New Mexico students walk out of classes to protest data centers, US Sen. Heinrich’s permitting bill — Matt Mondschein, Joshua Bowling and Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Hundreds of students from New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque — some donning Halloween costumes — walked out of classes Tuesday and joined protests organized against data centers, pipelines and fossil fuel projects.
The protests, organized by Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), followed a Sunday proteston the Las Cruces campus of New Mexico State University and a coordinated campaign to support a data center moratorium during next year’s legislative session.
“We will not get back the last 20 years of climate progress Project Jupiter will undo,” Isabelle Taylor-Ault, a student organizer and junior at NMSA, said to the crowd outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. “You, the adults, the ones supposed to be fighting for us, you may get the privilege of dying of old age, but our children will die from climate change.”
A handful of state lawmakers sitting on the interim Water and Natural Resources Committee — which was meeting on the Capitol’s third floor — headed down to watch the protest unfold.
State Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena (D-Mesilla), a vocal critic of Project Jupiter andone of the first state lawmakers to call for a statewide data center moratorium, told Source NM she was thrilled to see teenagers across the state opposing the development.
Last month, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland said if elected on Nov. 3, she plans to enact a statewide data center moratorium as an executive order immediately upon taking office. Lara Cadena acknowledged that the Dec. 7 public hearing on whether to give Project Jupiter’s power source an air quality permit — one of the last hurdles the data center needs to clear to become fully operational — could result in a decision before then, but said she plans to continue using her office to hold the industry to account.
“Those permits haven’t been issued yet,” she said.
Protesters — bearing signs with messages like “El agua es vida,” “This sign was not made by AI” and “Make Orwell fiction again” — stood in a circle around the perimeter of the second-floor rotunda, where they began a “Stop Project Jupiter” chant.
As the chant echoed across the rotunda, they marched upstairs to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s fourth-floor office. Standing outside Lujan Grisham’s office, they shouted in unison: “MLG, you can’t hide. You support ecocide.”
Office staff told the students Lujan Grisham was out of office, but Kaila Rubbel, a visual arts student at NMSA, waited outside for her turn to write and deliver a letter to the governor. She told Source NM that she wants Lujan Grisham “to take action. I want her to stop this. And I think that not showing up or not doing so shows us who she is.”
Michael Coleman, Lujan Grisham’s communications director, told Source NM in an emailed statement Tuesday that the governor “understands that young New Mexicans are frustrated with the American political system, and she shares their concerns about some of the issues raised during today’s protest.”
Still, the governor urged the protesters to respect public property and not interfere with government employees “simply doing their jobs.”
“The governor received the letters the students left in our office, and she plans to read and consider them,” Coleman said. “She hopes the students work to stay informed and continue to participate in the political process.”
In Albuquerque, protesters directed much of their ire toward U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who recently unveiled a sweeping, bipartisan permitting reform bill that protesters say reduces tribal input and empowers fossil fuel companies to quickly break ground on more harmful projects.
More than 100 protesters marched from the UNM bookstore down Central Avenue to Heinrich’s downtown Albuquerque office. In front of a large sign that read “Heinrich is a sellout,” protesters with YUCCA, as well as Indigenous and environmentalist groups, described the bill as a betrayal by a longtime champion for tribal and environmental causes.
Heinrich’s bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, seeks to hasten the federal permitting process for a variety of projects, including data centers, solar arrays, renewable energy transmission lines and more.
The 400-page bill, cosponsored with U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and two other senators in both parties, has drawn praise from labor unions, as well as both the American Petroleum Institute and the American Clean Power Association. Groups touting bipartisan policy have also lauded it as a step forward on a policy matter that has long frustrated advocates for all types of energy production in the United States.
But critics have said the pros of the bill that Heinrich has touted — namely a prohibition on data centers imposing energy production costs onto ratepayers, and hastening the approvals of renewable energy projects — are far outweighed by the bill’s other provisions. Protesters on Tuesday said the bill erodes hard-fought environmental protections like the National Environmental Policy Act and laws requiring tribal input.
The All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 19 New Mexico pueblos, released a resolution on Tuesday that says the bill’s provisions will combine to ultimately “weaken protections for Pueblo sacred places.”
Outside Heinrich’s office, protesters carried signs decrying “data center giveaways” and “fossil fuel sellouts” and chanted “Kill the bill!” in between speeches.
“We need NEPA. We need our Clean Water Act. We need all of these things because they are the bare minimum for what we need to survive on this land,” Ahtza Chavez, executive director of Naeva, an Indigenous voter empowerment organization, told attendees Tuesday. “And this senator has the gall to say that he’s going to rip that out of our hands. I don’t think so.”
Heinrich’s spokesperson Luis Soriano, in a statement to Source NM on Tuesday, said Heinrich’s bill “actually holds data centers accountable for their energy usage while speeding up the approval of clean energy projects that put cheaper and cleaner electricity on the grid.”
As for tribal consultation, Soriano said that Congress needs to pass the bill to ensure that President Donald Trump’s administration is required to heed tribal input instead of ignoring it.
“The legislation also defends against the Trump administration’s efforts to make all Tribal consultation discretionary and eliminate consultation altogether on cultural landscapes. All of this means stronger Tribal consultation protections, lower utility bills, more good-paying jobs, and a path toward unlocking our clean energy future.”
New Mexico utility regulators seek Legislature’s help with small water utilities — Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico utility regulators on Tuesday told state lawmakers they’d like the Legislature’s help in tweaking the rules that govern the state’s small water utilities.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission oversees service and pricing issues for small, privately owned water utilities across the state. Often when problems with service arise, PRC leaders told lawmakers on the interim Water and Natural Resources Committee, the companies have too little money to correct course and regulators have too little time to intervene.
Small water utilities have presented plenty of problems in recent years. The New Mexico Environment Department last year sought a receivership for the troubled Camino Real Regional Utility Authority in Sunland Park after its water showed exceedingly high levels of arsenic. More recently, Timberon Water and Sanitation District near Alamogordo reported losing as much as 85% of its water to leaky pipes and the Melody Ranch Water Co. near Edgewood had a “complete disruption of water service.”
PRC Chief of Staff Cholla Khoury, on Tuesday said she hopes to see legislation in the session that starts in January that makes it easier for utilities to access capital and streamlines the lengthy process by which a judge can place a utility under state receivership.
“Mostly what we will be looking for is to increase authority, so that when we do have a failing water system, we can move quickly,” Khoury told lawmakers.
Lawmakers were split, though, on support for facilitating state control of private companies — and on whether they had enough relevant data to begin crafting legislation.
“I understand the issue…but your solution is to take control, not to offer independent technical support for these entities,” Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Rio Rancho) told Khoury. “I’d like to know why that is not on the table?”
Khoury responded and said that receivership is always “truly the last option” and said that streamlining the process would make it easier for the state to intervene in cases of emergencies.
Some lawmakers said they were eager to work on the PRC’s proposal.
Sen. Anthony Thornton (R-Sandia Park) referred back to the recent problems in his district, such as Melody Ranch, and said he wants to make sure utility regulators can swiftly intervene when needed.
“When people are out of water, that’s truly an emergency situation and we need to move quickly,” he said.
Working overtime: New Mexico ranks 7th in job growth, but jobless rate climbs, too — Kevin Hendricks, New Mexico Political Report
New Mexico employers added 11,200 jobs over the past year, outpacing all but six states. But the help-wanted signs didn’t shrink the line of job seekers. The state’s unemployment rate climbed to 4.7 percent in September.
New Mexico’s 1.3 percent year-over-year job growth ranks 7th nationally and runs more than four times the national rate of 0.3 percent, according to September Bureau of Labor Statistics figures the Governor’s Office released Friday.
“New Mexico is charging straight into those headwinds, and we’re gaining ground,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.
Hard hats and scrubs did the heavy lifting. Health care and social assistance added 3,700 jobs, construction added 2,800 and mining added 1,400. Private employers added 8,400 jobs overall.
Local governments hired 4,200 workers, including 2,700 in schools. That cushioned a 2,000-job drop in federal employment, a 7 percent cut in one year.
“These numbers show that our efforts to diversify New Mexico’s economy are working,” Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair said.
The paychecks tell a less rosy story. The state’s 4.7 percent jobless rate sits well above the 4.1 percent New Mexico posted in September 2025. In July, the state’s unemployment rate topped the national rate, economists told legislators in August.
And New Mexico workers still earn less than most. The state ranked 46th in the nation for average weekly wages in early 2026, at $1,235, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 11,200: jobs New Mexico added, September 2025 to September 2026
- 1.3%: New Mexico’s job growth rate (U.S.: 0.3%)
- Neighboring states: Utah 1.4%, Texas 1.1%, Arizona 0.7%, Oklahoma 0.7%, Colorado 0.5%
- 4.7%: New Mexico’s September unemployment rate (Sept. 2025: 4.1%)
- -2,000: federal jobs lost in New Mexico
- 46th: New Mexico’s national rank in average weekly wages
Looking for work or want the full numbers?
- Job search and unemployment help: NM Department of Workforce Solutions, dws.state.nm.us
- Monthly state jobs data: Bureau of Labor Statistics, bls.gov/sae
Feds charge Maryland man with falsely registering to vote in Bernalillo County — Kevin Hendricks, City Desk ABQ
A Maryland man faces a federal charge after prosecutors say he claimed to live in New Mexico so he could register to vote here in 2022, one week before New Mexicans head to the polls for the Nov. 3 general election.
A federal grand jury indicted the 63-year-old Annapolis man on Oct. 20. The indictment alleges he submitted a voter registration application to the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office Bureau of Elections on or about Sept. 18, 2022, falsely claiming New Mexico residency.
Agents arrested the man in Milwaukee on Monday. He appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Wisconsin and walked out on bond. His case now heads back to federal court in New Mexico.
“Residency isn’t a matter of convenience when it comes to voting,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison said in a release.
FBI Albuquerque Special Agent in Charge Justin A. Garris struck a firmer tone: “If you commit a crime in New Mexico, justice will find you.”
The Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office, led by Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh, said it is cooperating with federal authorities and remains committed to running elections under state and federal law. Because the case involves an ongoing federal prosecution, the office referred questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Federal prosecutors credited the clerk’s elections bureau with helping the FBI investigate.
The man faces one count under 52 U.S.C. § 20511(2)(A), a federal law against submitting materially false voter registration applications. Neither the indictment nor the release says whether he cast a ballot in New Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean J. Sullivan and Emil J. Kiehne are prosecuting. An indictment is only an allegation, and the man is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Check your own voter registration:
- Online: voterportal.servis.sos.state.nm.us
- Bernalillo County Clerk: bernco.gov/clerk
Report suspected election fraud:
- FBI: tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Mexico: justice.gov/usao-nm
Santa Fe mayor declares disaster emergency, more rain expected later in week —Santa Fe New Mexican and KUNM staff reports
In Santa Fe, Mayor Michael Garcia has declared a natural disaster emergency in the city in the aftermath of Saturday night’s tornado.
The National Weather Service says last weekend’s twister was an EF-1 tornado, which is capable of producing winds speeds up to 110 MPH. Officials estimate that the tornado touched down between 7 p.m. and 7:08 p.m. Saturday.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the tornado started near Via Caballero and traveled about a mile and a half north, ending near Siringo Road. Surveyors estimated its width at about 100 yards. 10 homes in the midtown area were damaged.
There were no injuries reported in connection with the tornado, though one storm-releated death happened elsewhere in the area. A 39-year-old woman was killed when the vehicle in which she was a passenger was swept away by a flooded arroyo north of Santa Fe, near the intersection of Paseo de la Tierra and Vuelta Chamisa.
Screwworm case confirmed at NMSU —Algernon d’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico has confirmed two new cases of the New World screwworm parasite in Doña Ana County, including one instance on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
State animal health officials said fly traps have been placed on campus, where a sheep was afflicted by the flesh-eating parasite. The other case was confirmed in a cow located off campus.
Surveillance and fly trapping by state and federal authorities will be used to determine whether the screwworm has spread to other animals, the state Department of Agriculture reported Tuesday.
The two cases were confirmed over the weekend, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture dashboard tracking New World screwworm infestations.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Dia de las Mascotas sculpture up in Albuquerque’s Old Town —KUNM staff
In New Mexico, today, Oct. 27th is la Dia de las Mascotas, the day of the pets.
In Albuquerque’s Old Town, a 10-foot tall paper mache dog, a Xolo, has been placed in the Plaza.
Anyone wishing to honor a beloved pet is invited to come to the plaza with a recuerdito such as a photo, a collar, or a flower to place by the xolo.
The xolo will be on the plaza through November 8th.
