Contested New Mexico hearing officer for Project Jupiter air quality permit hearing recuses himself — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The hearing officer presiding over the New Mexico Environment Department’s air quality permit hearing for the Project Jupiter data center has recused himself from the case, according to newly filed documents.
An NMED paralegal emailed several interested parties in the ongoing permitting process minutes before 12:30 p.m. Monday with an attached document that showed Hearing Officer Max Shepherd had recused himself.
Attorneys with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and the Center for Biological Diversity in a filing last week sought to disqualify Shepherd, arguing that he “has failed in his duty to ‘conduct a fair and impartial proceeding.’”
Their complaint came after Shepherd rankled project opponents in late July by rescheduling the hearing for Project Jupiter’s pending air quality permit application. The data center’s developers are seeking a permit from the New Mexico Environment Department to operate a gas pipeline-fed fuel cell system as an on-site power source.
Shepherd initially scheduled the hearing for mid-October. When attorneys representing Project Jupiter developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure argued that it would leave NMED officials inadequate time to make their final decision on the permit by their Nov. 23 deadline, Shepherd responded that the case was highly technical and complex and said he would rather look into extending the November deadline.
Days later, however, he filed a scheduling order showing that he was moving the hearing up, consistent with the developer’s request.
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Sunday night issued an order that temporarily delays the hearing, after the Santa Fe-based clean energy organization New Energy Economy questioned whether the proceeding was premature, given that the pipeline needed to power the fuel cell system has yet to clear its own regulatory hurdles.
Opponents argued that Shepherd deprived involved parties of due process and left them with too little time to adequately prepare for the hearing.
Shepherd did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment. Typically, the New Mexico Environment Department secretary or leaders on the Environmental Improvement Board or Water Quality Control Commission appoint hearing officers to preside over public hearings. An environment department spokesperson did not respond to Source NM request for information on next steps.
New Mexico Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Maslyn Locke, who signed the August filing seeking Shepherd’s ouster, on Monday told Source NM that she was encouraged by Shepherd’s departure.
“It’s pretty remarkable to see him disqualify himself, finally. It’s been such a fight to get any sort of due process in this hearing,” she said. “With the broader Project Jupiter fight, it’s been so hard to get transparency and community involvement in a way that is meaningful and actually impacts the decision-making.”
Forest Service: Crew member on Frijoles Fire dies after 'medical incident' – John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
The US Forest Service has announced that a crew member supporting operations on the Frijoles Fire burning northeast of Santa Fe died in a “medical incident” on Sunday, leading fire managers to cancel a public meeting that had been set for Truchas Monday evening.
“Emergency personnel responded immediately, the patient was transported to a local hospital and despite the efforts of emergency medical responders, the patient did not survive the medical event,” the announcement reads.
The Forest Service said the person who died was an “incident support crew member” but didn’t provide their name or other details surrounding their death. The Journal has sent inquiries for that information after the crew member’s family has been notified of the incident.
“Our hearts are with the family, friends, coworkers and all those affected by this tragic loss,” Incident Commander Mike Page said in a statement. “Every person supporting the Frijoles Fire is an important part of our team. We are grieving alongside our fire family and will do everything we can to support those impacted.”
Fire managers under the command of California Interagency Incident Management Team 8 were planning to update the public on firefighting operations Monday evening at the Truchas Community Center, near the northwestern edge of the lighting-caused wildfire.
In a regular video update posted to social media Monday morning, Forest Service Operations Trainee Forrest Gale said 913 personnel are now dedicated to the fire, which has hovered around 15,200 acres since Friday and is now 46% contained.
On Monday, heavy equipment operators were working to establish lines near Gorham Boy Scout Ranch the Village of Cundiyo. Meanwhile, a hotshot crew is still building hand line and providing fire suppression on the southern end of the fire, north of Rio Nambe.
Gale said patrols and mop-up efforts continue on the western flank of the fire, where several small villages have been exposed.
“We’re looking really good on that side of the fire,” he said.
Air craft and ground personnel continued to work on line and suppression efforts on the north side of the fire Monday. Crews are also continuing to build indirect confinement lines — control barriers built well behind the fire’s edge — on the northeastern edge of the fire, near the Truchas Land Grant and Carson National Forest.
Hot and dry conditions were expected to continue on Monday, with temperatures in the upper 80s and a slight chance of thunderstorms.
A new wildfire start was reported in the Pecos-Las Vegas Ranger District of Santa Fe National Forest on Sunday. While the fire’s cause remains undetermined, lightning was visible in the area around the time the new blaze was reported.
What happened between authorities and NM House Rep. Joseph Hernandez at a Chicago hotel? – John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
When first asked about an encounter he had with security and law enforcement at a Chicago hotel last month, New Mexico House Rep. Joseph Hernandez issued a two-sentence statement, alluding to “a negative interaction” that he said ended quickly, with him finding new accommodations in the city.
But an incident report the Chicago Police Department recently released to the Journal indicates that what happened the morning of July 29, when the representative left the Holiday Inn at Wolf Point, was neither unremarkable nor brief.
The heavily redacted document summarizes a roughly two-hour incident that began at 2:30 a.m. on the high-rise’s 17th floor, where the representative was staying.
That’s when someone contacted emergency services about a man “running around naked” and “banging and knocking on other guests’ doors.”
While the individual’s name is redacted from the report, descriptors of the 38-year-old suspect appear to match Hernandez, and two eyewitnesses independently attested they are certain the man suspected in the disturbance is the Shiprock Democrat running for reelection this year.
According to a travel log the Journal obtained last month, Hernandez checked into room 1745 on the 17th floor under a government discount code on July 26 and checked out the morning of July 29, the day of the incident.
Two Chicago police officers responded to the complaint of the naked man causing a disturbance around 2:44 a.m., finding him by then “fully clothed” and standing by security, according to the incident summary.
They described him as 5-foot-6, 280 pounds, with short black hair and a light-brown complexion, birth date of 1987.
Officers indicated that the suspect had pulled up photos of himself on his phone, “demanding (responding officers) to know who he is …” and insisting he be allowed to return to his room.
A hotel staff member evidently nixed that idea, informing officers that the man’s reservation had been “cancelled due to (his) behavior and breaking hotel rules.”
Police say they accompanied the man to his room to collect his belongings and then escorted him out of the hotel, explaining he had been “formally trespassed from the property.” They waited as he ordered transportation from a ride share service that took him to another hotel.
Rep stays silent
The short statement Hernandez provided to the Journal last month about the premature end to his stay at the hotel follows a similar sequence, though the representative has declined multiple requests for comment to explain why the incident escalated to include police or led him to leave the property.
"During my recent stay in Chicago, I had a negative experience with a hotel security guard that resulted in a visit from Chicago Police,” Hernandez said in the statement. “The situation was resolved quickly as I relocated to a new hotel, where I stayed for the remainder of my trip."
Legislators from around the country traveled to Chicago for the National Conference of State Legislatures summit the week Hernandez was there, but the organization would not release a list of attendees and the representative had also not filed any travel receipts related to the trip as of Aug. 14, according to the Legislative Council Service.
Asked about the incident when reached on his cellphone July 31, Hernandez said little, making reference to “a security guard” and then claiming he was losing the signal, despite no interference with the phone call.
He said he would be available for a call later that afternoon, but never answered his phone again and did not respond to requests for comment.
Legislative spokesperson Pamela Armstrong told the Journal this month that House leadership has advised her that all questions on the matter should flow through her, but she also did not provide a response to requests for comment for this story.
Eyewitness accounts
The two eyewitnesses, who live in Chicago and spoke to the Journal on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment, said hotel staff and security searched the man’s name from the incident online and were stunned when their inquiry led them to a photo of Hernandez on the New Mexico Legislature website.
When the Journal sent the witnesses another photo of Hernandez and asked them to rank their level of certainty on a scale of 1-10 that the man accused of causing the disturbance and the representative are one and the same, they didn’t equivocate.
One witness said, “10,” and the other responded, “If not an 11.”
The allegations made in the police report were evidence-based, they claim, both stating that other hotel guests, including a female, were alarmed to find the representative naked and banging on their doors in the wee hours of July 29.
One of the witnesses said they were involved in the response to the incident directly and claimed Hernandez “pushed” them near an elevator as they attempted to get him back to his room.
Once police arrived, however, the witness said Hernandez had put his clothes back on and accused security and the hotel of racial bias.
The other witness said cameras were likely operating in the elevator where the alleged altercation occurred, but it’s unclear how closely the responding officers examined the events described in the original complaint.
The call relayed by the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications classified the original dispatch notice as a “sex offense call,” but the Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting code on the report was “criminal trespass.”
Police do not appear to have filed any charges tied to what happened, and Hernandez is not listed anywhere in Chicago First Municipal District court records.
The police report also doesn’t indicate whether officers interviewed any other guests, sought surveillance footage for review or otherwise investigated the potentially criminal allegations, such as breach of peace or disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors in Illinois.
On a separate evening during Hernandez’s stay, the witnesses said security was called after the representative “passed out” with his shoes off on a couch in the lobby of the hotel, which sits at the confluence of the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River and shares space with the higher-floor Hotel Voco.
As of Saturday, the Chicago Emergency Communication Center had not provided records of any other police responses to the hotel on July 29.
Ethical standards, upcoming election
Reached by phone earlier this month, Democratic House Speaker Javier Martínez said he planned to ask Hernandez about the incident directly, but could not speak to whether an official ethics investigation had been or would be opened.
Outside of the regular 30-day session, the House speaker said any ethics complaints are filed with the New Mexico Interim Legislative Ethics Committee, which former director, Raul Burciaga, currently leads in a contract role.
Similar to most states, ethics complaints against House and Senate officials in New Mexico remain confidential unless they result in a public hearing, the final stage in the disciplinary process, so it remains unclear whether any official complaints have been filed against Hernandez.
“If a complaint has been filed, there is a process whereby leadership gets together and determines whether or not it should move forward for an investigation,” Burciaga explained. “If it goes to an investigation, the investigation is conducted confidentially, so there's still no release of that information, and it is up to the investigative subcommittee to determine whether or not there is probable cause to move forward.”
The 38-year-old Navajo Nation member from Pueblo, Colorado, moved to the Four Corners when he was young and won this year’s Democratic primary.
Hernandez took office in 2025 after defeating Republican candidate Lincoln Mark for the District 4 seat, which was vacated after former Rep. Anthony Allison, D-Fruitland, retired.
Hernandez has been a vocal advocate for clean energy alternatives in the oil-and-gas-dominated district. At age 38, the longtime community organizer is one of the youngest New Mexicans to represent District 4, which encompasses Sandoval County, parts of Farmington and a significant swath of Navajo Nation in the Four Corners.
In November, he will face Republican challenger Heather Ellison, an educator and fellow Navajo, who in a statement on Aug. 6 urged Hernandez to explain what happened in Chicago.
“Legislators are held to a certain ethical standard, and they have a responsibility to be transparent, especially when spending taxpayer dollars,” Ellison said. “This incident is certainly concerning, and I call upon Representative Hernandez to tell the truth and take accountability for what happened.”
NM Supreme Court pauses Project Jupiter air permit - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
In a unanimous order issued Sunday night, the New Mexico Supreme Court granted a temporary stay that pauses proceedings on a crucial permit for the hyperscale data center under construction in Santa Teresa, known as Project Jupiter.
The five justices granted the stay as they consider a petition filed by Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy, a clean energy advocacy organization, arguing that the New Mexico Environment Department cannot proceed with a public hearing into the data center’s air quality permit application because it has not established the project’s fuel source.
In a brief order, the court granted a stay of the administrative proceedings until further order and stated that any replies ordered by the court would be filed no later than Sept. 2.
The order, filed at 8:21 p.m. Sunday, fell on the eve of the Environment Department’s deadline to produce the permit’s full administrative record and for challengers to submit their technical testimony.
New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi called the order “an extraordinary and necessary intervention” in a statement late Sunday night.
Representatives for developers Oracle Corp. and Yucca Growth Infrastructure were not immediately available for comment.
The public hearing, set to open Sept. 14, was to be an evidentiary proceeding before an independent hearing examiner considering the air quality permit application for an on-site microgrid power generating facility that would supply the data center with energy through a methane-powered fuel cell system. The application was filed by Yucca Growth Infrastructure.
Whether the hearing proceeds on Sept. 14, or at all, is unclear. The temporary stay is to allow the state Supreme Court time to review New Energy Economy’s petition and the threshold issue it raises. The justices are not being asked to decide for or against issuing the permit.
New Energy Economy argued that the application is not ripe for a hearingdue to setbacks in establishing a route for a pipeline that would supply 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from El Paso across 18 miles of private, federal and state trust land.
However, the New Mexico State Land Office has twice turned down requests by pipeline builder Energy Transfer to route the gas through state land. Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard wrote to the applicant in July that the requested business lease and payments for rights-of-way would bring “minimal revenue” to the land trust, while “the burden that the project will impose on New Mexico’s water and other natural resources, and on the surrounding community, is extreme.”
In filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Energy Transfer recently indicated the pipeline may not be ready for service until 2027. It has not yet announced whether it would seek a legal challenge to the State Land Office’s decision or re-draw the pipeline route.
New Energy Economy argued that the hearing should be dismissed until an application establishing the microgrid’s fuel source was on record.
On Aug. 15, hearing examiner Max Shepherd orderedYucca Growth to submit a response to NEE’s motion for dismissal of the application, only to reverse himself five days later and order that the question be addressed during the hearing instead.
Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity and the New Mexico Environmental Law Center jointly filed a petition with the NMED seeking to disqualify Shepherd as hearing examiner. The organizations complained that Shepherd’s handling of the pre-hearing procedures and what it called “arbitrary and inconsistent rulings” — including an abrupt decision to move the hearing up by a month — had sabotaged a fair hearing process.
The data center began construction last September over 1,400 acres of land on vacant land three miles north of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The complex of data centers and office facilities is intended to house AI training technology for Oracle Corp. and OpenAI.
As of June 30, builders reportedspending $144.5 million on preliminary work for the microgrid, bringing it to 10% completion.
“The public was being railroaded through a process designed to move at extraordinary speed while opponents were denied the tools necessary to test the Applicant’s claims,” Nanasi said in her written statement. “That sequence of events raises grave questions about political pressure and whether this process was being driven toward a predetermined result instead of a search for the truth.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated on the Albuquerque Journal website.
Federal officials announce water cuts as Colorado River supplies continue to plunge - By Dorany Pineda and Wufei Yu, Associated Press
Federal officials announced sharp water cuts for the next two years on Friday for three Western states that rely on the imperiled Colorado River.
Under the Bureau of Reclamation's plan, California, Nevada and Arizona will collectively reduce water use by 1.25 million acre-feet (about 1.54 billion cubic meters) annually during that period, with the possibility of larger cuts depending on conditions.
Arizona will see the biggest cuts, while states upstream — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico — do not face any for now.
Meanwhile neighboring Mexico will reduce its intake by 250,000 acre-feet (about 310 million cubic meters) under a U.S.-Mexico treaty.
"We've been in this 26-year prolonged drought period," said Andrea Travnicek, the Interior Department's assistant secretary for water and science. "We continue to see a prolonged drought in our future. So continuing to work together as a whole within the basin is going to be extremely important."
The current rules governing the use of the river's water are set to expire in October, and the seven states have been unable to reach a consensus on sharing it over the long term.
Last winter saw the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, adding more stress on farmers, industry, wildlife and hydropower producers, as well as tens of millions of people who rely on the waterway, including in dozens of Native American tribes and in two Mexican states.
Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures due to climate change have depleted the country's two largest reservoirs, which are both fed by the Colorado. Lake Mead recently plummeted to its lowest level since it began filling nine decades ago, and Lake Powell did the same about a week later. Their combined storage is the lowest it has been in nearly seven decades.
Negotiators in Arizona thanked California and Nevada for their collaboration on sharing the cuts.
"For 2027 and 2028, the reductions that are now memorialized here will provide substantial stability for folks," said Tom Buschatzke, Arizona Department of Water Resources director. "We'll continue to negotiate and figure out how we're going to operate over a longer-term period, which is what we all want."
JB Hamby, California's chief Colorado River negotiator, said the plan brings "some badly needed near-term certainty at a moment of extraordinary risk," though he called it "a bridge, not a permanent solution."
Officials in Nevada applauded their collaboration with Arizona and California and said a seven-state consensus remains their preferred path for the river.
In Southern Nevada, Kyle Roerink, senior adviser at the conservation group Great Basin Water Network, said efforts to build a new airport and shopping malls and some public land sales have not progressed, reflecting the dire hydrology inked in the federal documents. Further cuts could slow real estate development in metro Las Vegas, he said.
"When the Hoover Dam, a symbol of American fortitude and American power, drops and loses its shine, it can be scary," Roerink said. "But it can also pose itself as a great opportunity for us to prepare for the next hundred years in a meaningful way."
BernCo hires consultant to chart path for jail healthcare switch - Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal
A single provider contract. In-house medical services. A combination of both.
Those are some of the options on the table as Bernalillo County tries to chart a new path to provide healthcare at the state’s largest jail after the University of New Mexico Hospital decided not to renew its contract.
And time is of the essence.
In October, service model options will be offered to the Bernalillo County Commission, which will vote on which one is chosen for the July 2027 transition.
To help the effort, County Manager Cindy Chavez said they have hired the Texas-based consulting firm, J. Allen and Associates - Correctional Healthcare Management LLC. Chavez did not disclose how much the consultants are being paid, saying it's still being finalized.
The clock started ticking July 16, when UNMH “gave a one-year notice to conclude medical, dental and behavioral health services” at the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to the county.
During the last County Commission meeting, Chavez said commissioners had already signaled to her that they would say “no” to contracting out medical services, which went awry with past for-profit providers. UNMH came on board in July 2023, as the facility grappled with rising inmate deaths and substandard care while providers Centurion and Corizon bowed out.
Since 2020, 49 people have died at the jail or died after falling ill at the jail. Of those, 24 deaths occurred after UNMH took over. Advocates pointed to improvements after UNMH came in, such as getting more inmates on medically assisted detox, but federal audits found UNMH was not adhering to constitutional healthcare standards outlined in a 2017 settlement agreement.
“We have a really talented group of people who are providing services today … everybody in the organization is pulling together because we know how important this is, and there's a lot of momentum and I would actually say optimism for the future,” Chavez said. “We understand that we have an obligation to provide the highest quality service for anybody who's in our custodial care. We understand that, we're taking it very seriously.”
Aside from the service model options, Chavez said there are some big decisions to be made “sooner than later,” including choosing an electronic health record system, which currently belongs to UNM.
She said they are aiming to apply for Medicaid coverage for inmates — to offset costs — and have to decide how to manage that, either internally or through a third-party. And, in order to be able to apply for Medicaid, MDC has to have a pharmacy “up and running” first.
For a time leading to the transition, she said, MDC may have two pharmacies in the facility, including UNMH, as the new pharmacy gets Drug Enforcement Administration licensure.
“There are lots of these types of questions that we need to be able to answer in pretty short order,” Chavez said. “Because either we need to find a contract partner or we need to build that capacity.”
Prior to presenting service model options to the commission, she said they will present options to the Detention Facility Advisory Board, Addiction Treatment Advisory Board and Behavioral Health Advisory Board, where the public can hear options and have input.
When the news broke that UNMH would no longer be the medical provider at MDC, it was announced as a mutual decision. In the last commission meeting, Chavez told commissioners they learned of UNM’s decision in late June.
Chavez said UNMH came to the county “because they had an interest in ending the contract.”
“And we were supportive of that because, candidly, they jumped in when no one else would, and I really want to say this, that we are so grateful to them,” she said. “Providing services in a jail is incredibly difficult and we want to both thank them and support their transition out — this is a really important partnership between the county and the university — and I have truly nothing but gratitude and respect for UNMH, and want to continue that partnership to whatever extent is appropriate in the future.”
Drought conditions worsen across New Mexico, West - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Record-breaking July temperatures have left nearly 95% of New Mexico in some degree of drought, according to a new outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and “isolated” monsoon rains failed to provide meaningful relief to water supply challenges across the West.
The outlook, released Thursday, monitored the status of major reservoirs across the Colorado River and Rio Grande basins, noting that many have reached historic lows, including Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
New Mexico’s Elephant Butte Reservoir remains at 1.4% of its capacity, prompting state officials earlier this month to close the lake’s main boat ramp due to safety concerns.
Conditions will improve through November, officials said Thursday. While an uptick in monsoon rains will not “fully eliminate drought and its impacts,” forecasters predict a 90% chance of a “very strong” event triggered by a strengthening El Niño, potentially creating wetter conditions across the Intermountain West this fall.
NOAA’s previous outlook in early July was more optimisticabout the potential for significant monsoon rains across the region this summer. But the forecast released Thursday noted that New Mexico instead experienced its second-warmest July on record, and the eastern part of the state “continued to dry out” without receiving any significant precipitation.
The administration’s drought map shows that 3% of New Mexico is in “severe drought,” namely Albuquerque, Santa Fe and parts of the northeastern corner of the state. About one-third of the state, predominantly in northern New Mexico, is suffering from “extreme drought,” the map shows.
The outlook notes that conditions are unlikely to improve over the next two weeks, with all but the northern and western edges of New Mexico facing 100% probabilities of above-average temperatures.
New Mexico governor appoints 2 new district court judges - Source New Mexico staff
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday announced her appointments of two new district court judges: Maria Montoya Chavez as a judge on the Second Judicial District Court and Kirsten Louise Dick for the Thirteenth Judicial District Court.
Montoya Chavez, whose appointment starts Sept. 28, has practiced law in the state for more than 25 years, and fills a new judgeship the state Legislature created, with her term running until the next general election after one year of service, at which point she will run for election for a full term.
She previously served as chair of the Family Law Section of the State Bar of New Mexico and has a law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law in Texas and a bachelor’s degree in criminology from the University of New Mexico, according to a news release.
Dick, who currently serves as a hearing officer and special commissioner for the Second Judicial District Court, fills a vacancy left by Cheryl Hein Johnston.
Her term begins Sept. 12, and she will also run in the next general election after one year of service for a full term.
She holds a law degree from UNM and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Denver.
She previously served as Second Judicial Court’s Children’s Court managing attorney, as a rules attorney for the New Mexico Supreme Court’s Clerk of Court’s Office and as a judicial law clerk and assistant attorney in the chambers of Justice Barbara J. Vigil.
