PESP responds to FERC staff letter of deficiency in Blackstone-TXNM deal

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) welcomes a letter of deficiencyissued December 23, 2025 by staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding Blackstone’s proposed acquisition of TXNM Energy and its subsidiaries, Public Service Company of New Mexico and Texas-New Mexico Power.

The FERC staff letter requires Blackstone to provide more transparency around critical customer protection measures, specifically addressing cross-subsidization risks and ring-fencing provisions to protect utility customers from potentially being used as a revenue source to benefit Blackstone’s other investments.

“The concern around this and other private equity utility deals centers on whether families and businesses will be protected from private equity’s profit-maximizing playbook, or whether their utility bills will be used to pad returns for the world’s largest alternative asset managers. The letter of deficiency from FERC staff highlights the need for more transparency in these private equity utility takeover deals,” said Alissa Jean Schafer, Climate and Energy Director at PESP.

“The FERC staff is right to demand answers from Blackstone about how it intends to protect ratepayers from subsidizing its massive data center portfolio,” said Jean Su, Energy Justice Director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Vulture capitalists like Blackstone are buying up public utilities and data centers to cash in on the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, and people and the planet will ultimately suffer. These data centers are saddling folks with rising electricity bills while they worsen climate pollution and drain dwindling water resources. FERC shouldn’t rubber stamp deals that undermine critical public functions like our electricity system to turbo-charge corporate profits.”

“Blackstone is seeking control of utilities serving hundreds of thousands of customers across New Mexico and Texas, yet has failed to demonstrate adequate safeguards to prevent ratepayer money from subsidizing private equity’s other ventures,” said Tyson Slocum, Energy Director at Public Citizen. “FERC staff is right to demand answers before this deal moves forward. Regulators at every level should be scrutinizing these proposals and ensuring that consumers are protected.”

The letter came on the heels of growing congressional scrutiny of private equity utility takeovers, with three members of Congress sending letters to Blackstone and BlackRock in December highlighting concerns about the largest financial firms in the world gaining increasing control over America’s energy infrastructure.

PESP, along with Public Citizen and the Center for Biological Diversity, has raised significant concerns about this transaction throughout state regulatory proceedings. The action by FERC staff validates those concerns and underscores the need for robust regulatory oversight when private equity seeks to control critical public infrastructure.

Blackstone must now provide detailed information as requested in the letter to FERC by January 22, 2026, explaining what ring-fencing protections exist to safeguard customers and what specific commitments have been made to state regulators in New Mexico and Texas. The FERC approval is one of several needed for the deal to be finalized.