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New Energy Economy News
Read the latest updates on our legal actions, just transition initiatives, Sol for ALL! projects, recent media, and more....
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Resisting Dirty Data Centers
Global data centers consumed 448 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025. By 2030, that demand is projected to double. The associated water use could exceed 2.5 trillion gallons annually, while the carbon emissions would approach 400 million metric tons, destroying hope for climate progress.
Profits flow to billionaire tech executives, yet the costs are borne locally. Nearby residents live with the noise, heat and water scarcity. Developers are targeting New Mexico but we are fighting back.
State Land Commissioner rejects Spaceport Data Center and NM Attorney General supports our petitions against Project Jupiter at NM Supreme Court. But PRC passes rules to limit rights at hearings.
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
Sep 3
Groundbreaking study quantifies the loss of water resources directly attributable to fossil fuel companies in the western United States
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"
Aug 28
NM Supreme Court yesterday granted our motion to Stay Project Jupiter air permit proceeding.
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
Aug 24
Today we filed an Emergency Stay and Writ at the NM Supreme Court to demand due process in the Project Jupiter air permit hearing
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
Aug 19
Come one, come all! The Project Jupiter Clown Show continues
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
Aug 13
Gov MLG fiddles with the law, adding fossil fuels to the fire, while New Mexico burns
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
Aug 11
Show Cause! Important Motions filed in Project Jupiter and Blackstone cases.
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
Aug 6
So, did Blackstone comply? No, they did not.
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
Jul 29
Local victories vs State complicity
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
Jul 24
If it sounds like collusion and smells like collusion.. can we call it collusion?
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
Jul 17
Tell NMED - Let us live! Last day to ask them to reject Project Jupiter's air pollution application
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
Jul 6
Yesterday Santa Fe County Commissioners listened to the people and passed a model data center moratorium
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
Jul 1
Proposed Data Center Moratorium Ordinance will be heard by Santa Fe County Commission on Tuesday the 30th. The draft has a hyperscale sized loophole that must be amended.
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
Jun 23
Project Jupiter - the Time to Speak Out is Now
In February we collected more than 4500 public comments opposing air permits for the massive fossil fueled "microgrids" planned to power Project Jupiter. In response to that overwhelming public opposition, Project Jupiter backers pivoted to a new fossil fuel solution. They now plan to power their hyperscale data center with Bloom Energy's Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and have a applied for a new air permit under the name Yucca Growth Infrastructure (YGI). The greenwashing is strong
Jun 16
On this May Day, lifting up workers instead of AI billionaires who are working hard to create a permanent underclass
Yesterday at the evidentiary hearing to determine whether Blackstone and PNM broke the law with their $400 million unsanctioned stock transaction, Blackstone and PNM continued to argue that the law does not actually say what the law says. There is no 10% control threshold to trigger the requirement to get PRC permission, even if at one time a draft of a bill once said that and a newspaper once reported about the draft! They also continued throwing up smoke to try to obscure t
May 1
Extractive industries are deceptive, voracious and relentless. We must be vigilant and persistent. This is our watch.
This week we learned about a company looking to restart exploration for uranium mining near Canjilon, a project that could poison the entire Chama watershed, we scrambled to participate in the ludicrous seven day public comment period on the Trump administration's bid to re-open fossil fuel extraction near Chaco Canyon, and saw there was a notice that federal agencies are reversing efforts to ban mining in the Upper Pecos, potentially opening up nearly 165,000 acres for miner
Apr 10
We have some big updates on Blackstone, Project Jupiter, and Groundhog Day at the WQCC
The Hearing Examiners have agreed with intervenors that Blackstone's acquisition of $400 million PNM shares without PRC permission warrants its own hearing, which has been set to begin on April 30th. Most importantly, the Hearing Examiners have vacated the prior hearing schedule because they agreed with intervenors that the acquisition cannot move forward until an investigative hearing concludes and a determination is made as to whether Blackstone and PNM violated the law wit
Mar 25
A report back from our conversation with Karen Hao
Thank you to all those who joined our conversation with Karen Hao about the Empire of AI and how Blackstone's ambition - to use New Mexico land, water, utility customers and energy resources to cash in on the artificial intelligence gold rush - could impact our communities and environment. If there is one thing we took away from Karen's deep knowledge and important insights, it is that the apocalyptic vision of these Artificial Intelligence zealots is not inevitable. Despite
Mar 17
We filed our comment opposing Project Jupiter's air pollution permit applications seeking permission to emit more than 13 million tons of climate warming emissions per year
Today New Energy Economy formally filed our public comment on the two deceptive, so called "Micro" grid, applications filed by Acoma LLC to power Project Jupiter with a giant methane gas plant that would emit more climate destroying emissions than Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces combined, along with hundreds of tons of additional toxic air pollutants and particulates in a community already suffering under the consequences of elevated ozone and nitrogen oxides from oil an
Mar 2
Gross misconduct at the Legislature - but the People are rising up. Blackstone beware.
We started the legislative session with a reminder that WE GOT US. It is WE, THE PEOPLE that will create the change we want to see. Nowhere was that more apparent than the juxtaposition between the hundreds of people showing up for six hours to speak against Blackstone at the PRC on Tuesday with the utter failure of the leadership in the New Mexico House and Senate to protect the people against the predicted and already extremely apparent collapse of our ecosystem as a conseq
Feb 19
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