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SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO

NM Supreme Court leaves Project Jupiter permit on hold

Justices deny request from developer to partially lift stay

Entrance to the Project Jupiter construction site in Santa Teresa, seen Aug. 19.
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The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously denied a bid by Project Jupiter’s developers to partially reopen proceedings on an air quality permit application for a massive data center campus under construction in Santa Teresa.

Yucca Growth Infrastructure LLC, the applicant, had filed a motion asking the court to partially vacate its Aug. 23 stay, which paused the process, and allow prehearing filings to move forward.

Yucca Growth Infrastructure counsel did not immediately respond to a query from the Journal.

The public hearing, which would have opened on Sept. 14, is an evidentiary proceeding before an independent hearing examiner to consider air permits for an on-site microgrid power facility that would supply the data center with energy through a methane-powered fuel cell system.

Nonprofit clean energy advocate New Energy Economy argued that the hearing should not proceed because the developer does not have an approved route in place for its natural gas pipeline. The line would supply 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from El Paso across 18 miles of private, federal and state trust land. New Mexico’s State Land Office has denied access to state land for the project and federal approvals remain in process.

Attorneys for Yucca Growth Infrastructure said some prehearing actions were necessary for the New Mexico Environment Department to meet its Nov. 23 deadline for a final decision on the permit. YGI asked the court to allow the Environment Department to file the administrative record and appoint a new hearing officer to succeed Max Shepherd, who recused himself from the case in August.

“If the stay is not partially vacated to allow these filings … the September 14 hearing cannot go forward and must be reset.” The result, YGI argued, would deliver New Energy Economy’s desired outcome without testing the merits in court.

Construction of the center, built for use by Oracle Corp. and OpenAI, began nearly a year ago in Doña Ana County.

“Without a permit decision by November 23, YGI will face indefinite delay in a project already in advanced development,” the developer’s petition stated.

But the court denied the motion in a brief order that did not state its reasoning, with all five justices concurring.

“A developer cannot manufacture an emergency and then use that emergency to strip the public of meaningful participation,” NEE Executive Director Mariel Nanasi said in a statement welcoming the court’s order. “Project Jupiter chose its technology, chose its schedule, and chose to pursue construction while critical governmental approvals remained unresolved. Billions of dollars and powerful corporate interests do not purchase a shortcut around the Constitution.”

The ruling leaves the proceedings in place while the court conducts its review of the hearing process to date. It is not being asked to decide on the permit application itself.

The Journal asked an Environment Department spokesperson if the agency agreed with Yucca Growth’s assertion that without a partial stay, the Nov. 23 deadline could not be met, but did not immediately hear back Tuesday.

Algernon ’A is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.