New Mexico Supreme Court ruling will let PNM collect most of costs from disputed investments

The state Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed a decision by state utility regulators that allowed New Mexico’s largest electric utility to collect from customers most — but not all — of the costs from some longstanding disputed energy investments, including hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the utility’s only remaining coal plant.

The appeal revolved around investments by Public Service Company of New Mexico into the Four Corners Power Plant — a coal-fired plant in the northwestern corner of the state — as well as leases the utility held for the Arizona-based Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The state’s utility regulators determined the investments to be “imprudent” and disallowed PNM from collecting some of the money spent on each.

Out of almost $240 million in investments P