Breaking from state leadership, the Bernalillo County Commission considered a resolution Tuesday that would impose strict requirements for any prospective project within the county.
"If we're going to invest public money in a data center, we should set the bar high," said the resolution's sponsor, Commissioner Eric Olivas, at Tuesday's meeting. The resolution is a reaction to three data and artificial intelligence projects in New Mexico, including Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa, Project Zenith in Roswell and an expansion of Meta facilities in Los Lunas.
Under the proposed resolution, to win the commission's support, any project in Bernalillo County must be entirely powered by renewable energy, be built and run by a 90% to 95% in-state workforce and offset its water usage by funding local water projects.
Ultimately, during Tuesday's meeting, Olivas opted to defer the resolution for two weeks, pending a meeting with the governor.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other state officials have vocally supported data centers as they hope to position New Mexico as the next Silicon Valley-esque tech hub. Olivas said that he will go into the meeting open-minded, but is unwilling to compromise protections for water and renewable energies. The resolution is in sharp contrast to the Doña Ana County Commission, which approved an unprecedented $165 billion industrial revenue bond to fund Project Jupiter in September despite public skepticism.
The decision outraged some residents, including farmers and ranchers, who fear Project Jupiter will bleed already strained water resources dry. Locals also questioned the sincerity of corporate promises of economic prosperity.
Mirroring opposition in other counties, several Bernalillo County residents called the AI industry "extractive" during the meeting's public comment. Some speakers said the resolution didn't go far enough to protect citizens from environmental impacts, including carbon emissions and water scarcity. Those speakers called for a total ban on data centers in the county. "I'm tired of us getting treated as an experiment just for the means of production," said Rachelle Peña.
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