Yesterday a NY times reporter covered the public announcement of an Anthropic researcher and former Open AI employee who just resigned because “neither company is acting responsibly.” He wrote that the two leading A.I. labs are sprinting to build “superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources” without building in appropriate safeguards. Another Anthropic employee admitted that "he believed the risk of A.I.’s

We've seen this playbook before. The Trump administration has moved to fast track permitting procedures for fossil fuel projects, issued new rules proposing to eliminate public comment on data center air permit proceedings, and reduced permit reviews for power plants to 45 days. Now the Governor's handpicked PRC has voted to approve a slate of new rules to limit the ability of the public and intervenors to participate in PRC hearings, even as they acknowledge that the powerfu

Today the State Land Commissioner, Stephanie Garcia Richard, informed the Sierra County Commission that the State Land Office will respect Sierra County's recently passed data center moratorium ordinance and "will not be approving any data centers, including the proposed Aetherion sublease at Spaceport America." This principled stance is important because Spaceport operates on state trust lands and, in general, local governments cannot regulate state activities on state lands

Breaking news - today Project Jupiter's bid to lift the NM Supreme Court's stay on the air quality permit proceeding was DENIED. Evidently the Justices were unmoved by their false insistence that the permit deadline is set in stone, or that the other parties in the case should be forced to proceed with submitting testimony when discovery and due process were denied. The Air Permit hearing remains on hold pending the NM Supreme Court's decision on our Writ of Mandamus request.

A groundbreaking new study has identified specifically who is responsible for the loss of over a third of the typical annual snowpack in the Western United States between 2014 and 2024, and decreased streamflows of about 13 percent. The authors found that about half of those losses - 40 to 64% - are attributable to emissions from the “carbon majors,” 122 fossil fuel companies and cement producers responsible for the majority of carbon emissions. Who are those "carbon majors"

In a significant victory for due process and meaningful public participation, the New Mexico Supreme Court last night granted New Energy Economy’s emergency request to stay the Project Jupiter air-permit proceeding, stopping the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED)’s expedited administrative process until further order of the Court. In a unanimous Order, Chief Justice Julie J. Vargas and Justices Michael E. Vigil, C. Shannon Bacon, David K. Thomson, and Briana H. Zamora o

Today we 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. Our request does not ask 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 inve

We thought it was bad when the Hearing Examiner set the date for Project Jupiter's Air Permit hearing in October and then reversed himself, setting a September 14th date. We couldn't believe the naked subversion of the justice system when he demanded Project Jupiter respond to our Motion to Dismiss because they don't have a gas pipeline - and then reversed that decision just a few short days later. Now we can only laugh in disbelief after he issued an Order yesterday rejectin

Remember when the Governor was caught putting her finger on the scale to try to get reuse of fracking waste "over the finish line" for oil and gas? She's at it again. Deja Vu! First she was caught trying to fast track approval for Class VI well regulations favored by fossil fuels at the Oil Conservation Division, and now she's trying to shove a sham Project Jupiter hearing down our throats before she leaves office. That day can't come soon enough! How do we know the fix is in

On Tuesday New Energy Economy filed a Motion to Dismiss Project Jupiter's pending air pollution permit application arguing that the New Mexico Environment Department should not conduct a costly, multi-day evidentiary hearing on a project that cannot presently be built because its only identified fuel source has been denied by the State Land Commissioner. Project Jupiter’s proposed 2.46-gigawatt onsite power plant requires approximately 400 million cubic feet of natural gas ev

On Wednesday at 4:23PM we published an email commending the Hearing Examiner on the Project Jupiter Air Permit hearing for ignoring their false "emergency" claims and reaffirming the planned October 19th hearing date during a Monday procedural meeting. Then at 4:38PM an NMED lawyer filed a request for positions on a proposed alternate schedule - a September 14th hearing date - that violates the due process rights of intervenors, making the timing for dispository motions, disc

First important developments on Project Jupiter. On Monday the Hearing Examiner confirmed that the Air Permit proceeding is not concerned with Oracle and OpenAI's poor decision to begin construction before an air permit is issued, or with their financial losses related to that decision. Over the objection of Project Jupiter and Jennifer Bradfute's "emergency," the order to begin the public hearing on October 19th stands, and the right of intervenors to ask discovery questions

This week on Tuesday the Sierra County Commission met to discuss passage of a resolution opposing data centers. Instead, after more than an hour of impassioned public comment organized by a grassroots group calling themselves Project Consequences, the Commission unanimously passed an 18 month moratorium on data center development in Sierra County. Yesterday Rio Arriba County Commissioners took proactive steps as well, with the urging of local residents and Española Indivisibl

Why did NMED, the state "Environment Department," charged with the mission "to protect and restore the environment and to foster a healthy and prosperous New Mexico for present and future generations," argue in support of Project Jupiter's absurd and insulting demand for an expedited August hearing on their enormous air pollution permit application? The timeline proposed would have required intervenors to file any dispositive motions within two days of Wednesday's procedural

On Friday we mistakenly wrote that the final day to comment was January 6th. That day is today. July 6th. If you have not already done so, please join us in asking NMED to reject Project Jupiter's plan to pollute our air with another 10 million tons - 20 billion pounds - of climate destroying CO2 every year. A monstrous crime against humanity and ecology, solely for the profit of Sam Altman and Larry Ellison. If ever there was a time to Rage Against the Machine, today is that

Yesterday the PRC issued an order affirming the findings of the Hearing Examiners in the Blackstone/TXNM acquisition case: Blackstone and TXNM intentionally and knowingly violated NMSA § 62-6-12, completing a $400 million stock transaction without first obtaining the approval required by the Public Utility Act. Just before 5PM yesterday the Hearing Examiners issued an order granting a Joint Motion we filed in June asking that any hearing on the merits of the merger must be po

Today the PRC issued an order affirming the findings of the Hearing Examiners in the Blackstone/TXNM acquisition case: Blackstone and TXNM intentionally and knowingly violated NMSA § 62-6-12, completing a $400 million stock transaction without first obtaining the approval required by the Public Utility Act. The Commissioners further upheld the Hearing Examiners recommendation that maximum penalties will be levied against TXNM, Troy TopCo, and Troy ParentCo, $300,000 ($100,000

On Tuesday the Santa Fe County Commission voted unanimously to adopt an 18 month Data Center Moratorium Ordinance to allow time for study and adoption of critical regulations to protect against data center harms in Santa Fe County. Hundreds of you emailed the Commissioners, and dozens showed up at the meeting to ask for critical amendments to the published draft. The result? A strong ordinance that will protect Santa Fe County residents and serve as a model for counties acros

On Thursday the PRC will make a momentous decision - do they concur with the Hearing Examiners (HE) who found that Blackstone and PNM broke the law when they deliberately chose not to get prior approval before consummating their $400M stock transaction, and critically, what impact will that have on Blackstone's plan to buy our electric utility. The HE politely suggested that Blackstone and PNM should resubmit their application. We have argued that because the HE found that th

An ordinance proposed for discussion at a 2:00PM June 30th meeting of the Santa Fe County Commission would impose a one-year moratorium on the development of qualifying data center facilities in Santa Fe County, giving the County time to study and develop a framework for governing data center development. We applaud Santa Fe County Commissioners for proactive consideration of a data center moratorium to allow for the development of comprehensive protective regulations in San