Federal officials used emergency permitting powers to shorten environmental review of the proposed “Green Chile” pipeline from roughly a year to 14 days as opposition mounts from environmental groups and regulators.

Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

The Bureau of Land Management announced last week it had granted expedited permission to build a pipeline on New Mexico public lands to fuel the controversial Project Jupiter data center, but environmental groups say state and federal regulators will slow down construction plans.

The BLM Las Cruces district office said Wednesday it had accelerated reviews to allow for the construction of a 16 mile-portion of pipeline proposed by Dallas-based developer Energy Transfer, which owns Transwestern Pipeline Company.

Transwestern has proposed a nearly 18-mile pipeline crossing mostly federal, but some private and state trust lands, dubbed the “Green Chile Project.” The $60 million lateral would pipe 400 million cubic feet of gas per day from El Paso daily to the private power plants for the Project Jupiter data center for companies such as OpenAI and Oracle. That amount of gas used daily would supply winter heating in Española — home to more than 10,000 people — for one year, experts previously told Source NM.

The BLM said it circumvented lengthy reviews citing emergency permitting powers the U.S. Department of Interior adopted in 2025, shortening a federal environment review from a year to 14 days. The right of way allows Transwestern to have permission to construct, restore and operate most of the length of the pipeline.

The project already faced potential roadblocks when the New Mexico State Land Office denied the rights for construction on state trust land last month.

The project still requires approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is still considering a January application from Transwestern to approve the pipeline immediately.

Several New Mexico environmental groups filed formal challenges against the project in April, as did FERC staff, noting the application was incomplete. The FERC staff protest required Transwestern to submit a missing review from the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office within 30 days, or face a much longer review for the project.

In more recent filings to FERC, Transwestern and a Project Jupiter customer, Oracle Corporation, urged regulators to extend the 30-day deadline to submit the documentation, writing that “time is of the essence” and are seeking regulator’s approval immediately to ensure the pipeline is constructed by August.

Attorneys for Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity opposing the project said FERC has no procedure allowing a deadline extension and said the project must now undergo a more lengthy review process.

Additionally, attorneys said that New Mexico environmental regulators still have not weighed in on Project Jupiters’ power generation plans, which changed last week from solely using gas pipelines to incorporate fuel cells.

“This development reiterates that any potential need for the Project is uncertain at best,” the document stated.

Danielle Prokop covers the environment and local government for Source New Mexico.