Once again, county chambers filled up with Project Jupiter employees as Oracle and Bloom Energy representatives were set to give commissioners an update on the massive AI data center campus.
“At Oracle we are committed to building responsible data centers, being good neighbors where we grow our business,” said Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Executive Vice President, Mahesh Thiagarajan.
He said being a “good neighbor” for Oracle means they will create jobs, protect the environment, invest in community, empower future generations and take accountability.
Since the last presentation Thiagarajan gave in July, he said total construction jobs have increased by 34%, there are 988 New Mexicans working onsite; 466 of those from Doña Ana County.
During the presentation, Thiagarajan announced that Oracle has released a request for proposal for 2 GW of new carbon-free energy generation. He said that Oracle is committed to match 100% of the site's energy with carbon-free energy.
He also said that Oracle will provide up to $1 million in funding for carbon capture and sequestration research in New Mexico. The research will look into decarbonization solutions that could be implemented in Project Jupiter and Bloom Energy fuel cells.
Commissioner Susie Kimble questioned the transparency of Oracle, saying that it was really hard to trust the information that was being provided about the noise pollution and their energy strategy.
“You’re here every day that you come trying to tell us trust me, trust me. That's a little hard to do," Kimble said.
Thiagarajan said Project Jupiter will be the most transparent data centers in the country, promising that once the data center starts operating, Oracle will provide information for air, heat, water, noise, and light and make the reports available on their dashboards.
He also said independent third-party experts will also review the data centers' operations, monitor the equipment, and validate any data that is gathered. These reports will be made public and will be available through the county's Project Jupiter committee.
Thiagarajan also listed the ways Oracle will be held accountable, not only through the transparency act, where they will make data freely available to the public; they will also follow the New Mexico Environment Department’s permit guidelines and be held accountable with the soon to be formed community committee.
“So, if I think about this as a layer of cheese of protection there's four layers of cheese to ensure the rat doesn't escape that what you guys are building around me and I'm committing to it because I'm very confident about what I'm building,” he said.
Support for the project came from union representatives and members currently employed and working on the data centers construction. Many in attendance were wearing green safety vests including Bonnie Hidalgo, who said she and her husband work for the project's general contractor.
Project Jupiter was a good investment that will strengthen the county's financial stability, Hidalgo said.
“This project also brought my husband home. So, when my children can look up from the field or school event and see both dad and mom sitting in the stands, that memory is forever," she said.
With support comes opposition as well.
Sunland Park resident Irene Rodriguez said that she has spoken to many residents from Santa Teresa who do not support the data center. She said that the blank pages and missing information in the initial Industrial Revenue Bond proposal should have raised red flags for commissioners.
“New Mexico Supreme Court is seeing it. What's going on with you? We are seeing it, the residents aren't seeing it,” she said.
Rodriguez said this referring to the stay on Yucca Growth Infrastructure’s air-quality permit by the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Commissioners will appoint members for the Project Jupiter Community Monitoring committee at the next BOCC meeting, September 22.
