News Release

Jan. 11, 2007

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NEWS MEDIA CONTACT Susan Sponar Telephone: (505) 241-2768

PNM Wins National Advocacy Award for
Efforts to Help Low-Income Customers

Albuquerque: An independent panel of public affairs professionals selected PNM to win the EEI Advocacy Excellence Award for its efforts to help low-income customers with winter heating bills.

"We are proud to recognize PNM for enhancing our industry’s ability to continue to serve our customers. The electric utility industry has always been deeply involved in the life of the communities we serve, and EEI created the Advocacy Excellence Award Program to highlight our member companies’ engagement in the public arena,” said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, or EEI, which is the association of United States shareholder-owned electric companies whose members serve 71 percent of all electric utility customers in the nation.

Last year, PNM launched a five-point campaign to protect its customers from potential record-high natural gas prices predicted for the 2005-2006 winter heating season in the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Those efforts included:

• PNM worked with legislators and the Governor to raise awareness of a looming crisis and encourage action. Last year, for the first time, the state sponsored funding of $23 million to supplement the federal funds available through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program known as LIHEAP.
• PNM coordinated with the state’s Department of Human Services to improve processes to help customers get assistance, pre-qualifying past recipients who were in danger of being disconnected, hosting Human Services staff at PNM payment centers so customers could apply more easily, and creating an electronic information-sharing mechanism.
• PNM worked with statewide media to place information about LIHEAP assistance, partnered with the Navajo Nation to co-promote the program in the Navajo language, and partnered with the ABC affiliate KOAT-TV in Albuquerque to create an “Extreme Energy Makeover” promotion, showing viewers how to conserve energy and reduce heating bills.
• PNM funded a customer weatherization program, giving away 20,000 kits in PNM offices statewide. Through the PNM Good Neighbor Fund, more than $700,000 was available to help 5,100 families with their heating bills.
• PNM provided $22,000 to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to help hard-to-reach customers apply for LIHEAP assistance, resulting in more than $83,000 in LIHEAP assistance provided to customers.

“I am proud that we could be effective advocates for our most vulnerable customers. We have a tradition of community involvement at PNM that is very much a part of who we are as a company,” said Jeff Sterba, chairman, president and CEO of PNM Resources, the parent company of PNM.

Sterba said PNM is actively working to help customers this winter because, despite lower natural gas prices, overall heating bills are expected to remain high due to colder weather. He expects natural gas prices to continue to rise for the foreseeable future. Ongoing activities include:

• PNM is encouraging the legislature to consider a long-term funding mechanism to help the estimated 180,000 New Mexican households who may be eligible for LIHEAP funding.
• In October, PNM met with representatives of the New Mexico Human Services Department, the Salvation Army and other helping agencies to discuss client needs this winter, anticipated heating costs and to review the systems in place to share information for those who are applying for help.
• All PNM bills carry a message about LIHEAP and the state moratorium that protects low-income households from being cut-off during the winter months if they are approved for LIHEAP.
• To make sure that everyone who could benefit from LIHEAP assistance is aware of the program, PNM provides funds for ACORN representatives to again help hard-to-reach people at stores, homes, meetings, offices and anywhere they can find potential recipients.
• If a homebound customer in Albuquerque cannot get to a New Mexico Department of Human Services office to apply for LIHEAP, they call PNM and an ACORN worker will come to the person’s home to make the application for them.

This winter PNM introduced its Puppet Pals to provide an additional way for people to contribute to the PNM Good Neighbor Fund. PNM encourages gas customers to take advantage of rebates for energy-saving steps such as installing insulation or purchasing an Energy Star-qualified low flow showerhead, a program made possible by a line item on each residential gas customer’s bill.

The cost of natural gas comprises the largest portion of the heating bill. By state law, PNM passes on the cost of natural gas to its customers without any mark-up.

PNM is a subsidiary of PNM Resources, an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M. PNM provides electric utility service to 426,000 customers and natural gas service to 481,000 customers in New Mexico. The company also sells power on the wholesale market in the West. PNM Resources stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM. For more information, see the company's Web site at PNM.com.