SENATE BILL

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Anthony L. Thornton

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATING TO UTILITIES; ADDING NUCLEAR ENERGY TO THE LIST OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES THAT SATISFY THE RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD FOR PUBLIC UTILITIES AND RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 62-15-37 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2007, Chapter 4, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

     "62-15-37. DEFINITIONS--ENERGY EFFICIENCY--RENEWABLE ENERGY.--As used in the Rural Electric Cooperative Act:

          A. "energy efficiency" means measures, including energy conservation measures, or programs that target consumer behavior, equipment or devices to result in a decrease in consumption of electricity without reducing the amount or quality of energy services;

          B. "renewable energy" means electric energy generated by use of renewable energy resources and delivered to a rural electric cooperative;

          C. "renewable energy certificate" means a certificate or other record, in a format approved by the public regulation commission, that represents all the environmental attributes from one megawatt-hour of electricity generated from renewable energy;

          D. "renewable energy resource" means electric or useful thermal energy:

                (1) generated by use of the following energy resources, with or without energy storage and delivered to a rural electric cooperative:

                     (a) solar, wind and geothermal;

                     (b) hydropower facilities brought in service on or after July 1, 2007;

                     (c) other hydropower facilities supplying no greater than the amount of energy from hydropower facilities that were part of an energy supply portfolio prior to July 1, 2007;

                     (d) fuel cells that do not use fossil fuels to create electricity;

                     (e) biomass resources, limited to agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber, not to exceed eight inches, salt cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico; provided that these resources are from facilities certified by the energy, minerals and natural resources department to: 1) be of appropriate scale to have sustainable feedstock in the near vicinity; 2) have zero life cycle carbon emissions; and 3) meet scientifically determined restoration, sustainability and soil nutrient principles; [and]

                     (f) landfill gas and anaerobically digested waste biomass; and

                     (g) nuclear facilities that use nuclear reactions, whether through nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, to produce heat that drives power conversion systems and do not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases during electricity generation; and

                (2) does not include electric energy generated by use of fossil fuel [or nuclear energy];

          E. "useful thermal energy" means renewable energy delivered from a source that can be metered and that is delivered in the state to an end user in the form of direct heat, steam or hot water or other thermal form that is used for heating, cooling, humidity control, process use or other valid end-use energy requirements and for which fossil fuel or electricity would otherwise be consumed;

          F. "zero carbon resource" means an electricity generation resource that emits no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or that reduces methane emitted into the atmosphere in an amount equal to no less than one-tenth of the tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, as a result of electricity production; and

          G. "zero carbon resource standard" means providing New Mexico rural electric cooperative retail customers with electricity generated from one hundred percent zero carbon resources."

     SECTION 2. Section 62-16-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2004, Chapter 65, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "62-16-3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Renewable Energy Act:

          A. "commission" means the public regulation commission;

          B. "energy storage" means batteries or other means by which energy can be retained and delivered as electricity for use at a later time;

          C. "municipality" means a municipal corporation, organized under the laws of the state, and H class counties;

          D. "public utility" means an entity certified by the commission to provide retail electric service in New Mexico pursuant to the Public Utility Act but does not include rural electric cooperatives;

          E. "reasonable cost threshold" means an average annual levelized cost of sixty dollars ($60.00) per megawatt-hour at the point of interconnection of the renewable energy resource with the transmission system, adjusted for inflation after 2020;

          F. "renewable energy" means electric energy

generated by use of renewable energy resources and delivered to a public utility;

          G. "renewable energy certificate" means a certificate or other record, in a format approved by the commission, that represents all the environmental attributes from one megawatt-hour of electricity generated from renewable energy;

          H. "renewable energy resource" means the following energy resources, with or without energy storage:

                (1) solar, wind and geothermal;

                (2) hydropower facilities brought in service on or after July 1, 2007;

                (3) biomass resources, limited to agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber, not to exceed eight inches, salt cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico; provided that these resources are from facilities certified by the energy, minerals and natural resources department to:

                     (a) be of appropriate scale to have sustainable feedstock in the near vicinity;

                     (b) have zero life cycle carbon emissions; and

                     (c) meet scientifically determined restoration, sustainability and soil nutrient principles;

                (4) fuel cells that do not use fossil fuels to create electricity; [and]

                (5) landfill gas and anaerobically digested waste biogas; and

                (6) nuclear facilities that use nuclear reactions, whether through nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, to produce heat that drives power conversion systems and do not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases during electricity generation;

          I. "renewable portfolio standard" means the minimum percentage of retail sales of electricity by a public utility to electric consumers in New Mexico that is required by the Renewable Energy Act to be from renewable energy;

          J. "renewable purchased power agreement" means an agreement that binds an entity generating power from renewable energy resources to provide power at a specified price and binds the purchaser to that price;

          K. "zero carbon resource" means an electricity generation resource that emits no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or that reduces methane emitted into the atmosphere in an amount equal to no less than one-tenth of the tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, as a result of electricity production; and

          L. "zero carbon resource standard" means providing New Mexico public utility customers with electricity generated from one hundred percent zero carbon resources."

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