- The New Mexico Supreme Court rejected two Project Jupiter challenges.
- The court lifted its pause on state regulatory proceedings.
- The data center’s air quality permit remains under review.
- A new permit hearing date has not been scheduled.
- The proposed energy system would use natural gas-powered fuel cells.
Friday, September 18, 2026 — The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously rejected two environmental groups’ challenges involving Project Jupiter, a large data center under construction in Doña Ana County, allowing state regulatory proceedings to resume. New Energy Economy and the Center for Biological Diversity had challenged the project’s pending air quality permit process and its use of an emergency water well during construction. The court had temporarily paused the proceedings in August while considering the complaints but offered no explanation when it denied the requests Thursday. Source New Mexico
reports that the New Mexico Environment Department must still decide whether to approve an air quality permit for the project’s proposed natural gas-powered fuel cell system. That process remains unsettled because the hearing officer assigned to the case recused himself in August, and the department has not yet named a replacement or scheduled a new hearing. According to projections cited by Source NM, the proposed energy system could produce annual greenhouse gas emissions comparable to those of New Mexico’s largest cities combined.
Source NM’s reporting is republished below under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
New Mexico Supreme Court rejects 2 Project Jupiter challenges, allows permitting process to resume
by Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
September 17, 2026
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously shot down two environmental groups’ challenges to regulatory proceedings for the Project Jupiter data center under construction in Doña Ana County.
In brief orders, the court denied August requests from the Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy and the national Center for Biological Diversity that challenged the data center’s pending air quality permit application with the New Mexico Environment Department and its use of an emergency water well for construction.
The New Mexico Supreme Court in August paused regulatory proceedings for Project Jupiter while it evaluated the environmental groups’ complaints. The air quality permit hearing was initially scheduled to begin Monday in southern New Mexico.
In the orders, which offered no further comment on the court’s rulings, justices also unpaused the regulatory proceedings that have been frozen since August.
“I don’t know what to say,” Colin Cox, a New Mexico-based attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Source NM Thursday. “I’m a little surprised that they granted both stays, which was pretty extraordinary and then pulled them without any explanation.”
In a statement, New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi said the plaintiffs were “terribly disappointed,” but acknowledged they had asked the state’s highest court “for extraordinary relief.”
“We went to the Supreme Court because we believed the rules of this proceeding were stacked against meaningful public participation,” she said. “We sought a fair opportunity for the public to obtain the evidence, test the claims being made by the applicant and present its case before New Mexico decides whether to authorize an enormous new source of pollution.”
The New Mexico Environment Department’s hearing officer who presided over the air quality permit application abruptly recused himself from the matter in August. The department has yet to appoint a replacement or hold a scheduling conference to set a new hearing date.
NMED spokesperson Drew Goretzka told Source NM that department officials will follow the guidance of the new hearing officer.
State environment officials will decide whether to grant the data center developer’s request to issue an air quality permit for its proposed on-site energy source, a natural-gas powered fuel cell system. Projections show that, if approved, it would emit as many greenhouse gases annually as New Mexico’s largest cities combined.
Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.
Pictured: New Mexico’s Supreme Court building, from the Supreme Court Law Library.
