New Mexico high court upholds deal on coal-fired power plant

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The state Supreme Court has upheld provisions of an environmental law that provides financial arrangements for an electric utility to abandon investments in a coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico.

In a unanimous opinion Monday, the court upheld a finance order from state utility regulators that ends the use of the San Juan Generating Station to generate electricity for the Public Service Company of New Mexico.

The order allows the investor-owned utility to bill $361 million to utility customers as it moves forward with plans to abandon the power plant.

Advocates for utility customers challenged the financial arrangements and the constitutionality of a related 2019 law.