PNM Contracts Texas Company to Combat Regional Haze

In the meantime, the Rio Grande Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEI, have issued a press release to criticize the both the federal and state regional haze settlement agreements.

“EPA’s Regional Haze plan would impose almost $375 million in compliance costs on PNM ratepayers in order to achieve an ‘improvement’ in visibility that is imperceptible,” said William Yeatman, CEI policy analyst. “Unfortunately, the state’s alternative proposal is even worse — it would cost almost $20 million more, yet it would significantly diminish PNM’s firm generating capacity. To put it another way, the state’s alternative would cost more, for less.”

Yeatman encouraged PNM and New Mexico to continue fighting the issue in court, saying the lawsuit has good prospects for success. “Even were New Mexico to lose its case, suffering the EPA’s regulation would be better than the settlement negotiated by the New Mexico Environment Department,” he said.