AG Wants El Paso Electric's Rate Proposal To Be Reconsidered

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Attorney General Hector Balderas is asking state utility regulators to reconsider a recommendation he says will negatively affect thousands of electric customers in southern New Mexico. The attorney general's office has filed a motion asking the Public Regulation Commission to order a hearing examiner to reconsider a proposal by El Paso Electric to raise its rates. The examiner recently recommended that the utility's request for a $6.4 million rate hike be slashed to just $640,000, or an increase of about one-half percent. But Balderas says he's concerned because residential customers would feel the brunt of the increase under a restructuring of the rates.