On Friday, Aug. 21, over 100 protesters gathered outside the New Mexico Environment Department building in Santa Fe, urging NMED not to approve the air quality permit application for Project Jupiter, which would allow the construction of two power-generation microgrids needed to create 2.45 gigawatts of electricity for AI infrastructure.
Members of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action led the demonstration, during which residents from across New Mexico came carrying signs with phrases such as “Our children can’t drink data,” “Water is for living beings, not for Project Jupiter” and chanting “We need clean air, not another billionaire.”
”We should not have to prove that clean air is worth fighting for, we should not have to fight for the right to understand what is being built around us, and New Mexicans should never be expected to accept irreversible decisions simply because a corporation promises that something this enormous will be good for us,” Zephyr Jaramillo, an organizer for Youth United for Climate Crisis Action told the crowd at the protest.
Howard Korder and Nancy Barickman came to the protest with a sign that read “if it’s so great, why do they need to lie about it?”
“I can’t stand being lied to. Any public input has been treated as an empty ritual because they think we’re stupid,” Korder said.
Irene Rodriguez, who said she is a long-term resident of Santa Teresa and lives only miles away from where the project is being developed, came to Santa Fe to speak to the crowd about her concerns.
“We’ve been to the city, to the commission’s office and nobody has listened to us,” Rodriguez told the crowd. “Let’s keep New Mexico enchanted… we’re going to do whatever it takes to take them out.”
Patrick Jaramillo, co-director of the American Friends Service Committee’s New Mexico Program, an organization involved in sustainable agriculture and land and water rights, also addressed the crowd. “These people are taking our resources, our wealth, our lifeline and profiting from it,” Jaramillo said. “If you take our water, you are taking our lives. Our mountains are burning up, our rivers dried up, what do we have? Nothing.”
YUCCA organizer Jonathan Juárez also spoke to the crowd, highlighting the secrecy surrounding the project since it went public.
“Somehow at this exact moment, we’re being told that NM should reorganize enormous pieces of our energy and water infrastructure around the demands of AI,” Juárez said. “This isn’t Oracle’s resources, this is our air, our water, our energy systems. You don’t get to negotiate the future of those things behind closed doors.”
Juárez said he rejects the idea that “asking these questions makes us against jobs” and that “protecting water makes us anti-development,” or that “climate justice means choosing between economic survival and physical survival.”
Following the speeches, several protestors performed a skit, using cardboard masks and name tags of state officials and other public figures, delivering monologues about how their character has contributed to alleged corruption behind Project Jupiter.
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Some of the names on the tags of the “web of corruption” role play performers included Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson and Max Shepard, the appointed hearing officer in charge of NMED’s air quality permit process.
“Our demands today are simple: stop fast-tracking Project Jupiter, give all communities the time and information necessary for meaningful participation,” Juarez said. “No more secrecy and no more hiding decisions that affect the public behind NDA’s and closed doors. And Governor Grisham, if you’re going to call yourself a climate leader, then lead like one. Protect our water, our air, and put the people of New Mexico before the demands of corporations.”
Penelope Loyd Sment is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @DailyLobo
