Project Jupiter Is Not a Routine Permit—It Is One of the Largest Industrial Projects in New Mexico History
Organization Press Release – From New Energy Economy
Santa Fe, NM — New Energy Economy today responded to Yucca Growth Infrastructure’s (“YGI”) filing opposing NEE’s Petition for Writ of Mandamus before the New Mexico Supreme Court, rejecting YGI’s attempt to portray Project Jupiter as an ordinary air permitting matter.
“YGI wants the Court to believe this is just another ‘routine minor source permit’ involving ordinary case management decisions,” said Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director of New Energy Economy. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
First, YGI repeatedly characterizes this proceeding as involving a “routine minor source permit application” and “ordinary case-management decisions.” But NEE’s petition has never argued that every discovery dispute or scheduling disagreement warrants Supreme Court intervention.
Rather, this case involves whether the public has been afforded a meaningful opportunity to investigate, develop, and test the technical evidence before the State decides whether to authorize one of the largest industrial developments in New Mexico history.
As NEE explained in its Reply, ordinary cases belong in ordinary channels; extraordinary projects with extraordinary consequences require meaningful procedural protections.
Second, Project Jupiter is unprecedented in scale. The proposed 1,400-acre AI data center campus would emit at least 8.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually and already proposes to consume more than 100 million gallons of water each year.
It would increase New Mexico’s greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 30 percent at precisely the moment our state is experiencing record-breaking heat, catastrophic wildfires, prolonged drought, and climate-driven public health emergencies. New Mexico families are already living with the consequences of a warming climate. This project would make those consequences substantially worse.
Third, this is not the equivalent of approving a dry cleaner at the corner of Main Street and First Avenue. It is a hyperscale industrial complex unlike anything New Mexico has ever considered. When government decides whether to authorize a project of this magnitude, due process requires procedures commensurate with the stakes.
New Mexico courts have long recognized that procedural due process is flexible and depends upon the circumstances of each case. The amount of process required increases with the importance of the interests at stake, the risk that inadequate procedures will lead to an erroneous decision, and the value of additional procedural safeguards, balanced against the government’s administrative interests.
The fundamental question is whether parties have a meaningful opportunity to be heard before the government acts—not merely the opportunity to challenge the decision years later after the damage has been done.
Nanasi concluded:
“YGI asks the Court to treat Project Jupiter like a routine permit for a neighborhood business, a dry-cleaning business at the corner of Main & First. Project Jupiter is nothing of the sort. This is a 1,400-acre hyperscale AI campus with consequences for New Mexico’s air, water, climate, public health, and neighboring communities that will last for generations.
“The larger and more consequential the governmental decision, the greater the obligation to ensure a fair, transparent, and meaningful process before—not after—that decision is made. Due process is not a luxury reserved for ordinary cases. It is most essential when the stakes are extraordinary.”
New Energy Economy’s Petition and YGI’s Response (without the voluminous Appendix, which purports to be the entire record in the air permit case) is attached.
NMED will file its Response today.
New Energy Economy is likely to file a Request to file a Reply and the Reply within the next several days.