by Joshua Bowling for Source New Mexico
New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard this week again shot down a proposal to build part of a natural gas pipeline for the controversial Project Jupiter data center on state land.
While Project Jupiter’s developers have backed off their initial proposal to power the OpenAI and Oracle data center with two natural gas plants, documents included with their latest air quality permit application show that the fuel cells they plan to use rely on “a robust natural gas pipeline system.”
New Mexico Environment Department officials plan to hold a public hearing on the air quality permit application associated with the proposed fuel cells, but have not yet scheduled it.
Garcia Richard, a Democrat in the running to replace Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver as the party’s lieutenant governor nominee for the Nov. 3 election, initially denied the request to build a portion of the pipeline, named the “Green Chile Project” in federal regulatory filings, in March. The Dallas-based company Energy Transfer asked her to reconsider and in a Tuesday letter, she informed the company she was again denying their request.
The project will “undoubtedly” benefit Project Jupiter’s investors, developers and tenants but does not appear to provide significant benefits for state lands, Garcia Richard wrote, adding that the proposed fuel cells would still produce high amounts of air pollution.
“The burden that the project will impose on New Mexico’s water and other natural resources, and on the surrounding community, is extreme,” she wrote. “At a time when New Mexico needs to stop the out-of-control acceleration of climate change, literally doubling down on dangerous emissions is irresponsible and incompatible with NMSLO’s mission.”
Garcia Richard’s letter specifies that Energy Transfer has 30 days to appeal her decision.
In an email to Source NM, an Energy Transfer spokesperson did not say whether the company plans to appeal.
“We continue to work through the permitting requirements as we move the project forward,” the spokesperson wrote.
An Oracle spokesperson in an email to Source NM said the development will “dramatically change the economic trajectory across the state” and said the company aims to have carbon-free energy “cover 100% of the electricity used by our AI data centers” by 2035.
“We’re creating 4,000 construction jobs — with more than 440 New Mexican residents already working on site today — 1,500 ongoing project-supported jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the community, including $50 million to improve and repair Doña Ana County’s water system,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our cooling and fuel cell energy systems’ average annual water usage is less than what nine U.S. households use in a year, and our new power strategy significantly reduces emissions compared to our prior power plan…The project remains on-schedule, and we continue to work closely with our partners and New Mexico’s public officials to move Project Jupiter forward.”