Published greenhouse gas emissions for data center so high that climate advocates assume they’re typos

Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Nearly three months have passed since Doña Ana County officials approved $165 billion in bonds for Project Jupiter, yet the controversial southern New Mexico data center complex’s potential impact on the area’s air quality remains unknown.

For months, critics have protested the billions in government-backed bonds and the plan to tap into one of the state’s most troubled water utilities. Residents and lawmakers in the area are also increasingly voicing concerns that the plans to fuel the project with natural gas generating stations will have serious effects on the region’s air quality.

Plans for Project Jupiter call for “microgrids” to power it. Microgrids are developments that can run solely on their own power sources without needing to connect to an existing grid, such as PNM or El Paso Electric. Plans for Project Jupiter call for constructing natural gas generating stations for its microgrid, prompting concern over whether this project can comply with the state’s Energy Transition Act, which requires utilities to meet renewable energy benchmarks and use fully renewable sources by 2045.

Recently, Acoma, LLC, a company affiliated with BorderPlex Digital Assets, which represented Project Jupiter at public meetings, published notices that it intended to apply for two air quality permits with the New Mexico Environment Department. 

Each notice corresponds to a different “microgrid” natural gas generating station planned for the project. Combined, the notices say the gas plants will emit more than 14 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.

By comparison, Albuquerque and Las Cruces, the state’s two largest cities, emit a combined 6.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, according to both cities’ climate action plans. The defunct San Juan Generating Station near Farmington emitted 12 to 13 million metric tons per year and PNM’s entire system emits about 1.8 million metric tons, according to Stacy Tellinghuisen, deputy director of policy development for clean energy at the Colorado-based nonprofit Western Resource Advocates. Last year, when a Meta subsidiary filed an application to modify the air permit for its Los Lunas data center south of Albuquerque, it said the site’s greenhouse gas emissions would be less than 75,000 tons per year.

It’s not clear whether the plants will emit that much, or whether the figures are typos. BorderPlex Digital Assets and OpenAI, one of the main partners behind the development, did not respond to requests for comment.

“I think this means there is an error in Project Jupiter’s air permit application,” Tellinghuisen wrote in an email to Source NM. “I’d expect the facility, based on what we know about it, to emit 2 to 3 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year and would expect their air permit to allow it to emit up to 3 to 4 million tons/year.”

State law requires companies like Acoma, LLC to file a public notice stating its intent to apply for an air quality permit before actually applying. Acoma’s recent notices say the company planned to submit its application on Nov. 13. A spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department said Acoma, LLC had filed applications. He did not provide Source NM with copies of the applications, writing in an email that he was waiting on department legal staff to provide them. It’s unclear if Acoma, LLC applied for permits that would allow its microgrids to emit the combined 14 million tons per year, or if the figures in the application are reduced. 

When the company first filed similar notices for the microgrid gas plants in the Las Cruces Sun-News in October, it listed even larger figures: a combined output of 46.6 million tons per year. The most recent notices represent a significant decrease.

“We have to see the applications first to know how to proceed, but we’re definitely watching it,” Maslyn Locke, New Mexico Environmental Law Center’s senior environmental justice staff attorney, told Source NM. “This whole thing has been so rushed and shrouded in secrecy.”

A coalition of residents, lawmakers and climate advocates in the area share Locke’s concerns over transparency. Critics for months have said that details about the project, which was first announced in February, have been hard to come by. Some have filed lawsuits, alleging that elected county leaders voted on an incomplete application when they voted on the project. A coalition of project critics have organized weekly livestreams dubbed “Jupiter Watch,” in which those who have researched and followed the project closely share their findings with viewers. During the inaugural livestream Monday, Las Cruces-based filmmaker Annie Ersinghaus said the project has “been kept in the dark” and hopes that more community involvement will change that.

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.