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HOUSE BILL 327
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Randall T. Pettigrew and Jimmy G. Mason and Jonathan A. Henry
and Mark B. Murphy
AN ACT
RELATING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY; AMENDING THE RURAL ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVE ACT AND THE RENEWABLE ENERGY ACT TO INCLUDE NATURAL
GAS USING COMBINED CYCLE TECHNOLOGY IN THE DEFINITION OF
"RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCE".
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;
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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 and
natural gas using combined cycle technology ;
(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
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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
(2) does not include electric energy generated
by use of fossil fuel or nuclear energy, except for natural gas
using combined cycle technology ;
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
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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;
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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 and natural
gas using combined cycle technology ;
(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
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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;
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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