Developers behind Project Jupiter, the controversial campus of data centers slated for Doña Ana County, have asked state environment officials to sign off on their plans to emit more greenhouse gases than the state’s two largest cities combined, and to generate as much electricity as the state’s largest power company.
Applications for air quality permits confirm figures that Source NM previously reported: If approved, Project Jupiter could emit more than 14 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. By comparison, Albuquerque and Las Cruces emit a combined 6.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, according to both cities’ climate action plans. The applications also say developers seek to install 41 turbines to annually generate about as much electricity as PNM.
Developers filed two applications, one for a “west microgrid” and one for an “east microgrid.” A microgrid is a self-reliant energy grid that doesn’t need to draw power from a larger utility, like PNM or El Paso Electric. For months, plans have made it clear that developers want to build natural gas generating stations for Project Jupiter’s microgrids, prompting concerns from residents and lawmakers that the data centers won’t comply with the state’s landmark clean energy law, which requires utilities to use 50% renewable energy by 2030, 80% by 2040 and 100% by 2045.
The applications show that together, the microgrids will emit nearly 500 tons per year of nitrogen oxides, an important ingredient in contributing to ozone. Individually, one microgrid is listed at 249.97 tons per year and the other at 248.9.
Environmental advocates say the developers’ proposal to split emissions across two permits for the same project appears to skirt state regulations, which classify projects with at least 250 tons per year of nitrogen oxides as “major sources” of hazardous air pollutants and subject them to arduous monitoring.
“They’ve split it into two separate plants that are ‘minor sources’ to avoid having to monitor their actual air quality impacts, which are going to be huge,” said Colin Cox, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “They’re coming up to 99.9% of the threshold for when they’d have to do additional work.”
The American Lung Association has long given Doña Ana County a failing grade for ozone, which can cause asthma attacks, increased risk of respiratory infections and even increased risk of premature death.
BorderPlex Digital Assets, the company that has represented Project Jupiter in public meetings, did not respond to a request for comment.
The permits will only have to go through a public hearing process if an “outside party,” which can include a resident of the area, requests it, according to a spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department. No hearings have been scheduled.
Members of the public have, however, tried to stop the project in court.
In October, two residents and a local nonprofit filed a lawsuit against elected members of the Doña Ana County Commission and accused them of voting on an incomplete application when they approved $165 billion in government-backed bonds for the project in September.
“We’ve seen this with other air permit applications, where they’re right under the limit,” Maslyn Locke, a New Mexico Environmental Law Center senior attorney who is representing residents in the case, told Source NM. “Ultimately that means everything has to go 100% perfectly as they operate to not violate that…I don’t know if that’s realistic.”
Since filing suit in October, the nonprofit Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County has withdrawn as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Another lawsuit, filed by Las Cruces resident Derrick Pacheco, alleged that county leaders acted inappropriately when they approved the project even though it had yet to go through the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Lawyers representing the county have asked judges to toss both cases.
Albuquerque waives fees, eases rules to bring more neighborhood markets to food desert - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
The city of Albuquerque is making it easier for small, locally owned neighborhood markets to open for business to help relieve the city’s food deserts, Mayor Tim Keller announced Wednesday.
Under the new law, the city’s Environmental Health Department is waiving the permitting fee for one year for businesses that promise to provide healthy, affordable foods in underserved areas, said Mark DiMenna, the department’s deputy director.
“Our aim is to support food accessibility while ensuring the food is safe with these changes,” DiMenna said.
Keller also announced proposed changes to the city’s zoning and development laws that will allow small neighborhood markets to open closer to neighborhoods and within walking distance of homes.
“Every family deserves a convenient place to buy fresh food without having to drive miles,” Keller said in a statement. “This plan will open doors for our local food economy and expand grocery options for families, right in their own neighborhood.”
Nearly 80% of households in Bernalillo County live in a food desert, which is an area with limited access to healthy and affordable food, according to a city report.
Parts of Albuquerque’s South Valley and International District are considered food deserts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the former Walmart on San Mateo, which served as the main source of food for many International District residents, shuttered its doors in March 2023 and remains empty more than two-and-a-half years later.
Access to healthy food is “absolutely critical” for the residents of Albuquerque, said District 6 City Councilor Nichole Rogers.
“Allowing folks to help by offering foods in our neighborhoods so they don’t have to go miles to get fresh food is going to amount to higher life expectancy,” Rogers said. “Fresh food is medicine.”
More than 8,000 families in the International District do not have a car, according to Rogers, who represents the neighborhood. Without a grocery store in the area, residents must use public transit to do their shopping, which can be burdensome, especially for the elderly, Rogers said.
“They’re having to go further on the bus more times per week, because they can only carry a certain amount of things on the bus in their cart,” Rogers said. “The folks I’m most concerned about are our transit-dependent folks and our seniors.”
Rogers said she’s excited about the mayor’s executive order, which she says she and her constituents helped to develop through the district’s Food Systems Project focused on food insecurity.
“He’s basically modeling what he’s doing off of what we started in District 6, which I’m grateful (for). Taking it citywide is needed,” she said.
Rogers said the executive order is an “economic development opportunity” for those in her district who have been working with food.
Rogers said that while the expediting business permitting process is “a step in the right direction,” the city’s food permit requirements still present one of the biggest barriers to food access, since businesses must have a commercial kitchen to sell food or produce.
The International District doesn’t have a commercial kitchen available for nonprofits or markets to rent, as other neighborhoods in Albuquerque do.
“It’s definitely something that the mayor can do to help just ease the barriers for folks,” Rogers said.
The mayor’s executive order will waive permitting fees for one year, but the terms of the new permanent rule will go through a public comment period in the coming weeks, said city spokesperson Jeremy Dyer.