SANTA FE – District 3 Commissioner Valerie Espinoza on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 was appointed chair of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) during the Commission’s first open meeting of 2016.
Espinoza succeeds District 1 Commissioner Karen Montoya of Albuquerque in the role of chair of the NMPRC. Montoya was elected Vice Chair of the Commission.
“With my new tasks of conducting meetings and the numerous other responsibilities of being chair and as your commissioner, I remain committed to representing the citizenry of New Mexico and to do what’s best for our state and our constituent base,” Chairwoman Espinoza stated Wednesday afternoon.
Espinoza’s tenure with the Public Regulation Commission began in 2013, and she previously served as the elected Vice Chair of the NMPRC in 2013 and 2014.
Commissioner Espinoza is the current chair of the Commission’s Wildfire Task Force. In that capacity, Espinoza convened more than 20 tribal, local, state and federal governmental agencies along with utilities, cooperatives, non-profit organizations and citizens to discuss wildfire prevention solutions.
Espinoza is presently a member of the Renewable Taos/Rocky Mountain Institute eLab Accelerator Team, the Hispanics in Energy organization, and the National Association of Regulated Utility Commissioners (NARUC), where she serves on three of NARUC’s committees, including the Committee on Energy Resources & the Environment, the subcommittee on Utility Marketplace Access, and is a member of the Telecommunications Act Modernization (TeAM) Task Force.
Among her many awards, certificates and accomplishments, Espinoza has been nominated Albuquerque Business First’s Woman of Influence in 2014, a recipient of the Capital City Professional & Business Woman of the Year Award (2009), was twice nominated the New Mexico Status of Women’s “Woman of the Year” in 2003 and 2007, respectively, and garnered Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Pollution Prevention Awareness Award.
About the NMPRC
The NMPRC regulates public utilities, telecommunications companies and motor carriers operating in the State of New Mexico. It also administers the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the New Mexico Firefighters Training Academy in Socorro, N.M., and the Pipeline Safety Bureau.