$700 million Pajarito Mesa energy project seeks tax break under Bernalillo County’s new community benefits rules. What does it do? - Jesse Jones, The Paper
One of the nation’s largest energy infrastructure developers and builders wants nearly 3.5 square miles of land on the Pajarito Mesa in Bernalillo County for a solar and battery project, promising hundreds of jobs, millions in new revenue and a boost to the region’s power grid in exchange for a tax break.
Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources is proposing the Magpie Energy Center, a $696 million project that would span about 2,227 acres on the Pajarito Mesa near the intersection of Dennis Chavez Blvd. and Atrisco Vista Blvd.
The facility would generate up to 300 megawatts of solar power and store up to 300 megawatts of energy, according to the company.
NextEra Energy Resources spokesperson Laura Gies says construction could begin in 2027 and create up to 350 jobs, with operations anticipated in 2029. The project is expected to generate about $27 million in bond revenue for Bernalillo County and local school districts over 30 years, according to the company.
Gies said projects like Magpie “help strengthen grid reliability while supporting growing communities” and that NextEra “looks forward to continuing to work with Bernalillo County as development progresses.”
The company has also donated to local food banks, supported training for fire departments and community organizations and partnered with Audubon Southwest on Rio Grande cleanup efforts, according to Gies.
Bernalillo County is evaluating an Industrial Revenue Bond for the project which sources say is expected to come before the commission before the end of the year.
As part of the request, NextEra must negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement, a project-specific pact required under county requirements adopted in April.
The requirements call for companies seeking tax abatements to outline community benefits, including workforce development, small business support and environmental sustainability, according to the county’s summary of CBAs.
The proposal follows the county’s approval of industrial revenue bonds for other large solar and battery storage projects in recent years, including DESRI’s $1.2 billion Estrella project, Corazon Energy Storage’s $225 million project and Sun Lasso Energy’s battery storage facility. Magpie still requires local and state approvals, according to NextEra’s project website.
Heat and drought hit State Fair harvest - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
After Albuquerque’s hottest summer on record, the giant pumpkins at this year’s State Fair are less so than in years past.
Despite a record-breaking 90-pound watermelon, farmers and fair staff said the fruits and vegetables in this year’s agriculture competition are smaller than in previous years, and entry volume is down in some categories thanks to drought and extreme heat.
“The product is small,” said Laura Fiala, the fair’s agriculture superintendent. “Less product this year, which is very explainable — we had no water.”
Ninety percent of New Mexico is experiencing some kind of drought, though the northern regions of the state and Bernalillo County are facing the most severe water shortages, according to Clay Anderson, senior forecaster at the National Weather Service.
This summer was Albuquerque’s fifth driest in recorded history — joining years 2023 and 2011 as some of the worst for rain, Anderson said.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico lawmaker accuses election opponent’s employee of harassing her at events - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico state Rep. Sarah Silva (D-Las Cruces) on Tuesday accused her Republican opponent and the GOP’s leader in the state House of Representatives of failing to intervene to stop a campaign employee from harassing her and her husband at recent public events.
Silva, who is running for re-election to a second term representing House District 53 in southern New Mexico against Republican Ben Luna, Jr., recounted in a social media post Tuesday “aggressive” encounters with Adalberto Rodriguez, whom Luna employed to help with his campaign at least until recently.
According to Silva, at several public events between April and July, Rodriguez approached her and her husband, journalist Heath Haussamen, while brandishing a tripod and a phone or camera and filming. Rodriguez can be seen on several videos Silva provided calling the lawmaker “baby” or “princess” and repeatedly insulting Haussamen as he tries to intervene.
In one instance July 13 at a Chaparral community meeting at the Becky McKnight Community center, Rodriguez repeatedly thrust the tripod in Haussamen’s direction while making kissing noises at him, according to video Haussamen captured and that Silva published Tuesday.
Silva and Haussamen filed a police report in late July regarding Rodriguez’s behavior, which she described as “disruptive, offensive and dangerous in its escalation.” Silva also said she reached out to House Speaker Rep. Javier Martinez (D-Albuquerque), whom she said then spoke with House Minority Floor Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena) regarding the matter, urging her to intervene.
Martinez told Source NM on Tuesday that Silva called him roughly two months ago regarding Rodriguez’s behavior, which he found troubling following his own experience as a target.
Martinez was one of several Democratic officials whose houses were shot at by failed Republican candidate Solomon Peña several years ago. Peña was subsequently sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Martinez said he reached out to Armstrong several times to see if she could help de-escalate the situation, but she only responded once, saying that Rodriguez did not work for Luna.
“It was not followed up on, unfortunately, and of course, myself being a victim of political violence, this is not something I take lightly for anyone, not just Democrats,” Martinez said.
New Mexico lawmakers last year began a special legislative session by denouncing what they described as a rise in political violence in the state and elsewhere. Last year alone included a case of arson at the state Republican party headquarters and bomb threats at the homes of Santa Fe Democrats Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth and House Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski.
In the social media post Tuesday, Silva said Armstrong’s inaction prompted her to both hire private security for future events and also issue a public statement.
“I wish my opponent and Leader Armstrong would commit to keeping campaign workers from acting inappropriately. It’s clear I can’t trust them to do that,” she said. “So, with candidate forums and other public events coming up, I’m sharing this publicly…in the hopes that bringing this situation into the light will help ensure everyone’s safety.”
Armstrong did not respond to Source NM’s call seeking comment Tuesday. But in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon, she defended her actions over a situation she said was resolved by the time she learned of it.
“When Speaker Martinez brought this matter to my attention, I immediately contacted Ben Luna to address it directly,” she said. Armstrong said Luna told her that he had fired Rodriguez July 8, five days before Rodriguez allegedly confronted Silva and her husband at the July 13 Chaparral event.
Armstrong, in the statement, further accused Silva of “resurfacing a two-month-old, already-resolved matter as a convenient distraction” from Silva’s involvement in Project Jupiter, a controversial data center proposal in southern New Mexico. Silva was a “key player in pushing” that development forward, Armstrong said.
“New Mexicans deserve a legislator who owns her record, not one who manufactures controversy to dodge accountability,” Armstrong said.
Silva, reached Wednesday by phone, told Source NM that Armstrong’s suggestion that she is trying to distract from her record is “absurd.” She said she decided to raise the issue now because she never heard from Armstrong or Luna about resolving the matter and still fears for her and her family’s safety at upcoming public campaign events through November.
Luna told Source NM on Tuesday that he only employed Rodriguez briefly as a canvasser for the campaign but fired him in July. He said he decided to end Rodriguez’s employment both because of the conduct he saw on videos but also because Rodriguez did not meet a quota for outreach to potential voters.
“He was hired for canvassing, and wasn’t meeting his quota, and he became uncontrollable in a sense of behavior,” Luna said.
Luna said he’s reached out to several other Republican candidates in New Mexico who have hired Rodriguez in some capacity to tell them about Rodriguez’s misbehavior. He declined to say which other candidates are currently employing Rodriguez or in what capacity.
Rodriguez posted at least two of the videos to social media accounts he controls called “The Border Gazette,” which has 75,000 Instagram followers.
Rodriguez, reached by phone, told Source NM on Tuesday that he had “deleted the video,” though he did not specify which video, and declined to comment further on the allegations.
Silva told Source NM on Tuesday that the sheriff’s office decided not to press charges. The sheriff’s office did not respond to Source NM’s inquiry about the status of the case as of publication time Wednesday.
Nearly a decade after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, New Mexico alone is taking Facebook to trial - By Mikella Schuettler Associated Press/Report For America
Attorneys representing the state of New Mexico told jurors that targeted political ads, attempting to lower Democratic turnout during the 2016 election, used Facebook data sold to a political consulting firm, during opening statements in a trial over the platform's data protections.
Facebook's attorney said the social media company investigated suspicious third-party apps following the breach and told jurors the state's evidence is outdated because safeguards have improved.
Opening statements began in Santa Fe on Wednesday morning, just weeks after 48 U.S. states reached a landmark settlement with Meta, which addressed child safety concerns and privacy issues surrounding the same data breach. So far, New Mexico is the only state that has pushed the case toward trial, expected to last four weeks, as part of its go-it-alone approach to prosecuting Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.
In court documents, the state argues Facebook failed to alert or protect users from a personality quiz on the social platform that harvested data from roughly 87 million Facebook profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. The data was used to generate targeted ads during the 2016 presidential election.
Randi McGinn, the attorney representing New Mexico, said Cambridge Analytica used Facebook profile data to geographically target Democratic voters with messaging such as "'Hillary's got it, you don't need to vote'," in an alleged attempt to reduce voter turnout. The now-defunct firm's clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.
Facebook's attorney, Dane Butswinkas, said the platform has come a long way since the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Facebook conducted independent investigations and tried to stop suspicious third parties from harvesting user data following revelations about how the data was used. The company also banned apps and referred suspicious developers to regulators, he said.
The state's lawsuit was filed in 2021, and Butswinkas told jurors much of their evidence is outdated.
"You're going to have a hard time stacking up the evidence of what they actually did, and what they actually said, and find it unconscionable," Butswinkas said, addressing the jurors.
McGinn told jurors Facebook flagged over two thousand apps internally, but the company didn't alert users or force apps to delete data, which she said was to avoid public fallout. Facebook makes nearly all of its revenue from advertising sales.
Butswinkas told jurors that individual users have the power to choose what data can be shared with advertisers and that the company has worked to reduce misinformation on the platform.
"Facebook takes action to minimize risk to its users. Not perfect, but they take action," he said.
The trial is expected to last around four weeks and will include a video deposition of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The state is seeking the maximum civil penalties under New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, up to $5,000 per violation, and an injunction to halt future breaches of user data.
The state estimates around 350,000 residents were exposed to the Cambridge Analytica breach. But McGinn asked jurors to consider that the harm caused by Facebook extended to all New Mexicans, over two million people, and that each individual impacted could potentially be a violation under the act.
Jurors will decide how many times Facebook violated the Unfair Practices Act, but Judge Francis Mathew will ultimately determine how much the company will pay per violation.
"When you decide the number of violations, that's the number of people they were trying to fool," McGinn said during her opening statement.
In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle the multistate suit surrounding child safety issues. Buried in the 130-page settlement was an agreement to release Meta from future liability related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, making New Mexico the only state to pursue a case. Florida was the only other state that didn't sign the settlement, claiming it wasn't tough enough on the social media conglomerate.
Earlier this year, New Mexico secured a total of $942 million from Meta in a two-phase trial about the company's safety protections for minors. The court also ordered Meta to implement new safeguards, including age-verification technology and time limits on its platforms.
"Facebook's data breach didn't just expose private information, it revealed a pattern of misrepresentation about how user data was collected, shared, and exploited," New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement Tuesday.
Grant County residents raise alarm over secretive proposed data center - Santa Fe New Mexican
Another new data center has been proposed for Southern New Mexico.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that in Grant County, locals are reacting to a legal notice posted in the Aug. 27 edition of the Silver City Daily Press.
The notice read that a company called Site Layer 1, LLC, plans to build a data center on the rural southern edge of Grant County, near the communities of Hachita and Playas.
The New Mexican reports that state regulators also took note of the item.
Environment Department Cabinet Secretary James Kenney emailed the potential applicants last Friday. The message said that “meeting minimum requirements as you have with the air quality permit application notice is insufficient community engagement for a data center project.”
The public notice said that Site Layer 1 planned to submit an air quality permit application to the state Environment Department by Oct. 1.
The Grant County project is the latest data center to be proposed in Southern New Mexico. State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard rejected a proposed secret solar-powered data center at Spaceport America on Thursday. Meanwhile, construction has begun at the Santa Teresa site of the massive and controversial Project Jupiter.
