New Mexico’s dismal winter and hot and dry summer are solidifying the fact that we no longer experience wildfire seasons, we live in wildfire conditions.
New Mexico’s 19 rural electric distribution co-ops understand this risk better than most. Rural electric co-ops serve some of the state’s most remote communities, covering vast territories and maintaining hundreds of miles of infrastructure. Unlike larger investor-owned utilities, co-ops are member-owned and not-for-profit, meaning every dollar spent on rising insurance costs, litigation, or wildfire recovery ultimately comes from the families and businesses we serve.
At Otero County Electric Cooperative, excluding purchased power, more than ten percent of our annual operating budget last year was spent on wildfire mitigation efforts.
We have adopted vegetation management and wildfire mitigation plans to combat increasing fuel loads. We’ve wrapped several miles of transmission poles near Cloudcroft with a fireproof mesh. We’re beginning a major vegetation management project on this same line which, due to terrain and winds, is critical to mitigating impacts of wildfire to populated areas around Cloudcroft. We’re also testing a fault detection system that can quickly identify issues with power lines in the very rural, hard-to-reach areas that we serve, before an outage or potential ignition occurs
Yet, wildfire risk can never be completely mitigated. With hundreds of miles of line in forested areas, we live under the constant threat of catastrophic fires that could cause millions of dollars of damage and leave families, businesses, schools, and hospitals in the dark.
Insurance companies are offering utilities less coverage at ever-increasing premiums. Meanwhile, wildfire costs are skyrocketing across the West, and electric cooperatives are facing billions in liability. That means most electric co-op providers face an existential risk from litigation after a wildfire.
That’s why I recently testified before the state legislature’s Finance Committee on the urgent need to modernize New Mexico’s approach to wildfire liability.
Rural electric co-ops are working every day to reduce risks, and we deserve a framework that will allow us to continue providing safe, reliable and affordable energy to rural communities. We aren’t asking for immunity, and as members of the communities we serve, we believe that utilities that act negligently should be held accountable. We’re asking for a framework that recognizes today’s wildfire risks and ensures co-ops don’t disproportionately bear the costs of catastrophic events.
New Mexico must modernize our liability framework to encourage continued investment in wildfire prevention while ensuring co-ops that act responsibly aren’t exposed to unlimited financial risk from catastrophic events.
When wildfires strike, electric co-ops immediately get to work to restore the power that keeps hospitals running, businesses open, students learning, and families connected. Liability reform would help ensure co-ops can continue investing in mitigation, maintaining reliable service, and keeping rates affordable.
I urge New Mexicans to contact their state legislators and support a balanced wildfire liability framework that promotes proactive utility efforts and provides meaningful liability protection before the next disaster strikes. Nobody wins if a co-op finds themselves in bankruptcy because of wildfire litigation.
Mario Romero is the CEO and General Manager of the Otero County Electric Cooperative
