By Annie Ersinghaus
Twenty-five billion pounds of carbon dioxide every year, twice the yearly CO2 gas emissions of New Mexico’s entire power grid, over four times the total of all El Paso Electric’s CO2 plant emissions in New Mexico and Texas, and over 12 times as much CO2 as the entire city of Las Cruces.
That is how much pollution will spew from Project Jupiter, a $165 billion data center being built in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Prior to the release of these air quality permit applications, with greenhouse gas emissions so high people assumed they were typos, Doña Ana County commissioners gave the data center a $228 million annual tax break, accepting an incomplete proposal that had pages marked as drafts and others completely missing.
The community, with only three weeks of advance notice, had no strong enforceable commitments or any in-depth information available on water usage, electricity generation, environmental impacts, or noise and air pollution. The public simply did not have enough time to meaningfully participate in a decision that would alter their community for decades to come.
Four months later, we are still in the dark. The language for daily operational water use has been changed to include the word, “potable.” The previous limits on total water use now only limit the amount of potable water used to run the facility.
By any ethical standard, the public’s right to know how these changes impact their community is paramount and the project’s leadership has a moral obligation to communicate what the environmental impacts may be.
The power generating “microgrid” has also been split into two separate facilities to skirt pollution controls. Staying just under their 250 tons per year limit on nitrogen oxides, one site will emit 249.97 tons per year and the other 248.9 tons per year. There is nothing “micro” about a plant that would emit more than double the greenhouse gas pollution of Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined.
Those most impacted by this project, the public at large who have long been separated from any form of public discourse, have not been given a voice in deciding the fate of the environment in which they live.
We are promised 2,500 construction jobs, 750 long-term jobs, and $360 million to our county over the next 30 years. We have no reason to trust the industry or these commissioners and their false promises, especially given this project’s hasty and secretive development.
Annie Ersinghaus is an environmental filmmaker based in Las Cruces.
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