ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The Albuquerque City Council is weighing in on a plan by the state's largest electric utility for providing power to customers once it closes part of an aging coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico. The council passed a resolution on a 5-3 vote Monday that calls for state regulators to require PNM to include as much renewable energy as needed to meet environmental goals while remaining affordable.
The resolution also asks that regulators deny or reduce PNM's request to recover $205 million in undepreciated assets for the closure of two units at the San Juan Generating Station. The stranded assets are essentially profits the utility would have realized had the entire plant remained open.
Environmentalists are critical of PNM's plan. They say it places the burden on ratepayers.
