New Energy Economy, Inc. v. New Mexico Public Regulation Commission

The New Mexico Supreme Court upheld the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission’s approval of a contested stipulation allowing a utility to replace generation from two units at a coal-fired power plant that were being retired with generation from another coal-fired unit at the power plant and with generation from a nuclear plant. The court was not persuaded by the arguments of the appellant—a non-profit organization founded to “build a carbon-free energy future for our health and the environment”—that the utility had failed to consider less costly and less risky renewable resources as replacement generation and that the costs assigned to solar and wind generation facilities were inappropriate. The court said it would not guess a hearing examiner’s findings on these issues.