The last few days have brought several blows for a hyperscale data center under construction in the Southern New Mexico desert.
The New Mexico Supreme Court issued orders Sunday to pause state regulatory proceedings for critical water use and air quality permits for the massive Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County, throwing into question the timeline of its accelerated construction, which is well underway.
Both orders came in response to petitions from environmental groups alleging a lack of due process.
Meanwhile, an attorney appointed as a hearing officer in a New Mexico Environment Department proceeding for the project’s proposed air quality permit has removed himself from the case after critics alleged several contentious rulings he issued showed he is biased toward the developers.
The actions come as many elected officials throughout New Mexico have become more vocally critical of Project Jupiter, raising concerns about projected emissions and water use, in part due to recent revelations about the use of millions of gallons of fresh water for the data center’s construction in recent months.
Screenshot from STACK Infrastructure video
A spokesperson for technology company Oracle said the data center’s partners “remain committed to developing Project Jupiter responsibly.”
“We are committed to protecting New Mexico’s resources, are abiding by every applicable regulatory process and public review period, and have complied with every required timeline along the way,” Oracle spokesperson Calin Gunn said in a statement Monday.
Gunn noted the company will comply with the Supreme Court’s orders, but it was not clear Monday what effect that would have on construction.
Recent drone videos of the Project Jupiter site near Santa Teresa show a bustling construction zone with enormous structures.
Permit pauses
The state’s high court on Sunday evening granted stays in connection with two Project Jupiter permit requests: the air quality permit pending before the Environment Department and a water use permit already granted by the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer.
Attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy organization, have argued the state engineer violated New Mexico law by granting Project Jupiter an emergency permit to drill a new well and to use water rights for construction that previously had been permitted for agriculture without holding a hearing on the issue.
Since April, a new well drilled by Project Jupiter developers has pumped more than 103 million gallons of fresh water, according to meter readings the group obtained from the State Engineer’s Office.
One of the Supreme Court orders will halt the pumping of water, at least temporarily, from the new well. The court order halted the permit “until further order of the court.”
Colin Cox, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the group was “thrilled” the court has blocked the project’s water permit, which he called “unlawful.”
“Our precious fresh water is safe from this wildly unpopular mega data center,” Cox said. “New Mexico has strict laws to protect our water that must be enforced. No company is above the law.”
The hyperscale data center — which is planned to run on a natural gas fuel cell plant — has been under construction for months while a proposed air quality permit has been pending before the Environment Department. The permit would allow the plant to produce more than 10 million tons of greenhouse gas, measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, per year. Developers have pushed for a decision on the permit by November, a timeline that appears to be in question after the court halted the proceeding.
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the Santa Fe advocacy group New Energy Economy, called the court’s order an “extraordinary and necessary intervention” and a “significant victory for due process and meaningful public participation.”
Screenshot from STACK Infrastructure video
“The public was being railroaded through a process designed to move at extraordinary speed while opponents were denied the tools necessary to test the Applicant’s claims,” Nanasi said in a statement Sunday evening. “That sequence of events raises grave questions about political pressure and whether this process was being driven toward a predetermined result instead of a search for the truth. We have challenged that conduct in court because no Governor, no agency, and no politically favored project is above the Constitution.”
Nanasi noted the hearing officer in the air quality permit proceeding accelerated the timeline for a public hearing and denied requests for discovery. She had argued in a petition to the Supreme Court the overall effect of these decisions was a denial for “the meaningful opportunity to be heard that due process requires.”
Gunn, Oracle’s spokesperson, argued in a statement the Environment Department’s permitting process “includes a thorough technical review, with many opportunities for public input at every stage in the process.”
“Project Jupiter is meeting applicable permitting requirements, stands ready to proceed with the department’s public hearing process, and is engaging with the community as that review moves forward,” Gunn wrote.
A self-recusal
Hearing officer Max Shepherd, an attorney, filed an order Saturday recusing himself from the case.
The recusal came in response to requests from several people for Shepherd to be disqualified. Attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center said last week Shepherd should be disqualified, alleging his reversals in the case displayed a “pattern of bias” toward Project Jupiter in alignment with an agenda of the Environment Department and the governor.
Shepherd did not elaborate on his recusal, writing in the order only that it was “effective immediately.”
A spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham indicated the governor’s support of Project Jupiter has not waned, writing in an email the administration “remains committed to a permitting process that is lawful, thorough and fair to all parties, and we will continue to evaluate the project through proper regulatory channels within whatever new timeline the Court sets.”
“Throughout the permitting process, state agencies followed the timelines and procedures required by law, as they must for every project seeking permits in New Mexico,” spokesperson Leah March added. “We respect the Court’s ruling and will comply fully with its orders as the case proceeds.”
Growing opposition
Many other elected officials — in New Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S. — have grown more skeptical of new data center developments as public pushback against such facilities has increased.
State Rep. Sarah Silva, D-Las Cruces, in an editorial published Monday in El Paso Matters, encouraged Project Jupiter developers to “abandon their plans, pack their things and leave Doña Ana County for good,” citing “dishonesty, broken promises and threats.”
State Sen. Joe Cervantes, another Las Cruces Democrat, posted a message Monday on the social media site X praising the state Supreme Court for pausing Project Jupiter’s permits.
“With the unprecedented graft and influence peddling today in state government, and an often acquiescent legislative branch, kudos to the Supreme Court for upholding the law as a third branch,” Cervantes wrote.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury called a news conference Monday afternoon to share her concerns over the use of water by Project Jupiter. Stansbury submitted letters to several state officials requesting information about the project’s proposed water use, an analysis of the potential impacts and its compliance requirements under the Rio Grande Compact, she noted.
While Project Jupiter’s developers have maintained the planned switch to fuel cells for energy — as opposed to natural gas turbines — will make the data center’s water use “negligible,” Stansbury called on state officials to provide the public with more information.
“I think that New Mexicans have been loud and clear that they do not want data centers in their backyard, and they certainly don’t want large new industrial uses that are going to threaten the water supply, the air quality, and the well-being of our communities,” Stansbury said. “And I think that this project has raised so much public concern that it will be very difficult for most New Mexicans to support any kind of large-scale data center going forward, unless something changes significantly.”
