Illustration: an empty hearing hall, and the Project Jupiter campus still going up outside.
For three months, Project Jupiter's developers told anyone with a gavel that the clock could not move. In a filing to the New Mexico Supreme Court, Yucca Growth Infrastructure warned that a pause risked making the state's Nov. 23 deadline for an air permit decision impossible to meet. On Nov. 3, the same company joined the Environment Department in asking to cancel the Dec. 7 public hearing and waive that deadline altogether.
The hearing officer agreed. There is now no hearing date and no decision deadline for the air permit behind the power plant meant to run the Oracle and OpenAI data center campus in Santa Teresa.
Project Jupiter's air permit calendar, as of Nov. 6
Dec. 7
Public hearing in Sunland Park: vacated
Nov. 23
Deadline for a permit decision: waived
None
New hearing date or decision deadline
Source: the Albuquerque Journal's Nov. 6 account of the joint motion, the Nov. 5 hearing and the hearing officer's Nov. 6 order in AQB 26-57. We have not read the motion or the order.
What the state and the developer asked for
The Albuquerque Journal reports that on Nov. 3 the Environment Department and Yucca Growth Infrastructure filed a joint motion asking Hearing Officer James Browning to vacate the Dec. 7 hearing. Their stated reason: more time was needed to finish the technical review of revisions the applicant submitted in October, and to publish the required public notices.
At a hearing on Nov. 5, Browning vacated the opening of the hearing, set no new date, and ordered regular scheduling conferences. His Nov. 6 order says the hearing will be rescheduled after the department's Air Quality Bureau makes a recommendation, the Journal reports.
The Environment Department told KFOX it supported vacating the hearing date and the Nov. 23 deadline mainly because the company could not meet procedural deadlines set in state rules. Source New Mexico's reporting, carried by the Santa Fe New Mexican, notes the motion landed the same day the draft permit was due, and calls it the developers' first acknowledgment that the project's timeline had to slip.
The question nobody ruled on
There is a legal loose end. The department previously took the position that the law lets it extend the decision deadline only once, the Journal reports, which leaves the legality of a second extension open. Browning said at the hearing that the question was not his to decide.
New Energy Economy, the Santa Fe nonprofit that asked in October to have the application thrown out as incomplete, renewed that request. Its attorney argued the postponement request was itself an admission the application was not ready. Browning declined again, saying he lacked the technical evidence and the authority to dismiss it. Mariel Nanasi, the group's executive director, told the Journal the department needs time to get through the project's "mountain of uncertainty."
What Oracle says
Oracle is not the applicant. Yucca Growth Infrastructure is, and its attorneys did not respond to the Journal. Oracle's spokesperson said the company looks forward to "moving efficiently toward a hearing date and schedule" and expects the department to treat the application as fairly as others it has approved with similar or higher emissions.
That is the sentence to hold next to the record. The hearing date Oracle wants to reach efficiently existed until its own power developer asked to remove it. The revisions that need more review are the applicant's October revisions, the same ones Oracle described to us on Nov. 3 as cutting permitted emissions about 35 percent.
The delay likely pushes the proceeding into the new year, Source New Mexico reports, which would put the decision under the incoming governor's administration. Construction has not paused. The Journal reports thousands of workers are still reporting to the Santa Teresa site.
The application is still pending. Nothing has been approved, and nothing has been denied.
How we reported this: the filing, hearing and order described here come from the Albuquerque Journal's Nov. 6 report, with the Environment Department's explanation from KFOX and context from Source New Mexico via the Santa Fe New Mexican. We have not read the Nov. 3 joint motion or the Nov. 6 order, so their contents are secondhand. We are looking for both documents, the Air Quality Bureau's review schedule, and the department's legal basis for a second extension. Oracle answered our earlier questions on Nov. 3; our questions to the Environment Department are open, and Yucca Growth Infrastructure and New Energy Economy will be asked for comment, with responses added as dated updates. Tips and corrections: [email protected].