Lea County commissioners may vote next week to approve up to $134 billion in industrial revenue bonds for a 1,890-acre hyperscale Google data center on Hobbs’ outskirts.
Google officials, in their first public appearance in Southern New Mexico, held town halls in Lovington, Tatum and Hobbs on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the project, which is similar in size to the 1,400-acre Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa. That development secured $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds from Doña Ana County.
Google said ground work will begin in 2027, and construction will continue through 2030.
While Google touted its potential to generate over 1,000 construction jobs and “substantial” tax revenue for the county, and proposed an $18 million housing fund, critics said the company had few answers to attendees’ questions, and the town halls didn’t feel like a meaningful attempt for the technology giant to engage with the community.
“The meetings were hosted to ensure every member of Lea County had an opportunity to speak directly to members of the Google team and get their questions answered,” Google said in a statement provided by spokesperson Leslie Schuman.
Courtesy Clayburn Griffin
Clayburn Griffin, a business owner in Lovington, is pushing for a six-month data center moratorium in Lea County.
Project opponents had called for independent experts to respond to their concerns about water and energy use, said Griffin, who attended all three events, but commissioners instead set up the Google town halls.
“We knew it was going to be a Google PR event, which was not what we were asking for,” Griffin said in an interview Wednesday. “… The commission said that they would be transparent, but they obviously have not been fair in this process.”
Lea County commissioners did not immediately respond to The New Mexican‘s requests for comment Wednesday.
The Hobbs meeting at the Lea County Event Center — set up like a science fair, with multiple information booths for various topics — prevented any kind of public conversation, Griffin added.
Notably, deputies from the Lea County Sheriff’s Office attended the town halls, including a sizable group at the Lovington event.
Members of Protect Lea County, an organization that opposes the data center project, were told they could not bring clipboards, petitions or pamphlets inside the building, attendee Pam Keller said, adding people also were not permitted to film Google representatives’ responses to questions.
A Google spokesperson denied attendees were prohibited from recording the events.
In its flyer distributed at the meetings, Google said: “We will continue to listen, learn and support our local communities wherever we operate.”
Courtesy Clayburn Griffin
Google representatives at the town hall framed the newly dubbed “Project Rancho” as a “potential” data center, which would “power the essential technology that America relies on daily, from emergency 911 systems and electronic health records, to local small business operations and digital classrooms.”
The project would be developed on county land under an option-to-purchase agreement with Excelsior Hobbs Power LLC, a company created for the project with ties to private equity firm Excelsior Energy Capital.
Excelsior Energy would be responsible for constructing a 2-gigawatt solar field three miles away to help power the data center, a fueling decision few data center developers in New Mexico have turned to so far.
For the 125 to 130 full-time positions that eventually would be offered at the site, one Google representative said the salaries would be between $85,000 and $100,000. And Google pledged to cover 100% of its energy costs, replenish more water to the community than the data center will consume, and “utilize high-tech, low-noise equipment and sound walls to meet or exceed all noise ordinances.”
Like Project Jupiter, Google said it will use a closed-loop cooling system to recirculate its water, which requires a one-time initial fill of up to 9.7 million gallons. The site will then use roughly 40,000 gallons a day for activities like bathroom and kitchen use — or about 14.6 million gallons a year.
However, asked for specific details on the expected energy consumption, the company’s promises when it comes to water use and timeline for the project, Google representatives were hesitant to provide official statements.
Courtesy Clayburn Griffin
Lorraine Villegas, a member of Protect Lea County, spoke about the county’s consideration of up to $134 billion in industrial revenue bonds for the project: “They want us to pay for it, but we don’t even know what they’re doing or how they’re going to do it,” she said in a statement. “… If they can’t find the decency to properly inform us, then I think the $3 trillion company is fully capable of funding itself.”
“Just having Google sales pitches for the community is not a democratic way to go about this. And I think people deserve to have their voices heard,” Griffin said. “For that to happen, we need to have, first of all, a moratorium to give us more time on this … and then actual proper town halls set up so that the community can come out and discuss this issue.”
Clayburn has collected almost 900 signatures in favor of a six-month data center moratorium, which he plans to bring to commissioners at a special meeting scheduled Thursday. The only items on the agenda were certification of the canvass for the Nov. 3 election and an executive session to discuss potential real estate transactions.
Courtesy leacountydatacenter.com
The commission’s next regular meeting is scheduled Nov. 19. An agenda for the meeting is not yet available.
Data center moratoriums have been proliferating nationwide as controversy grows over the facilities. Santa Fe, Socorro, Sierra and Grant counties have already passed moratoriums.
“A lot of commissioners continue to insist that … they’re not hearing a lot from people opposed to the data center, and that’s just not the reality here,” Griffin said. “Most people … are opposed to data centers, and so we’re hoping that by showing them that we’ve gotten so many people coming out and signing these petitions, that this is the side of this issue that the community is on. Hopefully, they’ll listen to that and consider putting [a moratorium item] on the agenda.”
Julia Gentin is a reporter for The Las Cruces New Mexican, The Santa Fe New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico through a partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. She covers the Southern New Mexico region. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
