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 ordered:

“the request to stay the underlying administrative proceeding is GRANTED, and the underlying administrative proceeding is hereby STAYED until further order of this Court.”

The Court also ordered NMED to file a response by September 2, 2026.

This is an extraordinary and necessary intervention. The process surrounding Project Jupiter became so egregiously unfair that the New Mexico Supreme Court had to step in and stop it. NMED’s process failed the people of New Mexico. When an agency accelerates a hearing, eliminates discovery after twice authorizing it, refuses to decide a potentially dispositive issue about how Project Jupiter would access the 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day needed to power Project Jupiter, and withholds thousands of pages of the administrative record until the very day opponents’ expert testimony is due, that is not meaningful due process.

Our emergency petition did not ask the Supreme Court to decide whether Project Jupiter ultimately should receive an air permit. It asked the Court to require NMED to provide the fair process guaranteed by the New Mexico Constitution, the Air Quality Control Act, the New Mexico Administrative Code, and NMED’s own procedural rules. 

The Supreme Court's stay means that the air permit hearing will not proceed until the Supreme Court rules on our request to issue a writ of mandamus requiring NMED and its Hearing Officer to comply with their mandatory constitutional, statutory, and regulatory duties.

As we argued, an ordinary appeal would be inadequate because once the hearing occurs and construction proceeds, a later appellate victory would be little more than a hollow remedy if a permit were already issued.

The NM Supreme Court's Order restores something fundamental: the principle that speed, money, and political power do not outrank due process. Project Jupiter may be backed by some of the most powerful corporations in the world, but New Mexicans still have constitutional rights. If this project can withstand serious scientific scrutiny, meaningful discovery, a complete record, and fair cross-examination, then let it do so. What cannot be permitted is a sham process where the public is kept in the dark while Project Jupiter developers are given the red carpet treatment by the NM Environment Department.

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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY PETITION FOR STAY OF PROJECT JUPITER'S EMERGENCY WATER WELL WAS ALSO GRANTED BY THE NM SUPREME COURT!

The day after we filed our motion about the air permit, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) also filed an emergency petition with the New Mexico Supreme Court challenging the state’s approval of an emergency replacement well that has supplied millions of gallons of freshwater for Project Jupiter.

In October the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer granted an emergency authorization to Santa Teresa Capital to drill a replacement well to supply water for Project Jupiter’s construction. Since April more than 103 million gallons of water have been pumped from the new well.

The CBD petition argues that under New Mexico water law, an emergency authorization allowing a replacement well to be drilled can only be granted under specific conditions. These conditions require a true emergency, such as imminent crop loss. It also argues that New Mexico water law sets clear and strict obligations that the state engineer has to follow when considering any changes in well location or water use. These include informing community members of the proposed changes and requiring the state to hold a public hearing. These are critical due process protections that were cast aside for Project Jupiter.

CBD's petition asked the New Mexico Supreme Court to declare the state engineer’s emergency authorization illegal and stop water diversion to Project Jupiter until state requirements, including a public hearing, are met.

Last night the NM Supreme Court granted that stay, unanimously ordering that "emergency drilling authorization permitting the use of water from a new well for the construction of Project Jupiter is hereby STAYED until further order of the Court;"

The emergency replacement well was already drilled and Project Jupiter was already withdrawing millions of gallons of freshwater. This stay means that the well they are using to prematurely construct their data center, before obtaining an air permit or a fuel source, is now off limits until further order of the court.

ICING ON THE CAKE: MAX SHEPHERD ALSO JUST RECUSED HIMSELF AS HEARING OFFICER!

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TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE JOINED US IN STANDING UP AGAINST PROJECT JUPITER'S PLAN TO EXPLOIT NEW MEXICO AND DESTROY OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH

Thank you especially to Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), Center for Biological Diversity, FCDX in Las Cruces, Indivisible Albuquerque, and all our friends in the Defend NM Water coalition who show up every time, in fight after fight, to call for protection of the sacred. We are eternally grateful for your solidarity and perseverance!