STATE
Project Jupiter air quality hearing date changes to September
A hearing officer's surprise reversal on the scheduling has raised concerns among environmental attorneys
A public hearing over whether the New Mexico Environment Department should issue an air quality permit for the controversial Project Jupiter data center is being rescheduled to September, .
The hearing officer presiding over the matter had previously scheduled the hearing to begin in October.
At a scheduling meeting this week, attorneys representing Project Jupiter鈥檚 developers requested that the hearing begin earlier, arguing that the October hearing date would risk giving New Mexico Environment Department staff too little time to make a final decision on whether to issue the permit before their Nov. 23 deadline.
Max Shepherd, the hearing officer, told attorneys gathered at the scheduling hearing that he was not going to reschedule it. He said he would keep the October hearing date and examine his options to push out NMED鈥檚 Nov. 23 deadline.
However, two days later when NMED published his written scheduling order on its website, it showed he rescheduled the hearing by more than a month. It is now set to begin Sept. 14 and 鈥渃ontinue as necessary鈥� at the Sunland Park Multi-Generational Center.
鈥淲hat happened between Monday morning, when he denied their motion for a new schedule, and Wednesday night?鈥� said Colin Cox, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity鈥檚 Climate Law Institute, which has intervened in the case. 鈥淚t鈥檚 highly concerning.鈥�
Cox on Friday filed a new motion requesting that Shepherd revert to .
Maslyn Locke, senior attorney for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, who has represented residents in lawsuits related to Project Jupiter, said the air quality permit case is among the most complex 鈥� and fast-moving 鈥� air quality cases she鈥檚 seen in her career. Under the revised scheduling order, she said attorneys will not have enough time to review the 鈥渢housands鈥� of pages of the administrative record, bring their expert witnesses up to speed and prepare for oral arguments by the time the hearing begins in less than two months.
鈥淩ushing this through is going to create more problems,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he department is neglecting the fact that once this thing is built, it鈥檚 really impossible to undo it.鈥�
Shepherd, the hearing officer, when contacted said he could not comment on the rescheduling.
A spokesperson for the state Environment Department in a statement said the department 鈥渞emains committed to meeting its statutory deadlines no matter the hearing date.鈥�
At Monday鈥檚 scheduling meeting, Jennifer Bradfute, an attorney representing Project Jupiter developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure, argued that the hearing needs to happen as soon as possible.
Bradfute said her client would stand to lose $325 million per month, beginning in November.
鈥淭his project will start to abandon employment opportunities in New Mexico and there are many kids from the labor unions who want to be placed in jobs,鈥� Bradfute said during the meeting. 鈥淲e really do need this to go to hearing as soon as possible. The state is at jeopardy to lose the project entirely, and I鈥檓 not blowing smoke as I state that.鈥�
At a Do帽a Ana County Commission meeting this week, Executive Vice President of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Mahesh Thiagarajan and Stack Infrastructure Chief Development Officer Bobby Hollis presented the project鈥檚 latest job numbers days before an annual report on the matter was due.
Hollis said at the meeting that the project employed nearly 700 New Mexicans during its ongoing construction. To date, it has employed nearly 2,800 construction workers and generated $734 million in contracts with New Mexico suppliers, .
The duo also told commissioners that they鈥檙e committing to 100% carbon-free energy matching by 2031.
County commissioners had previously set a Friday deadline for Project Jupiter鈥檚 developers to file an annual jobs report. However, that report was not readily available Friday afternoon.
In an email, a Do帽a Ana County spokesperson said the report would contain personally identifying information for Project Jupiter employees and that county leaders 鈥渨ill be working with our legal team to get a form of the summary posted on the county鈥檚 website as soon as possible.鈥�
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