PRC commissioner urges PNM to “come clean” on dark money

NM INDepth

02/17/2021

by Brian Metzgar

New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner (PRC) Joseph Maestas on Wednesday demanded that Public Service Company of New Mexico disclose whether it contributed to a dark money group that supported a November ballot measure seeking to overhaul the agency charged with regulating the utility.

“I’m just simply calling on PNM to come clean, you know, disclose whether or not you donated to this dark money PAC [sic],” Maestas said during a PRC hearing, referencing the nonprofit group Committee to Protect New Mexico Consumers. PNM may not be under legal obligation to disclose its involvement, Maestas said, but it had a “moral obligation” to do so.

“I agree, we’d love to hear,” Stephen Fischmann, the PRC commission chairman, said. “I think there’s a strong possibility that it’s the case that they did donate to it.” 

New Mexico In Depth received no response Wednesday from PNM spokesman Ray Sandoval despite multiple requests for comment, continuing weeks of silence on whether or not the utility contributed to the nonprofit.

The call for transparency comes after New Mexico in Depth reported last week that a lobbyist report showed Exxon Mobil had given $10,000 to the Committee to Protect New Mexico Consumers, adding to suspicions that PNM also had given to the “dark money” group. The committee spent $264,000 advocating for a constitutional amendment to reform the PRC,  which voters approved in November, meaning that the PRC will change from a five-member elected body to a three-member body appointed by the governor beginning in 2023.

It also follows last Friday’s announcement that PNM Resources, the utility’s parent company, bankrolled a separate dark money group in 2020 called the “Council for a Competitive New Mexico” that spent money in five state senate Democratic primary races last spring to boost powerful incumbents while attacking their opponents.