近距离内射合集

LAS CRUCES 鈥� A majority of Do帽a Ana County commissioners leaned Tuesday in favor of creating a citizen-led community monitoring committee focused on the Oracle/OpenAI data center under construction in Santa Teresa.

Construction on the data center, known as Project Jupiter, began in September and is projected to begin its first phase of operations in 2028.

At a work session, county resident Lynn Moorer detailed a proposal she said was modeled on similar committees in Pennsylvania and Nebraska with which she had worked as an environmental consultant prior to her legal career.

鈥淭he local monitoring committee provided a very valuable function and served admirably to inform citizens, elected representatives, news media and the public at large,鈥� she said.

Moorer envisioned an 11-member committee appointed by commissioners, with members from each commissioner鈥檚 district, free from financial ties involving the project, and representing different points of view on the project鈥檚 merits.

Each meeting would focus on a specific topic 鈥� for example, the data center鈥檚 water usage 鈥� and feature presentations by independent experts as well as invited representatives of Project Jupiter鈥檚 builders and developers: Oracle, Stack Infrastructure and Bloom Energy in particular.

The proposal also called for meetings to take place in locations around the county and near the project site, with Spanish translation to maximize participation.

Several residents spoke in favor of establishing the committee. Absent were the project鈥檚 most prominent and vocal opponents, who have regularly appeared at meetings to call for repealing ordinances supporting the project, criticizing county officials for supporting the data center and for a process they described as rushed and dismissive of concerned community members. 

Jim Hoerst, a local resident who has frequently spoken in support of the project, said he, too, supported the proposed committee as a venue for gathering and promoting facts and combating misinformation.

鈥淪ome people have no grasp of the basic facts,鈥� Hoerst argued. 鈥淯nfortunately, the media has not been effective in communicating the facts. If there were a commission that could determine facts, that would go a long way to helping the citizens make the right decisions.鈥�

Moorer emphasized the importance that the committee be independent yet urged commissioners to attend meetings and ask their own questions. The commissioners and Deputy County Attorney Alonzo Maestas said they would need to avoid a quorum of the members discussing public business outside of a legally noticed commissioners鈥� meeting.

Commissioner Susana Chaparro said such a committee would have been useful before the commissioners acted on industrial revenue bonds and other tax incentives supporting the project.

Chaparro was the lone vote on the body against those incentives in September because, as she argued at the time, the commissioners and the public had not been provided with sufficient information about the project or granted more time, as developers threatened to move the project to another state if votes on incentives were delayed.

The one commissioner who was not on the body when Project Jupiter incentives were approved, Susie Kimble, also welcomed the role of the committee. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unemotional, it鈥檚 educational, it鈥檚 supportive of the commission and supportive of the community,鈥� she said. Kimble suggested funding to support the committee could come from funds budgeted for economic development outreach.

鈥淭o me, from a community standpoint, it would serve the companies,鈥� Chairman Manny Sanchez, a supporter of the project, said in welcoming the citizens鈥� committee proposal.

Stephen Lopez, one of three acting county managers appointed after the abrupt departure of County Manager Scott Andrews in July, said commissioners might have a resolution authorizing the group presented to them as soon as next week鈥檚 meeting.

Meanwhile, in Santa Teresa, structures are rapidly taking shape at the building site, yet the project is catching up to procedural hurdles involving how it will be powered.

The builders are currently seeking an air quality permit from the New Mexico Environment Department for a power-generating facility that would incorporate natural gas and fuel cell technology, with a public hearing recently moved up from October to September.

Additionally, the developers have not established how to fuel the microgrid, after the State Land Office twice denied their request to build a pipeline across state trust land to the project.

Algernon 顿鈥橝尘尘补蝉蝉补 is the Journal鈥檚 southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.