New Energy Economy Seeks Supreme Court Stay on Project Jupiter Air Permit

Organization Press Release – From New Energy Economy

NEW ENERGY ECONOMY ASKS NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT TO HALT PROJECT JUPITER AIR-PERMIT PROCEEDING 

Emergency writ challenges accelerated hearing, reversal on discovery, withholding of administrative record, and refusal to address whether Project Jupiter can even obtain its required 400 million cubic feet of gas per day without pipeline approval 

SANTA FE, N.M. — August 19, 2026 — New Energy Economy (“NEE”) has filed an emergency request with the New Mexico Supreme Court seeking a temporary stay and writ of mandamus to halt the New Mexico Environment Department’s (“NMED”) air-permit proceeding for Project Jupiter until the constitutional right to a fair hearing is protected. 

NEE is not asking the Supreme Court to decide whether Project Jupiter should receive an air permit. It is asking the Court to ensure that NMED provides opponents a meaningful opportunity to investigate the facts, prepare expert testimony, test the Applicant’s claims, and present their case before the State decides whether to authorize one of the largest industrial projects ever proposed in New Mexico.  

Project Jupiter’s proposed methane-fueled power plant would consist of approximately 2,275 Bloom Energy solid oxide fuel cells supplying electricity to one of the largest artificial-intelligence data-center campuses proposed in the United States. According to the Petition, the permit would authorize approximately 8.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually—more greenhouse-gas pollution than Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces combined—along with carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and other pollutants in Doña Ana County.  

“This is not due process. It is trial by ambush.” 

The Supreme Court filing challenges not one isolated ruling, but a series of reversals that NEE says, taken together, make meaningful participation virtually impossible. 

The Hearing Officer initially set an October 19 hearing, recognizing the need for discovery and expert preparation in what he described as a “highly technical” proceeding. After rejecting Project Jupiter developer Yucca Growth Infrastructure’s request for an accelerated schedule on the morning of July 27, the Hearing Officer reversed course two days later after Governor Lujan Grisham met with Oracle and moved the hearing to September 14, compressing every major pre-hearing deadline.  

The Petition alleges the procedural prejudice did not stop there. After twice authorizing discovery, the Hearing Officer reversed himself again and eliminated discovery entirely—even though opponents sought technical information concerning emissions testing, Bloom Energy’s unprecedented deployment of approximately 2,275 fuel-cell stacks, manufacturing and supply-chain capability, construction schedules, and whether Project Jupiter has any legally viable alternative to its proposed gas pipeline, that require 400 million cubic feet of gas per day to the fossil-fuel project.  

Then NMED advised that its thousands-of-pages administrative record would not be provided until August 24—the same day opponents’ sworn technical testimony is due. NEE argues that experts cannot meaningfully review thousands of pages of technical material, determine its significance, evaluate and revise their analyses, and incorporate it into sworn testimony on the day that testimony must be filed.  

“This process has been turned upside down,” said Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director and attorney for New Energy Economy. “Our experts are being told to testify first and learn the facts later. We are denied discovery. We do not get NMED’s thousands-of-pages administrative record until the very day our expert testimony is due. And if Project Jupiter suddenly unveils a new gas-supply plan, new engineering assumptions or new technical evidence, we are apparently expected to discover it at the hearing and cross-examine on the fly. That is not due process. It is trial by ambush.” 

A $10-billion project—but can it even obtain its fuel? 

The Petition also raises a threshold question NEE says should be answered before enormous public and private resources are consumed litigating the permit: can the proposed facility actually obtain the approximately 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day it requires? 

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, an independently elected constitutional officer, has twice denied the rights-of-way and business lease necessary for the proposed Green Chili Lateral pipeline. The Hearing Officer initially recognized the significance of that development and ordered YGI and NMED to answer five specific questions, including whether another legally obtainable gas supply exists and whether Project Jupiter remains capable of being constructed as proposed.  

But before those answers were due, the Hearing Officer reversed himself again, entered a sua sponte order, and relieved YGI and NMED from answering the questions he had just determined warranted expedited briefing.  

“We are asking a very basic question: how can New Mexico rush toward approving an air permit for a methane-fueled power plant when the pipeline identified to supply its enormous gas requirements has been denied?” Nanasi said. “First the Hearing Officer ordered Project Jupiter to answer that question. Then he reversed himself and said we could wait for testimony—while simultaneously denying us discovery. You cannot keep the public in the dark and then call the resulting hearing fair.” 

NEE asks Supreme Court to intervene before the harm cannot be undone. 

The Petition invokes the New Mexico Supreme Court’s mandamus authority and relies in part on State ex rel. Egolf v. New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, 2020-NMSC-018. NEE argues that administrative agencies have a nondiscretionary obligation to administer the law and that extraordinary judicial intervention is appropriate where fundamental constitutional questions, essentially undisputed procedural facts, and the need for immediate resolution converge.  

NEE warns that waiting for an ordinary appeal would provide no meaningful remedy. If the hearing proceeds, a permit issues, and construction begins on the approximately 1,400-acre, multi-billion-dollar AI data-center campus, a successful appeal years later could become little more than a hollow victory.  

“We are not asking the Supreme Court to deny Project Jupiter’s permit,” Nanasi said. “We are asking for something much more fundamental: a fair chance to prove our case on the merits. When the State proposes to authorize pollution on this unprecedented scale, the answer cannot be to rush the hearing, deny discovery, withhold the record until expert testimony is due, and postpone threshold questions until it is too late to investigate the answers. The bigger the project and the greater the consequences, the greater—not lesser—the obligation to follow the law.” 

NEE has asked the Supreme Court to enter an immediate temporary stay before opponents’ technical testimony is due and then issue a writ directing NMED and its Hearing Officer to comply with their constitutional, statutory, and regulatory obligations before the air-permit proceeding continues.  

Quote from Declarant Representative Micaela Lara Cadena 

“We cannot continue to sacrifice our people for so called economic development. Beneath every ton of pollution there will be children, parents and elders impacted by Project Jupiter and the decisions of Governor Lujan Grisham’s administration,” said Representative Micaela Lara Cadena.

“Families in Santa Teresa, Sunland Park, and our fronteriza communities already shoulder disproportionate environmental harms. We need the New Mexico Supreme Court to uphold the constitutional protections and the right to a fair permitting process enshrined in state law.” 

Quote from Declarant Senator Carrie Hamblen 

 “I strongly support economic development that creates lasting prosperity for New Mexico, but economic development cannot come at the expense of transparency, sound science, our natural resources, or the communities expected to live with the harm,” said Senator Carrie Hamblen.

“From the secrecy surrounding Project Jupiter to the highly unusual expedited air-permit process and a technical hearing without the right to discovery, there are serious reasons for concern. New Mexicans deserve transparency and a fair process before the Environment Department—one that follows constitutional due process, applicable law, and the Department’s own rules.”