Passed Senate 38-0, Passed House 63-0 Commentary:
Senate Minority Caucus Chair Steve Neville sponsored a bill that requests the Legislative Council to contract for an independent study of the Public Regulation Commission (PRC). The study is to determine if the commission has advisory staff with the required expertise to assist and advise the commissioners to make fully informed and proper decisions in the public interest on complex cases.
Senator Neville said an example of a complex PRC case filing is in the Farmington area. He said the
PRC has spent a significant amount of staff time reviewing and analyzing the proposal by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) to shut down two of its four coal-fired units at the San Juan generating station and retrofit the other two with pollution control devices to meet new federal regulations.
The mission of PRC is to regulate utilities, telecommunications, and motor carriers to ensure fair and reasonable rates and to assure reasonable and adequate services to the public as provided by law and to promote public safety.
The study is also to explore possible changes in law that may be needed to make the public regulation commission more effective.