Accountability.
Transparency.
Mitigation.
These words echoed throughout the 2 and a half hour legislative listening session held last week regarding Project Jupiter.
“We have seen the lack of transparency and respect in the public meetings that have been held on behalf of Project Jupiter,” said State Senator Carrie Hamblen. “We have seen the overwhelming community opposition to Project Jupiter while construction continues ignoring the community’s concerns and requests, and we have seen public trust destroyed and voices silenced.”
Hamblen hosted the session with State Senators Joseph Cervantes, Bill Soules and Jeff Steinborn. She said they hoped to provide a venue for the public to directly address state agency leaders involved in the development of Project Jupiter; however, none of them showed up.
But nearly 400 community members did, and they filled the third-floor ballroom of NMSU’s Corbett Center.
People lined up behind the microphone for public comment, one of which was Bob Divan, who used his two minutes to express skepticism about recent Project Jupiter commercials.
“Seeing the Project Jupiter ads we’re being flooded with – the videos now – I get the distinct impression that this project will sip no more water than a lizard licking the morning dew off of a yucca,” Divan said. “Make no more noise than a snoring jack rabbit and will be powered by mysterious fuel cells that look like bottles of Icelandic artisanal water. And yet, this is the key to New Mexico’s future.”
According to an announcement made by Oracle on Aug. 11, they plan to partner up with Arable to conserve over 20 times more water than is needed to run Project Jupiter.
Daisy Maldonado, who won the Democratic primary for Doña Ana County Commission District 1, wanted to know Project Jupiter’s water usage during the construction phase. She said she got a meter reading from the emergency well drilled specifically for this project, and it reported using 227-acre feet of water from April 24 to June 30.
“That is a total of 74 million gallons of water in 2 and a half months for construction,” Maldonado said. “We don’t have meter readings prior to April. So, how much water have they actually taken and drawn from our aquifer?”
While opposition to Project Jupiter in the room was strong, Dr. Adam Amador challenged the senators to take responsibility for their role in all of this.
“The people in Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, the colonias … they’ve been poor forever,” Amador said. “They don’t have sewage, they don’t have running water, they don’t have good water. That’s on you guys. That has nothing to do with Project Jupiter.”
Despite the growing concerns of the public, the construction of data centers continues. How do legislators plan to move forward?
Hamblen is proposing a statewide moratorium in the 2027 legislative session. It would stop the development of future data centers but have no impact on the continuation of Project Jupiter.
Cervantes wants to go a step further.
“We’re trying to figure out whether a moratorium could be adopted that could stop or halt the project in its tracks right now,” he said.
Steinborn plans to reintroduce his Microgrid Oversight Act.
It would require the private microgrid used to power Project Jupiter to be regulated by the state, creating transparency on its environmental impact and ensuring it meets the same clean energy benchmarks as other public utilities.
Earlier this year, the Microgrid Oversight Act failed to pass in the house, members of which were not invited to the listening session, according to Hamblen.
Lennie Dupass, a first-year NMSU student who plans to go into law, took note of this.
“It is interesting to hear Senator Joseph Cervantes talk about how the bill died in the house, and then for Carrie Hamblen to say in the same vein, ‘We did not invite any representatives to be here tonight,’” Dupass said. “Which is kind of crazy.”
Cervantes denied rumors of him having secret meetings with members of Project Jupiter but said he doesn’t mind getting “cozy” with other parties, including El Paso Electric.
While these may be rumors, community member Taylor Axtell expressed distrust in what may be happening behind the scenes, especially with the Board of County Commissioners.
“What I am asking is can we bring the state auditor before us again to this county to investigate every single level of this project, every single elected official and appointed official on every single level,” Axtell said.
Anyone who didn’t speak at the session was encouraged to submit questions by writing them on a notecard or submitting them online. Submissions are closed, but Hamblen said these questions would be followed up by staff and compiled over the next couple of weeks.
Serena Johnson is a fellow with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms across New Mexico. Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org.
