January 10 – The New Mexico Supreme Court has denied a final request by utility Avangrid, effectively resolving a yearslong lawsuit over the Connecticut-based utility’s attempt to merge with the Public Service Company of New Mexico.
A Thursday order from Chief Justice David K. Thomson denied Avangrid’s motion asking the court to compel the state Public Regulation Commission to vacate a 2021 final order denying the merger request.
The commission’s scathing order found that the merger agreement was not in the public interest.
Avangrid spokesperson Joanie Griffin declined to comment on the court’s decision on Friday.
The company – a subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola – first announced plans to merge with PNM in October 2020, but said in early 2024 it would abandon the merger plan following the People’s Republic of China ruling, which Avangrid was appealing gone.
The long-fought merger battle has faced opposition from Santa Fe-based clean energy advocacy group New Energy Economy, which also opposed Avangrid’s latest motion in the merger appeal.
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of New Energy Economy, in a statement Friday called Avangrid’s request to the court in November a “frivolous motion.”
“Avangrid/Iberdrola wanted the New Mexico Supreme Court to approve a rewriting of history, but the Court objected; Avangrid/Iberdrola attempted to whitewash the companies’ record of taxpayer exploitation, but the public interest prevailed,” Nanasi wrote. “This is an important precedent and we thank the Court for upholding the principle of taxpayer justice.”
The state Court of Appeals ruled against the electric utility in December in another case related to the merger attempt.
Avangrid had appealed a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit the company filed against a security firm and its CEO over comments made to the People’s Republic of China in late 2021 regarding the merger case, but the appeals court ruled that the comments were ‘protected activities’ and that Avangrid had not proven that the comments were ‘unfounded’.
