LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: New Mexico shouldn't trust BCP with its energy future
The proposed acquisition of New Mexico Gas Co. by Bernhard Capital Partners is a direct threat to New Mexico ratepayers, particularly the most economically vulnerable households who already struggle to afford basic utility service. The record demonstrates that this transaction fails the most fundamental requirement under New Mexico law: It does not provide a net public benefit and instead introduces profound, unmitigated risk.
At the core of this concern is Bernhard Capital Partners鈥� lack of meaningful experience operating regulated utilities. Established in the record, BCP has only months of gas utility ownership experience, and is already producing real-world harm. BCP鈥檚 recent acquisition of Delta Utilities has resulted in catastrophic rate impacts for customers. Evidence shows customer bill increases ranging from 300% to over 1,000% within a single billing cycle. These economic shocks destabilize households, threaten housing security, and force impossible choices between heating, food and medicine. Decades of public health research on the cascading consequences of economic stress demonstrates that when people cannot take care of their families, they turn to crime and violence.
Low-income households, communities of color and income-constrained families are hit first and hardest. In New Mexico nearly half of households already live at or near the edge of financial survival. Importing a business model that produces sudden, unexplained and extreme bill increases is nothing short of reckless. The BCP track record shows people going from $20 bills to $200 bills in a single month, without warning or explanation.
These billing failures reveal BCP鈥檚 operational incompetence and priorities. Utility service is a public trust. A company that cannot ensure accurate billing, transparent charges and responsive customer service is fundamentally unfit to operate a monopoly utility. The Delta Utilities crisis shows a pattern of behavior consistent with private equity incentives: rapid cost recovery, opaque fee structures and profit maximization ahead of service obligations. Customers have been subjected to a proliferation of unexplained fees 鈥� 鈥渃ustomer fees,鈥� 鈥渦sage fees鈥� and other charges that lack transparency or regulatory clarity. This is not regulation 鈥� it is extraction.
The Public Regulation Commission has seen this damage in prior cases, including the Avangrid matter, where severe billing and service failures were treated as dispositive evidence that a proposed acquisition was not in the public interest. Here, the warning signs are even more immediate and more extreme. Unlike Avangrid, whose billing and service failures unfolded over years, BCP鈥檚 failures have materialized within months.
Moreover, the supposed benefits of this transaction are illusory. As demonstrated in the record, rate credits are minimal, economic development commitments are vague and unenforceable, and key proposals 鈥� such as shared IT systems with affiliated entities 鈥� lack any demonstrated cost-effectiveness. What remains is a transaction that shifts risk onto ratepayers while preserving the upside for investors.
The law does not permit this outcome. Under NMSA 1978, 搂搂 62-6-12 and 62-6-13, the PRC must deny a transaction that is inconsistent with the public interest. This is a legal obligation grounded in the protection of captive customers. Overwhelming evidence reveals BCP as an inexperienced private equity firm, with a demonstrated pattern of extreme rate increases, a lack of transparency and no credible showing of net benefits.
The economic travesty unfolding at Delta Utilities is not an isolated incident 鈥� it is a preview. Approving the merger of New Mexico Gas with BCP would expose New Mexicans to harm and instability. The public interest demands denial.
Patricia Brown, Ph.D; Carolyn Burns M.A.; Randy Coleman M.S.; Jon Cross Ph.D; contribute to the New Mexico Energy Policy Research Advisory, which aims to advance smart energy generation, distribution, and storage from an informed, ethical framework that protects critical resources.
