cusp of entering the workforce need that sort of steady work, he said.
In particular, he took aim at a resident who spoke earlier in Tuesday’s hearing and said the acquisition would only create “crappy jobs.”
“Are we all not New Mexicans? It sounds like you’re better than the rest of us,” he said.
Mayorga later told Source NM that he believes Blackstone has the capital needed to modernize and upgrade New Mexico’s outdated power grid — and believes such projects will create high-quality union jobs. In June, Blackstone and PNM announced a $20 million commitment to boost training and workforce pipelines for the skilled trades in New Mexico.
The crowd responded to several of the union members’ comments with a mix of boos and applause. One resident, activist Grace Dukes, turned around at the podium to face the crowd of orange shirts in the back of the room.
“My problem isn’t with you,” Dukes said. “It’s with a company that walks into a state, breaks its law, pockets the money and then asks you to vouch for its character.”
