Compare versions
--- version:introduced version+++ version:(document, no version)@@ -1,198 +1,21 @@-SENATE BILL 78--57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026--INTRODUCED BY--Anthony L. Thornton and Meredith A. Dixon and John Block--and Cathrynn N. Brown and Nicole Tobiassen--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."--- 7 -+FIFTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE+SECOND SESSION, 2026+February 4, 2026+Mr. President:+Your COMMITTEES' COMMITTEE, to whom has been referred+ SENATE BILL 78+has had it under consideration and finds same to be GERMANE,+pursuant to Senate Executive Message Number 59, and thence referred+to the CONSERVATION COMMITTEE.+Respectfully submitted,+___________________________________+Mimi Stewart, Chair+Adopted_______________________ Not Adopted_______________________+ (Chief Clerk) (Chief Clerk)+ Date ________________________+The roll call vote was 7 For 0 Against+Yes: Campos, Duhigg, Padilla, Sharer, Stefanics, Wirth, Woods+No: 0+Excused: Brantley, Cervantes, Muñoz, Stewart+Absent: None+SB0078CC1.wpd
Diffs are computed deterministically from extracted bill text and show additions, deletions, and section moves. Scanned-PDF text extracted via OCR is flagged where confidence is low; see methodology.