Who turned the lights out?

Increasing extreme weather events and an abundance of caution have Public Service Company of New Mexico warning power outages could be more frequent as the utility hopes to prevent wildfire.

The utility held a meeting last week in Santa Fe to discuss wildfire risk and the possibility of public safety shutoffs — planned outages to reduce the risk of powerline-caused wildfires during periods of intense weather. PNM used the preventive measure for the first time in April in Las Vegas, N.M.

There's good reason to be cautious.

A 2025 paper on the impact of wildfire on the electric grid in a changing climate says wildfires caused by power lines are often "larger and more devastating." The paper was co-authored by Sandia National Laboratories Electric Power System

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