New Mexico land commissioner again rejects pipeline request for Project Jupiter
Paul Schulz
DONA ANA COUNTY, N.M. (KVIA) — New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard has again denied a request to allow a portion of a natural gas pipeline to cross state trust land for the proposed Project Jupiter data center in southern New Mexico.
The State Land Office announced Wednesday that Garcia Richard rejected Energy Transfer’s request to reconsider her March 2026 decision denying two rights of way applications and one business lease for a 0.6 mile section of a proposed 17 mile natural gas pipeline.
According to a letter dated July 14, Garcia Richard said approving the request would not be in the best interest of the state trust, citing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions associated with Project Jupiter, as well as the project’s expected impact on New Mexico’s water supply and natural resources.
“In New Mexico, we truly mean it when we say water is life. We can’t live without it and we know how precious and rare it is in our dry climate,” New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard said. “Massive AI data centers like Project Jupiter can rapidly deplete critical natural resources like water and threaten ecosystems by generating shocking levels of emissions to power their operations. I am once again rejecting Energy Transfer’s request because the proposed natural gas pipeline appears to offer very little benefit to the State Land Office’s beneficiary institutions, the local community, or New Mexico as a whole. It’s my duty to protect state trust lands and New Mexicans from proposals that appear to offer more obvious risks than benefits.”
Oracle, which is building Project Jupiter, said the project remains on schedule and will bring significant economic benefits to New Mexico.
“Project Jupiter is being built for and by New Mexicans and will dramatically change the economic trajectory across the state,” an Oracle spokesperson said. “We’re creating 4,000 construction jobs, with more than 440 New Mexican residents already working on site today, 1,500 ongoing project supported jobs, and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the community, including $50 million to improve and repair Doña Ana County’s water system.”
The spokesperson also said the company’s cooling and fuel cell energy systems use less water annually than nine average U.S. households and that its new power strategy significantly reduces emissions compared with its original plan.
Oracle said it aims to power 100 percent of the electricity used by its AI data centers with carbon free energy by 2035, which is 10 years ahead of the net zero goals outlined in New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act. The company said it will continue working with its partners and state officials to move Project Jupiter forward.