Planned presentations were derailed May 19 as attendees peppered New Mexico Tech President Michael Jackson and the developer with questions, comments and criticism.
Jackson acknowledged community concerns about data centers.
"The question is ... can we make them better?" he asked the audience. They answered him with boos.
The data center would likely be built on land owned by New Mexico Tech, although a site has yet to be selected, university officials say.
Data centers aren't new. But, driven by the computing needs of artificial intelligence, projects of a different scope — often known as hyperscale data centers — have drawn pushback over their need for water and power, which can vary dramatically.
A February poll found support for data centers has waned nationwide since last year, with only 28 percent of respondents saying they would support a data center in their hometown, and 52 percent saying they would oppose it. According to data collected by the nonpartisan Data Center Watch, data center projects are increasingly being delayed or canceled, although the reasons for those setbacks can sometimes be unclear. At the same time, opposition groups are gaining more traction.
Meeting attendees last week asked whether students would see any revenue from the proposed data center and about developer Jason Bak's background, the project's water and power usage, and the impact it could have on the Very Large Array, a powerful radio telescope in Magdalena.
Bak, the founder and CEO of Green Data Centers, tried to cast the project as a different type of data center — "big data," he said, has lost community goodwill over concerns about transparency and resource use. His plan, Bak said, would rely on atmospheric water generation, which pulls moisture out of the air, to reduce water usage.
"I understand the concerns," Bak said. "You are starting from the right position. ... It is very, very valid concerns. We are trying to show something different."
But attendees didn't shed their skepticism over the roughly three-hour meeting.
POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
The New Mexico Tech project is being proposed in a time of flux. In the next year, the state will have a new governor, which could bring in some new regents. Additionally, Jackson said at the May 19 meeting, the university is weighing its options as it faces pressure to diversify its revenue streams.
Throughout the next few months, Jackson said the university will continue to host public forums to discuss the project. The next town hall will be held in June.
At the same time, Socorro County commissioners are considering adopting a data center moratorium. Other municipalities are doing the same; earlier this year, Bernalillo County adopted a resolution setting conditions on tax incentives for data center projects, and El Paso City Council is set to consider a similar bill later this year, according to El Paso Matters.
Socorro County Commission Chair Joe Gonzales said the measure was brought in response to community concerns about the New Mexico Tech project. He has been following community meetings on the proposal, with the exception of an electric co-op meeting earlier this year that "let the cat out of the bag."
GOING FORWARD
University officials stress the project is still in early phases and may never come to fruition. Gonzales said the county has received little information over the past few months.
"It was to our surprise that ... the data center was coming in," Gonzales said. "Nobody had approached us."
Gonzales said the one-year moratorium is intended to allow the county to gather information, although the legislation might not have an impact on the proposed project.
Katie Ismael, a spokesperson for New Mexico Tech, wrote in an email to The New Mexican that as a state-owned institution, the university believes it is exempt from local zoning and building ordinances on campus property. However, a site hasn't been selected, she added.
Additionally, Ismael wrote, if the project goes forward it would likely happen after the one-year moratorium expires.
But that doesn't mean the moratorium, or any other local regulations, won't factor into the equation.
"While we are strictly in an information and data-gathering phase, the language and intent of any local ordinances or moratoriums will be fully considered as part of our fact-finding process," Ismael wrote.
The legislation is currently expected to be discussed and voted on at the County Commission's June 9 meeting, although Gonzales said that could change due to scheduling conflicts. He said he'd like to be in the room for discussions on the measure.
Gonzales said he's "not of the opinion that all that matters is the dollar." He said the proposed moratorium is in the interest of making the best decisions for county residents.
"It's tough to be a rural community and stay small and still have livelihood," Gonzales said. "... It might be that this whole data center might be the best thing for Socorro County, if it fits. But, you know, the shoe's got to fit."
LONG-TERM VALUE?
In Bernalillo County, commissioners took a different tack. Rather than issuing a moratorium on data center projects, the commission adopted conditions for developers seeking tax incentives for data center projects, which bill sponsor Eric Olivas said would likely capture the vast majority of proposed projects.
The Bernalillo County ordinance requires developers to prioritize local workers, offer salaries above the area's median salary, offset any water use and be powered either by connecting to the public grid, regulated by the Energy Transition Act, or by a fully renewable microgrid. The goal, Olivas said, is to ensure that county gets a good deal if it chooses to forgo tax revenue.
He said he wasn't concerned that the legislation would deter economic development — rather, he sees that as a benefit.
"Bad developers, the developers that are not willing to invest in our community through our local workforce, the developers that are not willing to protect our water, the developers that are not willing to power their facilities with renewable energy, we don't want them here," Olivas said. "We want to incentivize really good development. If we're going to do this, we need to do it right."
He pointed to the Meta data center in Los Lunas as an example of a data center that would meet those criteria.
Olivas said he still has doubts about the long-term value of data centers, due to their relatively low full-time employment numbers and potential environmental tradeoffs. But he said the impact to construction and trade workers is "compelling" — he said he's heard that electricians who once had to travel most of the year were able to find more steady contract work at the Los Lunas facility.
Data centers have divided both the Democratic and Republican parties. Labor groups and environmental groups, Olivas said, typically reliable Democratic voters, have diverged on the topic. Republicans too are divided; a recent Gallup poll found that while Republican voters are slightly more likely to support a data center project in their vicinity, the majority of red voters with an opinion on data centers opposed them.
Olivas said roughly 75 percent of the comments received on the measure were in opposition — not from developers, but rather from constituents who felt the resolution didn't go far enough and wanted to see a wholesale ban.
He said that could be an obstacle if a developer is willing to meet the conditions set by the county.
"If and when a real project shows up meeting these standards, I still think there's going to be a challenge to make sure that the public is educated and understands ... the benefits and the risks," Olivas said.
He also sees a need for statewide guardrails on projects. If a developer doesn't receive a warm reception in one county, they might relocate to another.
"While some counties might be considering moratoriums and restrictions, there's going to be other counties that roll out the red carpet," Olivas said. "... For a resource like water, that we use statewide, that's a real problem."
© 2026 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
