Committee nominates 9 candidates for PRC

Dec. 2—The Public Regulation Commission's nominating committee voted Friday to send the names of nine people with backgrounds in regulation, law and energy to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who will appoint three of them to serve on the revamped PRC beginning Jan. 1.

The governor's three appointees will make decisions with long-ranging consequences throughout the state as New Mexico moves forward with changes to energy policies and programs brought on by the state's Energy Transition Act.

The nominating committee received 62 applications and determined the finalists through a process that included public questionnaires and interviews from August to November.

The committee nominated:

* Gabriel Aguilera, a Democrat from Washington, D.C., and a senior policy adviser for the Federal Energy Regulation Commission,

* James Ellison, an independent from Cedar Crest and a grid analyst at Sandia National Laboratories,

* Carolyn Glick, an independent from Santa Fe and a retired hearing examiner at the PRC,

* Brian Moore, a Republican former legislator from Clayton and CEO of Ranch Markets,

* Patrick O'Connell, a Democrat from Albuquerque and a program director at Western Resource Advocates,

* Arthur O'Donnell, an independent from Albuquerque and a recent Solar Energy Innovator fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy,

* Joseph Little, a Democrat from Albuquerque and attorney for the Pueblo of Zia,

* Amy Stein, a Democrat from Albuquerque and a law professor at University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, and

* Cholla Khoury, a Democrat from Albuquerque and New Mexico chief deputy attorney.

Commissioners will serve terms of two, four and six years — as selected by Lujan Grisham — with the PRC ultimately transitioning to staggered six-year terms. Lujan Grisham will make appointments this month, her spokeswoman, Nora Meyers Sackett, wrote in an email Friday.

"The governor is seeking qualified and impartial appointees who will act in the best interest of New Mexicans as part of the PRC," she wrote.

The committee approved all nine without dissent at Friday's meeting.

"We've gotten comments from people on the outside about resumes, and who's qualified and who's not qualified ... I think they all meet the base qualifications," said committee member Will Brancard.

Brancard may have been responding to an anonymous email sent to committee members on Nov. 16, alleging that seven of the committee's finalists — five of whom were announced as nominees Friday — did not meet qualifications for appointed commissioners in the Public Utility Act, particularly the requirement for "10 years of professional experience."

The transition to a three-member, governor-appointed PRC from the current five-member elected body was the result of a constitutional amendment approved by New Mexico voters in 2020. On Monday, the state Supreme Court ruled against a suit seeking to challenge the amendment brought by three petitioners, including the Native advocacy group Indigenous Lifeways.

Crystal Curley, Indigenous Lifeways' executive director, spoke ahead of the nominating committee's vote on Friday, calling the transition to an appointed PRC "unjust" and an end to "any means of representation" for Native peoples in the state.

Curley's remarks prompted responses from committee members Cydney Beadles, a former PRC staff member, and House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who each support the move to an appointed PRC.

"Looking back over the last 20 years — and when I started at the commission it was appointed — the public interest was better served by an appointed commission," Beadles said.

Egolf referenced the results of the 2020 vote for the constitutional amendment — particularly in McKinley County and parts of San Juan County, both of which have large American Indian populations — and said "the overwhelming voice of the people of New Mexico supported" the return to an appointed PRC.

The new PRC will consist of entirely new commissioners. The sole current member to apply for a position was District One Commissioner Cynthia Hall, who was interviewed by the committee as a finalist but ultimately not advanced as a nominee.