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NM town sues over gas outages this winter

336 days ago

By SUE MAJOR HOLMES
Associated Press

(AP:ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) The town of Bernalillo has sued New Mexico Gas Co., alleging it failed to provide sufficient natural gas supplies and shut off service without reasonable warning when extremely cold weather hit the state in February.

Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres said Wednesday he was frustrated by the response from the company during the gas crisis and has been disappointed by the attitude of company officials since.

"We feel like we were stepped on, frankly, by the gas company," he said.

A lawsuit wasn't his first choice, but he and town councilors felt it was the only way to get their concerns addressed, Torres said.

He said he also wonders why communities without wealth or political influence like Bernalillo, Questa, Taos and Espanola were chosen to have their gas cut off.

A spokeswoman for New Mexico Gas Co., Monica Hussey, said Wednesday that company officials have not had a chance to review the lawsuit in detail. "But we believe we have complete defenses to the claims and we intend to assert them in the suit," she said.

Bernalillo's lawsuit, filed Monday in state district court, contends the company did not have an adequate delivery system and did not have enough crews to restore service in a timely way.

The town seeks unspecified damages for lost wages and overtime to its employees, lost revenue from taxpayers and business visitors, the cost of emergency services to citizens and other expenses.

Thousands of New Mexicans were left without natural gas service in early February when temperatures dropped to record and near-record levels throughout the state. It was days before service was restored in many areas, including parts of Bernalillo.

New Mexico Gas Co. officials blamed short supplies caused by frozen gas well heads in West Texas and the shutdown of some power plants, which cut electricity to gas processing stations. At the same time, demand soared from people who needed heat, straining pipelines that serve New Mexico.

The company has said service was disrupted throughout the state _ in Bernalillo, Placitas, Taos, Questa, Red River and parts of Albuquerque, Silver City, Alamogordo, Tularosa and La Luz. Several areas set up emergency shelters.

Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency Feb. 3, ordered government offices shut down and urged schools to close to ease the strain on energy resources. She also encouraged residents to turn down their thermostats, shut off unneeded appliances and bundle up.

Bernalillo is asking that its lawsuit be certified as a class action on behalf of other municipalities and counties where gas service was interrupted.

The gas cutoff led hearings by local officials, state lawmakers and U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman seeking to find out what happened. The 2011 Legislature called for a governmental task force to report to the governor and legislative committees this summer on how to prevent similar outages in the future.

Espanola Mayor Alice Lucero and Taos Mayor Darren Cordova testified before the state Senate that business in their communities ground to a halt after gas was shut off.

Cathy Connelly, spokeswoman for the town of Taos, said Wednesday community leaders are still contemplating what action to take.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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