Scott Brocato:
All right, Bob, let's start with the first story. El Paso in New Mexico set some ambitious climate goals, but their plans didn't account for massive new data centers.
Bob Moore:
We've heard a lot of conversation about the environmental impact of these three big data centers that are planned for our region, but there really hasn't been, up till now, a lot of specifics on what that might mean. And so our reporter Diego Mendoza-Moyers, working on a project that we co-published with the national investigative news organization ProPublica and the Texas Tribune, took a deep dive into the greenhouse gas emissions that would come from the power plants primarily that would provide energy to these data centers.
And the numbers are really eye-popping. The three data centers would emit more than 10 million tons a year of greenhouse gas emissions, which is essentially about double what our current production is. To put it in a way people might understand, these facilities will emit about as much greenhouse gas as two million cars would. So massive, massive change.
But what's particularly interesting is that while the state of New Mexico and the city of El Paso were negotiating with these companies to build these data centers and allow them to go forward, they were both also developing climate action plans that were meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of a global effort to dial back some of the pressures on our climate. None of these plans took into account building big data centers. So it's like these policymakers are pursuing two entirely opposite goals without ever wondering how one would affect the other. So it's an interesting look at the problem. We'll keep diving into this. Data centers are obviously very controversial, very emotional, but we really need to kind of get a better handle on what the actual impacts are.
One other impact that people talk a lot about is air pollution, which are emissions. And so this is different from climate change. And Diego looked into that too. And the natural gas facilities will increase pollution in our region a bit, but not by a lot. But we're already in El Paso, an area that's in non-attainment to federal standards. So sort of any added air pollution will add to challenges for people who have lung issues, for example. We'll keep diving into this, but a really powerful story by Diego Mendoza-Moyers and I really recommend it to people.
Scott Brocato:
And let's move on to El Paso Electric. Their CEO, Kelly Tomblin, retires and a new leader is named.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, so Kelly Tomlin has been the CEO of El Paso Electric since it changed ownership in 2020, when a fund owned by JPMorgan Chase bought the electric company. And obviously, these have been challenging times, both for the electric company and for El Pasoans trying to balance a bunch of competing interests again. We have communities in Dona Ana County and El Paso County that are particularly price-sensitive because of low-income levels, but we also are seeing rapid warming here that requires the electric company to build more and more generating capacity, which in turn then raises rates on taxpayers.
It's been a very interesting challenge. Kelly Tomlin has been the face of the electric company, but she announced her retirement at the end of last week. It'll be effective in November. And at that time, a gentleman named Elicer Viamontes will come in. He's currently an executive at, most recently was an executive at, an electric utility in the Houston area. So he'll be coming out here and taking charge of the electric company, where, among other things, we'll have to deal with these data center issues we're talking about. They are providing power to the metadata center and there's increasing talk that Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa may have to plug in to the El Paso electric grid.
So that'd be interesting to get his view on what's happening here, and we'll be hearing a lot more from him.
Scott Brocato:
And finally, El Paso turns over its third public health director since the pandemic.
Bob Moore:
Yeah, there's a gentleman named Dr. Veerinder Taneja. He had been here just a couple of years. He was hired in 2024 from Fort Worth. This has obviously been a very challenging time for any public health directors in the country. Turnover is not unusual, but he's the third full-time health director who's left since the pandemic in 2020. So El Paso's having a hard time hanging on to those directors. It's obviously an important function. And so now the city is searching for yet another public health director for this really important position.
Scott Brocato:
And where can folks find these stories and more?
Bob Moore:
Stay up to date with all the most important information in our region at ElPasoMatters.org.