New Mexico State Ethics Commission says Oracle’s $3.4M Project Jupiter ads sought to sway permitting - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico State Ethics Commission on Wednesday said that the tech giant Oracle spent more than $3.4 million in recent months on advertisements meant to influence the New Mexico Environment Department’s air quality permitting process for the Project Jupiter data center.
In a statement, the commission said it was “likely the largest lobbying advertising campaign ever disclosed in New Mexico,” and noted that it reached a voluntary agreement with Oracle to disclose its advertising expenditures before taking further legal action against the company.
Specifically, the commission said Oracle sought to influence New Mexico Environment Department officials who have the power to approve or deny the data center’s proposed energy source, a natural-gas powered fuel cell system. Projections filed with the state show that, if approved, the system would emit as many greenhouse gases annually as New Mexico’s largest cities combined.
The ethics commission noted that Oracle created the projectjupitertogether.com website that includes a form letter visitors can sign to ask NMED officials to approve the pending air quality permit application. It also cited a statewide effort in which paid canvassers solicited favorable public comments for the permit application and paid sponsored content that appeared on the social media profiles of New Mexico-based social media influencers.
Oracle’s advertising campaign report shows the company spent $3.4 million between January and April on media production, polling and consulting. The NMED air quality permit hearing was initially scheduled to begin Monday, but is on hold while an environmental group’s challenge is pending before the New Mexico Supreme Court.
The company exclusively paid the national consulting firm Brabender Cox for these services, according to the report. The firm’s website lists locations in Washington, D.C., Dallas, South Carolina, Pittsburgh, New York and Indianapolis.
Its founder, John Brabender, has worked as a consultant and adviser to Republican political campaigns, including those for President Donald Trump and Rick Santorum. His firm has also done work for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Vice President Mike Pence, according to an archived copy of its website.
Neither Oracle nor Brabender Cox immediately responded to requests for comment.
Wednesday’s announcement comes after Source NM revealed that residents and state lawmakers reported seeing their names wrongfully signed to public comments in support of Project Jupiter. Source NM also revealed that a marketing firm approached local social media influencers about promoting the data center and helping to “increase positive comments” on its website. Oracle in July denied any involvement with such efforts, and said the company supported the state’s investigation.
In addition, the State Ethics Commission recently settled a lawsuit it brought against a separate company over an unrelated pro-Project Jupiter advertising campaign.
In March, Source NM identified a Virginia-based company named Elevate New Mexico as the anonymous author of pro-Project Jupiter mailers and digital ads that appeared in New Mexicans’ mailboxes and social media feeds.
The State Ethics Commission sued the group in April and accused it of violating the state Lobbyist Regulation Act. It settled the case in August.
Expenditure filings in that case showed that one of Project Jupiter’s developers had paid the Virginia-based Elevate New Mexico nearly $3.7 million.
“Project Jupiter has attracted widespread public attention because of its potential economic, environmental and energy impacts for New Mexico,” State Ethics Commission Deputy Director Amelia Bierle said in a statement at the time. “These disclosures reveal the significant financial resources devoted to influencing both the public and, indirectly, the NMED officials considering the permits required for Project Jupiter.”
APS moves to consider school closures - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Amid declining enrollment, Albuquerque Public Schools is gearing up for the possibility of closing schools.
The Board of Education voted 6-0 to begin gathering public input on school closures that could lead to a decision as early as next year. No specific schools have been suggested yet.
Enrollment at APS is down more than 22,000 students in the last decade — from around 86,500 in 2015 to 63,700 last year. Official counts for this year will not come in until school is further underway, but the district projects a loss of about 1,500 students, Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey told reporters in August.
The student population is expected to level off in the coming years, Deputy Superintendent Antonio Gonzales said at Wednesday’s meeting, though at a far smaller number than in the past.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico’s largest electric provider, private equity firm propose revised merger terms - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The parent company of New Mexico’s largest electric provider and the private equity firm looking to acquire it on Tuesday asked state regulators to approve a revised merger application that company officials say would help the company invest in New Mexico’s aging electric grid and give customers direct rebates.
The draft application, which would require New Mexico Public Regulation Commission approval, says the companies would issue $220 million in direct customer rate credits. In a statement, PNM’s parent company, TXNM Energy Inc., and private equity firm Blackstone Infrastructure noted that amount is more than double the amount of rate credits proposed in their initial merger application.
The proposed revisions also include $40 million for workforce and economic development initiatives; $25 million for virtual infrastructure upgrades; and $15 million for PNM’s Good Neighbor Fund, which provides bill payment assistance to low-income households.
It also includes commitments to keep PNM’s New Mexico headquarters and to keep in-state leadership and management officials.
“Our focus has been and will continue to be on serving our customers with safe, reliable, affordable energy,” Don Tarry, PNM and TXNM president and CEO, said in a statement. “These enhanced commitments put real dollars back in customers’ pockets, protect the people who do this work every day and keep PNM locally managed and locally rooted — while giving us the capital to build the grid New Mexico needs.”
The proposal comes amid legal and public pushback to the proposed merger, and follows regulators’ finding earlier this summer that the two companies violated state law by conducting a $400 million stock sale in 2025 without first gaining PRC approval.
Regulators ordered the two sides to reverse the sale.
After paying back Blackstone, TXNM announced it intended to once again sell $400 million worth of company stock. The pending private equity takeover’s opponents called on state leaders to buy the shares and give the state government more control over its largest electric company. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, however, has consistently opposed that proposal.
The revised application announcement also comes less than a week after New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter to Tarry alleging that numerous customers have complained about the company’s practice of issuing expensive monthly bills based on “estimated” electricity consumption, rather than a meter reading.
Three drown in Navajo Nation flooding Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Navajo Nation police said three people, including one juvenile, drowned early Wednesday morning.
Officers with the Navajo Police Department Shiprock District were dispatched around 12:30 a.m. after receiving a report that people were being “washed away” in a nearby flooded area, according to a news release.
Police did not say where the flooding took place. Officers and first responders searched the area and found three people dead, according to police.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those affected,” Navajo Police said. “We respectfully ask the community to honor the family’s privacy during this time.”
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Public comment opens for planned New Mexico uranium mine as firm pledges not to leave behind ‘mess’ - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Leaders of a Colorado company seeking to open a uranium mine in New Mexico promised lawmakers at a recent legislative hearing that they won’t leave a “mess” behind if they are granted federal and state permits to extract the mineral over the course of two decades near Mount Taylor.
Energy Fuels, Inc. has sought for more than a decade to establish the Roca Honda Mine within the Cibola National Forest boundaries in McKinley County. After a years-long hiatus, the company in late May submitted a 273-page “reclamation” plan to officials at the state Mining and Minerals Division, marking a significant step forward in the state’s permitting process, environmentalist groups said at the time.
Monday marked the first day of a 30-day public comment period as Energy Fuels seeks a federal permit for the mine from the United States Forest Service, which is preparing an environmental impact statement. The Forest Service’s announcement notes that the mine would operate, if approved, for approximately 21 years, of which 11 years would be mineral production and the rest would be spent reclaiming and monitoring the site.
Leaders of the company on Friday opened their presentation to lawmakers on the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Committee with acknowledgments of uranium mining’s long-lasting impact on the environment and public health, as well as promises to do better than the companies that have left hundreds of abandoned uranium mines across the state.
“We understand why the history shapes the questions people are asking about Roca Honda today,” said Nick Martin, an environmental manager at Energy Fuels. “We’re not here to tell anyone that history didn’t happen, or those concerns aren’t legitimate. But you have our commitment that we’re not going to just stop at acknowledgment.”
Martin and other company officials said they are committed to adhering to all federal and state environmental requirements, as well as meaningfully listening to tribes about the potential cultural impacts of the mine on Mount Taylor, which several pueblos and the Navajo Nation deem sacred.
Tribes and pueblos in the early 2000s successfully convinced the state to designate the mountain and outlying areas a “traditional cultural property,” an effort to protect it from mining.
Company representatives said they have already updated their proposed mine plans to avoid, as much as possible, drilling or other disturbances within the boundaries of the Mount Taylor Traditional Cultural Property designation. Nonetheless, the current plans include about 30 acres within the boundary for dewatering well pads and ventilation shafts.
Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) said members of the public should be more open-minded to uranium production in the state, especially given the global energy demand and that mines in New Mexico and the rest of the country are preferable to mines that open in countries with fewer environmental regulations.
Still, she said the concerns from communities historically impacted by uranium are “valid” and asked Energy Fuels to commit to cleaning up the mine site.
“Do we have your commitment that you are going to participate in the reclamation, in the cleanup, to ensure that that doesn’t happen, what happened decades ago with mining projects?” she asked Misael Cabrera, the company’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs.
“You have my absolute commitment that we will not leave a mess for the state of New Mexico,” Cabrera responded.
Developer of controversial housing plan near La Tierra trails appeals county denial - Santa Fe New Mexican
In Santa Fe County, the developer that proposed a residential project near the La Tierra trails system has filed an appeal in district court after Santa Fe County Commissioners rejected their proposal in June.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the proposed 158-home Camino Verde subdivision would have been built in the foothills just north of state road 599 in the Camino La Tierra area.
County Commissioners rejected the plan 3-2. Chicago-based developer Samara Real Property filed an appeal Sept. 10 in First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.
