On Tuesday, Doña Ana County residents turned up the heat on commissioners over the energy and water footprint of Project Jupiter, pushing officials to slow down company-led outreach and open up a more robust public process. Several speakers urged the county to cancel a Project Jupiter open house and career fair planned for next week, arguing that those events are more PR roadshow than real public engagement. The $165 billion data-center campus rising in the Santa Teresa desert has already sparked intense debate over how it will get its power and where it will secure its water.
Residents Demand A Real Public Forum
As reported by KFOX, community members told commissioners they want far more transparency and technical detail before company-run events are treated as the main public conversation. One speaker warned that a Project Jupiter open house "should not be treated as a substitute for a genuine public forum." Commissioners said they would keep collecting feedback and seek outside experts to help answer the growing list of community questions.
Permit Filings Raised Emissions Questions
Critics keep pointing back to earlier air-permit filings for two on-site microgrid facilities, which were initially framed as natural-gas generation. The scale of those proposals and their potential emissions raised alarms and were ultimately deemed administratively incomplete by state regulators. As detailed by Source New Mexico, the initial notices triggered calls for clearer dispersion modeling and a local public hearing.
Developers Say They’ve Changed The Plan
Developers and Oracle announced in April that Project Jupiter’s power design has been reworked to rely on Bloom Energy fuel cells instead of combustion turbines. The new setup consolidates generation into a single on-site microgrid rated at up to 2.45 gigawatts. In a press release, Oracle said the shift would dramatically cut NOx emissions, reduce day-to-day water use, and that the New Mexico Environment Department has moved the updated application into a public-review phase.
Legal Challenges And Organized Pushback
The fight is not confined to public comment at commission meetings. The New Mexico Environmental Law Center has sued Doña Ana County over its handling of Project Jupiter financing and transparency, a case chronicled by the Albuquerque Journal. Dozens of advocacy groups have also pressed state leaders for expanded review and local hearings, arguing that a project of this size and with such hefty resource demands deserves far deeper scrutiny.
What Comes Next
Officials say the public-review window on the updated power plan is now open, and state regulators will accept comments as the application moves through the New Mexico Environment Department process, according to Oracle. County commissioners told KFOX they will continue gathering input and may bring technical experts into future meetings. In the meantime, residents are keeping the pressure on for clearer modeling of Project Jupiter’s energy and water footprint before any company-sponsored events are treated as the main venue for public debate.
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