近距离内射合集

SANTA TERESA 鈥� Less than a month before a hearing over an air quality permit for Project Jupiter in Do帽a Ana County, clean energy advocate New Energy Economy filed an emergency writ Wednesday asking the state Supreme Court to consider whether the hearing should proceed.

The petition asks New Mexico鈥檚 high court for a temporary stay and an order halting the proceedings, scheduled to open Sept. 14, arguing the start date denies opponents their right to investigate technical evidence and prepare their case.

Project Jupiter is a complex of four data centers with an office campus and microgrid power-generating facilities that began construction last September. The facility, claiming 1,400 acres of land along a crucial state highway, is planned for Oracle Corp. and OpenAI to use for AI training capacity.

The New Mexico Environment Department is considering an air quality permit application, filed by Yucca Growth Infrastructure, for methane-powered fuel cell technology that would cause carbon dioxide emissions exceeding the combined annual emissions of Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, based on those cities鈥� published greenhouse gas inventories.

According to  recently submitted to Do帽a Ana County, the builders have already spent $144.5 million on preliminary work for the microgrid facilities, bringing them to 10% completion as of June 30. However, the microgrid is facing procedural hurdles that have led opponents to question whether the air permit can legally move forward.

Pipeline builder Energy Transfer proposed a natural gas line extending nearly 18 miles from El Paso, Texas, across a mix of private, federal and a short stretch of state trust land. Referred to as the Green Chili Lateral, the line was to supply Project Jupiter with 400 million cubic feet of gas per day.

The State Land Office has twice rejected a business lease and rights-of-way through state land, and it is not clear whether the decision will lead to an appeal or a rerouting of the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the route through federally managed lands is undergoing a contested process before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where Energy Transfer in recent filings has moved the pipeline鈥檚 beginning of service from the end of this month into 2027.

New Energy Economy, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit, has argued that the complications with the pipeline mean the data center has no established fuel source and that the permit is not ready for consideration.

On Aug. 5, NMED鈥檚 hearing examiner, Max Shepherd, ordered Yucca Growth to submit a brief in response to NEE鈥檚 motion for dismissal of the application 鈥� only to reverse himself five days later and rule that the question be addressed during the hearing instead.

That was one in a series of self-reversals by the hearing examiner that NEE argued has thwarted a fair hearing.

First, Shepherd ruled in July that the hearing would begin Oct. 19, despite the developers鈥� request for a speedier process, only to move the hearings up to Sept. 14, days later. That cut time needed for opponents to review technical records and for expert witnesses to prepare testimony by an Aug. 24 deadline, NEE said.

Earlier this month, Shepherd reversed his own decision that opponents, including NEE, were entitled to review evidence pertaining to the scientific and engineering soundness of the microgrid. NEE鈥檚 petition argues that for due process to prevail, technical witnesses must have 鈥渁 fair opportunity to discover and test the facts before being required to render sworn opinions.鈥�

Moreover, the petition complains that Shepherd allowed the NMED to produce the full administrative record on Aug. 24 鈥� the deadline for challengers鈥� technical testimony.

Shepherd did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

鈥淭his process has been turned upside down,鈥� NEE Executive Director Mariel Nanasi said in a written statement. 鈥淥ur experts are being told to testify first and learn the facts later. We are denied discovery. We do not get NMED鈥檚 thousands-of-pages administrative record until the very day our expert testimony is due. And if Project Jupiter suddenly unveils a new gas-supply plan, new engineering assumptions or new technical evidence, we are apparently expected to discover it at the hearing and cross-examine on the fly. That is not due process. It is trial by ambush.鈥�

The Journal reached out to counsel for the New Mexico Environment Department as well as Yucca Growth Infrastructure and Oracle, but did not immediately hear back. 

The proliferation of data centers amid controversies over transparency and environmental damage has divided Democrats who hold majorities in the state Legislature, with some planning to introduce a statewide moratorium on data center development at the next legislative session. 

鈥淲e cannot continue to sacrifice our people for so-called economic development,鈥� state Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, said in a written statement. 鈥淏eneath every ton of pollution there will be children, parents and elders impacted by Project Jupiter and the decisions of Governor (Michelle) Lujan Grisham's administration. Families in Santa Teresa, Sunland Park, and our fronteriza communities already shoulder disproportionate environmental harms.鈥�

In a sworn statement included in NEE鈥檚 petition, state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, a Las Cruces Democrat who said she will carry a moratorium bill next session, wrote: 鈥淒ue process loses much of its meaning if the only remedy comes years after the challenged proceeding has concluded and the project has been substantially constructed. The constitutional right at stake is the right to participate meaningfully before the government makes a decision with potentially irreversible consequences.鈥�

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.