County commissioners approve Project Jupiter

Amid protests, seven hours of public comment and threats of arrest against those who would not leave the main county chambers and move into an overflow room, the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners approved an Industrial Revenue Bond for the plan, dubbed Project Jupiter, that will build an AI data center in Santa Teresa.

The IRB, which passed 4-1 with Susana Chapparo, who represents District 4, being the lone no vote, has been met with vocal opposition from many community members over concerns with water and electricity usage, tax benefits for the company building the center, transparency from the county and other concerns.

BorderPlex and STACK, the groups building and owning the center, say that the center will use a closed-loop cooling system leading to the center needing just a one-time injection of water and will be on a microgrid, meaning it will not be using power from the rest of the grid.  The groups also say that they have been following all legal requirements for transparency.

The vote that passed the county approved an IRB. The IRB is billed as a tax incentive that helps attract business and investments. The county said that this is a common tool to attract investment around the country. No taxpayer money will be used to pay for the project.

BorderPlex Chairman Lanham Napier said at the meeting this is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and the $165 billion project will be the “largest private investment in New Mexico history," leading to 750 jobs that pay between $75,000 and $100,000. The company will also pay the county $360 million over 30 years in lieu of taxes in addition to $50 million to water-related issues in the area totaling $417 million total. This is an increase from the original $300 million in payments that was proposed.

The county also points to the data center that was built in Los Lunas in 2015, which caused a 350% growth in tax money going to the city of Los Lunas. The county points out that Project Jupiter is 3.6 times bigger than the Los Lunas Meta Data Center.

After the speech from Napier, Commissioner Vice-Chair Susana Chaparro, who represents District 4, moved for a 60-day postponement of the vote until November 25th. No second came and the motion died. She was met with praise from some in attendance as the board moved to a closed session. Chaparro also mentioned that her packet of information regarding the project was missing pages and said that she could not in full confidence say that she has "complete information."

Chaparro tried a second time, just before the commissioners got ready for final vote, to postpone the vote by asking for a motion to table the county's decision until October 20. She said "this has been rushed for me and the people I represent."

No other commissioner would second her motion and that effort also failed.

Public comment was originally scheduled to take two hours with one hour scheduled for those in favor and one for those against the plan. This was changed to switching back and forth between those for and against the IRB in one-hour blocks after protest from the audience.

During public comment, many community members blasted the proposal calling it perhaps the most consequential decision in the history of the commission. Speaker and local activist Daisy Maldonado said that the project will bring, "Direct harm to these communities" and that it is another story of the community being "sacrificed again.

"This is not transparency, this is not accountability, this is not democracy," Maldonado said.

Many other commenters expressed concerns about how quickly the project is moving and worries about water in the area.

The area surrounding the data center has had issues with discolored water and high arsenic levels for over a decade. Comments regarding water were met with applause.

Public comment was originally scheduled to take two hours with one hour scheduled for those in favor and one for those against the plan. This was changed to switching back and forth between those for and against the IRB in one-hour blocks.

Some spoke in favor of the plan saying that the economic impact will be immense and transform the area.

Commissioner Manual Sanchez, who represents District 5, said he heard constituent concerns about water.

"I’m under no illusions this is a panacea, this is our answer to everything," he said.

But he expressed hope that a new data center would bring more high-paying jobs to the area.

Commissioner Shannon Reynolds, of District 3, said Project Jupiter would "provide more funding" to help correct some of the water issues in the area.

Commissioner Gloria Gameros, of District 2, also spoke of the need for better paying jobs in the area. She tried to assure constituents by saying the county would "monitor these companies and hold them accountable when they're not complying.

"We'll make sure it's done right and follow suit for community needs," she said.

After the commissioners voted, the room broke out into angry yelling and chanting about democracy.

The project is due to be in full operation in 2028.