NMHD News:
SANTA FE — New Mexico Speaker of the House Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) announced Friday that he will serve on the newly-created Public Regulation Commission (PRC) Nominating Committee, a bipartisan group of volunteers tasked with reviewing candidates for the recently modernized PRC.
The seven-member Nominating Committee will solicit and review applications and produce a list of no fewer than five nominees to serve on the Public Regulation Commission beginning in 2023. The Governor will appoint three Commissioners from this list, who must ultimately be confirmed by the New Mexico State Senate.
Speaker Egolf brings an extensive background in matters related to utility regulation. As a primary sponsor of the Energy Transition Act (ETA) of 2019, and primary plaintiff on behalf of the Legislature in the lawsuit decided by the Supreme Court to secure the implementation of the ETA, Speaker Egolf has championed forward-looking reforms to advance and modernize the energy sector in New Mexico.
“I was proud to play a role in the legislation that brought needed modernizations to the PRC and I want to see that process through, so I am volunteering myself for the Nominating Committee,” Egolf said. “I look forward to joining this bipartisan group and ensuring that we nominate commissioners who are knowledgeable, capable, and up to the task of navigating the opportunities and challenges of regulating the utilities on which New Mexicans rely.”
Previously a five-member elected panel, the PRC’s current selection process was established through a Constitutional Amendment, approved by the legislature in 2019 and 2020 and New Mexico voters in 2020.
Members of the Nominating Committee serve four-year terms without compensation and are subject to the Per Diem and Mileage Act. By law, the first meeting of the appointed members of the committee will be held prior to Sept. 1, 2022. The list of nominees for the PRC provided to the Governor by the Committee is required to provide geographic diversity, and the nominees must be residents of at least three different counties of the state.
