The Public Regulation Commission Holds Blackstone/PNM Hearing Despite Pause

The Public Regulation Commission's Blackstone/PNM hearing at UNM on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, struck many as unconventional. Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm, has had a rough go of it lately when it comes to this merger: the PRC recently ordered the two companies to undo an illegal, premature $400 million stock transaction. That order also put the deal on hold, and many in attendance argued that holding this public comment hearing anyway skirted the PRC's own pause. Recently, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham published an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal supporting the deal.