04/30/2026
By Councilor Telles (ABQ):
There are about 22 data centers operational throughout New Mexico today. 17 are concentrated in and around Albuquerque. There are 6 potential data centers in the pupeline over the next several years that the Albuquerque grid is currently planning for, too. It's not just Project Jupiter, folks. Lea County just signed a deal for a 7GW AI campus which will need more power than PNM currently generates for its entire 550,000-customer base.
Blackstone wants to own PNM because PNM is going to power those 17 data center's and other projects in the data center pipeline. If you didn't know, that's a textbook conflict of interest.
All of this is to say, AND I NEED YOU TO REALLY PAY ATTENTION HERE, because to reiterate Blackstone, the largest private equity firm on the fu***ng planet, wants to buy PNM.
This is so beyond fu***ng madness.
The proposed deal is $11.5 BILLION and the prize is full ass control of our electric utilities PLUS a captive market of 550,000 ratepayers (that's all of us Burqueños who they all think are a bunch of fu***ng schmucks, apparently) who can't exactly shop somewhere else when the bill is due.
The deal is sitting in front of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission right now and they are quite literally our last line of defense. Try not to think about that too hard. Just kidding. Think about it. In fact, I need you to think about it harder than Ilya Rosanov with Shane Hollander in their trophy room, okay!
Listen, y'all because this is some real messed up s**t and we need to be honest about what private equity actually is. These PE firms are modern-day pirates in Armani suits. Their playbooks are well-documented and absolutely lacking in creative innovation because they have no incentive to be anything but boring at this point. They acquire the company, load it with debt, extract the value, cut the costs, jack up the prices, walk away richer. They operate with virtually zero oversight (by desigh). And the political influence these firms have is absolutely wild and worth literal billions of fu***ng dollars. And now they want OUR public electric utility. Funny how that works.
What could possibly go wrong.
Here's what the PRC is *required* to consider by law: any change in corporate control of a public utility must serve the *PUBLIC INTEREST* (defined as the continued provision of reliable utility service at the lowest reasonable cost to consumers over the long term).
Not Blackstone's shareholders. Not Blackstone's data center portfolio (yes, they have one, and yes, data centers love cheap electricity, what a coincidence). Not the politicians who'll line up to praise the deal while quietly cashing checks from the same people who fund the PE lobby. US, THE PUBLIC!
The questions the PRC needs to answer, and which we need to make sure they actually answer, not wave away in a press release are:
● Who actually benefits from this deal? Spoiler: not the people in line at walmart buying ramen because their bill went up again (for the record, I love ramen).
● What happens to our rates over the next 10, 20, 30 years under PE ownership?
● How does the PRC keep its regulatory authority when PNM's parent is owned by a private firm with hundreds of other financial interests?
● What stops Blackstone from prioritizing its data center portfolio over New Mexico ratepayers?
● And what about that $400 million stock sale the New Mexico Department of Justice is already investigating for potentially violating state law? Off to a great start, folks.
Public comment matters. Showing up matters. The PRC is expected to make a decision on this proposal in the second half of 2026, meaning the window to be heard is right now. Not after the deal closes and folks start writing angry social media posts about how nobody saw this coming. I NEED YOU TO OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK!
Submit a public comment at prc.nm.gov. Watch for hearing dates and show up. Most New Mexicans have no idea this is even happening, which is exactly how everyone involved would prefer it.
The outcome here could literally come down to whether you have hot water in the morning. Or whether your bill doubles to pay down debt that Blackstone took out to buy the company in the first place. Or whether some executive in Manhattan gets a slightly nicer yacht. Don't freeze your nalgas for another billionaire.
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