COMMENTARY:
On September 19, the Doña Ana County Commission approved an eye-popping $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds for Project Jupiter’s new data center. Buried in that deal is $15 billion for a massive natural gas power plant—a facility that would emit more greenhouse gases than all of El Paso Electric’s power generation in New Mexico and Texas.
For a state that once prided itself on passing the Energy Transition Act (ETA) in 2019, this raises a troubling question: has New Mexico given up on its climate commitments?
Climate change is not some distant threat. It is already reshaping New Mexico with hotter summers, prolonged drought, shrinking water supplies, and more destructive wildfires. These impacts fall hardest on low-income, rural, and Indigenous communities. Approving a project that locks in decades of fossil fuel emissions is not just shortsighted—it’s reckless.
Project Jupiter insists it complies with the ETA. But that’s only because of an exemption in 2025’s House Bill 93, which reclassifies microgrid power as “non-retail” until 2035. This legal sleight of hand allows fossil generation to sidestep renewable standards. Promises of “net zero by 2045” ring hollow when the state is greenlighting one of the largest new sources of emissions in its history.
Supporters point to the project’s promise of 750 permanent jobs and a 10-year public net benefit of $641 million, as listed in the NM Economic Development Department’s October 12th report. But this ignores the environmental and financial harm from the gas plant. The report says the gas plant will be 1200 megawatts, which would output 4.66 million metric tons of CO2 annually (if run at 90%, as is typical for data centers). The EPA added CO2 impacts on agriculture, health effects, natural disasters, and other costs in 2023 to quantify the financial impact of CO2 emissions as $130 per metric ton, putting the plant’s 10-year climate damages at over $6 billion. That’s nearly ten times the projected economic benefit. And that figure doesn’t even include other pollutants like nitrogen oxides, methane, and particulate matter, which worsen air quality and respiratory health in a region already failing to meet federal standards.
Fortunately for all of us, cheaper alternatives exist. Utility-scale solar paired with battery storage is now less expensive than new gas plants, faster to build, and perfectly suited to New Mexico’s abundant land and sunshine. Instead of doubling down on fossil fuels, the state could be leading the way in clean energy innovation.
New Mexico stands at a crossroads. It can either honor its clean energy commitments and protect its communities from worsening climate impacts—or it can chase short-term economic gains at the expense of its future.
If the gas plant proceeds despite public opposition, the very least the county and state should demand from Project Jupiter is a large-scale solar and storage build-out to reduce the plant’s emissions by reducing how much it needs to run.
New Mexico cannot afford to mortgage its climate future. The stakes are too high, and the costs—economic, environmental, and human—are far too great.
Phil Simpson retired from the Army Research Laboratory at White Sands Missile Range in 2017, and since then has intervened in multiple El Paso Electric cases at the NM Public Regulation Commission. Simpson has degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Economics (with a concentration in Public Utilities Regulation and Economics).
Phil Simpson's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.