Energy expert tells NM lawmakers Project Jupiter could roll back air quality progress by 20 years
Environmental advocates told New Mexico lawmakers that Project Jupiter’s proposed fuel cell microgrid could erase more than 20 years of progress in reducing electric-sector emissions.
Legislative committee intends to hold hearings on data centers through the rest of the year.
Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.
Environmental advocates on Monday, July 13, told New Mexico lawmakers that power plants built specifically for large data centers such as Project Jupiter could undo more than 20 years of progress on air quality.
David Baake, an attorney and energy policy consultant for the regional conservation nonprofit Western Resource Advocates, told lawmakers on the interim Water and Natural Resources Committee that data centers seeking to build “microgrids” — power sources that do not connect to the existing grid — often utilize natural gas or fuel cell technology, both of which emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the air.
He specifically pointed to Project Jupiter, the Oracle and OpenAI data center campus under construction in Doña Ana County. The project’s developers initially sought permitting to build two natural gas plants to power the facility, but later revised their proposal to instead rely on fuel cells, which convert natural gas, biogas or hydrogen into electricity.
Documents filed with the New Mexico Environment Department show that while the revamped proposal would emit fewer pollutants than two natural gas plants, it would still be sizable. In fact, Baake told lawmakers Monday, it would emit more than all of the existing power plants in New Mexico combined.
“Basically that one project would put us back at 2005 levels of CO2 from the electric sector,” he said.
The state Environment Department will hold a public hearing in October on Project Jupiter’s pending air quality permit application.
Joshua Bowling
Baake’s remarks came at the end of a day of hearings revolving around grid modernization, emissions and other energy challenges facing the state. Throughout the day, discussions often pivoted to hyperscale data centers and their potential effects on the state’s environment.
Committee members said each of their remaining meetings throughout the interim session will include hearings on data centers.
Earlier in the day, one lawmaker and a representative from PNM, the state’s largest electric provider, said they believed a 2025 law exempted microgrid developments from the Energy Transition Act’s requirements for utilities to use 50% renewable energy in 2030 and 80% in 2040. Baake reiterated that point during his presentation.
“Hyperscale data centers were just kind of unheard of” in 2019 when the ETA was unveiled, he said.
Microgrids are also exempt from certain state-level regulations, too. Cholla Khoury, chief of staff for the Public Regulation Commission, spoke alongside Baake and told lawmakers that the PRC only regulates public utilities.
“If it’s not tied into the grid at all, they can do whatever they want back there as far as PRC is concerned,” she said, adding that microgrid developments would become subject to commission regulation if they sought to tie into the existing grid.
Mirroring a national trend, lawmakers from both political parties questioned how to ensure such developments support the state’s renewable energy goals.
“The majority of these facilities being built nationally right now…originally came up with the concept of using alternative energy. All of them converted to natural gas,” Rep. Randall Pettigrew (R-Lovington) said during Monday’s hearing. “How do we fit this into the ETA?”
Pettigrew wondered if data center developers ought to consider building near the Permian Basin and relying on the area’s natural gas.
Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena (D-Mesilla), who has long been critical of Project Jupiter, said she believed the 2025 law governing microgrids “blew up” the Energy Transition Act. She is part of a group proposing a large-scale data center moratorium in next year’s legislative session.
Baake, for his part, recommended that lawmakers revive the Microgrid Oversight Act, state legislation proposed in the session earlier this year that would have more closely regulated microgrids and required them to comply with all of the ETA’s requirements. It died after clearing the Senate.
Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.
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