LAS CRUCES — New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has endorsed two emergency petitions from environmental groups alleging a lack of due process in state regulatory proceedings surrounding the massive data center Project Jupiter.
In Tuesday night filings, Torrez called on the state Supreme Court to cancel permission for an emergency well drilled to construct Project Jupiter and backed a pause in the data center’s air quality permit proceedings.
Plans for the $165 billion hyperscale data center campus — intended to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence for companies like Oracle and OpenAI — have prompted lawsuits and public protest over its environmental impact and lack of transparency. Project Jupiter’s developers argued Tuesday that placing a hold on permitting processes — which the state Supreme Court did twice in late August — only harms New Mexico residents.
The high court put the data center’s air quality permit proceedings on hiatus Aug. 23 following a petition from Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, which alleged due process violations amounting to a “trial by ambush.” New Energy Economy said the hearing officer in the proceeding accelerated the timeline for a public hearing and denied requests for discovery.
Construction is continuing at the site in the Southern New Mexico desert despite the hold.
One of Torrez’s Tuesday night filings backed New Energy Economy’s petition for a stay until the due process issues are resolved, writing that the proceedings thus far create a “high probability that an incorrect and unfair outcome will result.”
“Echoing New Energy Economy’s position, the Attorney General has put his finger on the central absurdity of this proceeding: there is nothing routine about Project Jupiter. There is no comparable facility anywhere in the world,” Mariel Nanasi, executive director of New Energy Economy, said in a statement. “An unprecedented project with unprecedented consequences demands commensurate scrutiny.”
Torrez acknowledged in the filing that Oracle representatives met with the governor’s office July 27, two days before the hearing — originally scheduled for Oct. 19 — was suddenly moved up to Sept. 14.
“The Hearing Officer’s reversal unconstitutionally expedited the timeline of the hearing to such a degree that the now fast-moving permitting matter threatens substantial and irreversible final action where there has not been proper notice or a reasonable opportunity for parties to be heard,” Torrez wrote.
“The New Mexico Constitution mandates that the State’s air be controlled for the maximum benefit of the people. NMED should be required to comport with constitutional due process rather than bending to the self-imposed financial concerns of an applicant,” Torrez concluded.
In its own filing Tuesday, the New Mexico Environment Department opposed New Energy Economy’s petition, asking the court to continue the air quality permit proceedings to meet the agency’s Nov. 23 deadline to approve the permit.
The Environment Department added that decisions by its hearing officer on scheduling and discovery were reasonable, and the public will still get chances to weigh in through testimony, cross-examination and appeals after a decision is made.
A New Mexico Environment Department spokesperson declined to provide further comment Thursday.
Water case
In a separate legal fight before the state Supreme Court over Project Jupiter’s water use, the New Mexico Department of Justice sided with an environmental advocacy organization’s argument that an emergency well aiding the data center’s construction was approved illegally.
The Center for Biological Diversity argued in an emergency petition Aug. 20 that the Office of the State Engineer was in violation of state law requiring a public haring when it authorized the emergency well in October.
Torrez wrote that the Office of the State Engineer’s reliance on an “emergency” provision was unlawful, as “no such emergency exists” to change the well’s location. Torrez also noted the office failed to schedule a timely hearing for challenges to the well’s legality, adding due process demands more.
“The State Engineer may not evade public scrutiny and judicial review indefinitely by ignoring these statutory requirements altogether. Yet that is precisely what she has done here,” the filing reads.
Torrez called for the State Engineer to “immediately schedule a hearing before approving any further use of groundwater to support construction of Project Jupiter,” and for the state Supreme Court to grant the Center of Biological Diversity’s petition and remove the emergency authorization for the well.
“The New Mexico Attorney General’s extraordinary filing in support of our claims underscores how blatantly the Office of the State Engineer erred by handing our precious fresh water over to Project Jupiter,” Colin Cox, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
“We brought this case to rein in this rogue agency and ensure our state’s robust water laws are upheld,” he added.
Santa Teresa Capital, the company that drilled the emergency replacement well, has pumped more than 100 million gallons of groundwater since data became available in April 2026, according to Torrez’s response.
Attorneys for Santa Teresa Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Their own filings with the state Supreme Court opposed the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition. So did filings by the Office of the State Engineer.
“The Attorney General claims that sales to Project Jupiter represent a change in the use of the water right. But the water right has been permitted for water sales to construction projects in the Santa Teresa area for decades,” Nat Chakeres, general counsel for the Office of the State Engineer, wrote in an email Thursday.
Chakeres added: “The OSE administrative hearings provide robust due process protections, and all challenges to the OSE’s actions will be given a full and fair hearing.”
Torrez noted the case carries extra weight given New Mexico’s requirement to reduce groundwater pumping in the Lower Rio Grande Basin under the terms of a U.S. Supreme Court consent decree issued in May of this year.
Julia Gentin is a reporter for 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.
