A normal large business venture coming to town might look something like this: politicians lobby to bring in the new business, in full view of the public. They want the jobs and the economic growth, and their constituents probably do too. They might negotiate tax incentives, go through a permitting process, and be up and running in a few years.

This usually happens out in the open, and there’s buy-in from the public.

The rush to build data centers in New Mexico and across the country is fundamentally different. These are enormous facilities that require huge amounts of energy and water, they don’t produce many permanent jobs. But some of the most notable differences are the tactics these companies and their contractors have been using to speed through the permitting processes and get off the ground as quickly as possible.

Take the biggest data center project in New Mexico, Project Jupiter. It’s a hyperscale data center under construction next to Santa Teresa in Doña Ana County.

By the time many people heard about Project Jupiter, county civil servants had already negotiated with the company under a nondisclosure agreement that kept the whole enterprise a secret. County commissioners went into a closed meeting and then voted to pledge $165 billion worth of industrial revenue bonds for the data center.

Then residents start getting mailers urging them to support Project Jupiter, which turned out to be from a fake grassroots organization that was really a giant industry-backed lobbying campaign. State officials start getting fake public comments supporting the project’s permits from New Mexicans who said they never sent those comments.

There’s been a series of strange and possibly even illegal moves to try and win this data center public support, or at least to win support from the state regulators who are still reviewing their environmental permit applications.

Project Jupiter’s not the only one. There have been data center initiatives all over the state.

On this episode of "Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams," Las Cruces New Mexican/Searchlight NM reporter Julia Gentin and state Rep.Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, lay out the secretive and sometimes deceptive tactics at play as these data centers try to get off the ground.

Later in the program we’re joined by Drew Hawkins, senior reporter at the Gulf States Newsroom, to talk about how the tactics we’re seeing in New Mexico are unfolding at an even greater scale in Louisiana. 

__ 
Got a news tip? Send us an email at tips@searchlightnm.org

A normal large business venture coming to town might look something like this: politicians lobby to bring in the new business, in full view of the public. They want the jobs and the economic growth, and their constituents probably do too. They might negotiate tax incentives, go through a permitting process, and be up and running in a few years.
This usually happens out in the open, and there&rsquo;s buy-in from the public.
The rush to build data centers in New Mexico and across the country is fundamentally different. These are enormous facilities that require huge amounts of energy and water, they don&rsquo;t produce many permanent jobs. But some of the most notable differences are the tactics these companies and their contractors have been using to speed through the permitting processes and get off the ground as quickly as possible.
Take the biggest data center project in New Mexico, Project Jupiter. It&rsquo;s a hyperscale data center under construction next to Santa Teresa in Do&ntilde;a Ana County.
By the time many people heard about Project Jupiter, county civil servants had already negotiated with the company under a nondisclosure agreement that kept the whole enterprise a secret. County commissioners went into a closed meeting and then voted to pledge $165 billion worth of industrial revenue bonds for the data center.
Then residents start getting mailers urging them to support Project Jupiter, which turned out to be from a fake grassroots organization that was really a giant industry-backed lobbying campaign. State officials start getting fake public comments supporting the project&rsquo;s permits from New Mexicans who said they never sent those comments.
There&rsquo;s been a series of strange and possibly even illegal moves to try and win this data center public support, or at least to win support from the state regulators who are still reviewing their environmental permit applications.
Project Jupiter&rsquo;s not the only one. There have been data center initiatives all over the state.
On this episode of "Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams," Las Cruces New Mexican/Searchlight NM reporter Julia Gentin and state Rep.Micaela Lara Cadena, D-Mesilla, lay out the secretive and sometimes deceptive tactics at play as these data centers try to get off the ground.
Later in the program we&rsquo;re joined by Drew Hawkins, senior reporter at the Gulf States Newsroom, to talk about how the tactics we&rsquo;re seeing in New Mexico are unfolding at an even greater scale in Louisiana.&nbsp;
__&nbsp; Got a news tip? Send us an email at <a href="mailto:tips@searchlightnm.org">tips@searchlightnm.org</a>

Why data center development has rapidly grown amid public and political pushback

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams, a monthly podcast that takes a deep look at critical issues impacting New Mexicans.

Last year, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Today, staffing cuts have hollowed out nearly half of the department’s workforce — including at the Office of Civil Rights, which oversees federal protections against sexual assault in schools.

As federal oversight is scaled back, students and parents in some states are turning to state- and local-level protections. Often those protections are more robust than those provided by Title IX, the federal student civil rights law administered by the Department of Education.

But in states like New Mexico — where little or no state-level protections exist — students have few options when a school mishandles a report of sexual violence on campus.

A recent investigation by Searchlight brings this gap into clear focus.

In April, a student named Larissa told administrators at her middle school in Hobbs that she was raped on campus as at least one onlooker filmed on their phone. Both the alleged assault and the video should have triggered Title IX investigations, according to experts. School officials disagreed.

Instead, the school wrote up Larissa for violating the student code of conduct and assigned her three days of on-campus suspension. She was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is now being homeschooled.

Larissa’s case was one of 47 instances of rape, sexual assault, or sharing of explicit images of students reported to police from Hobbs schools over the past three school years, according to police dispatch records. Hobbs is not unique — rates of rape and sexual assault in New Mexico are 40 percent higher than the national average. Students in many of the state’s school districts have reported elevated levels of sexual violence.

On this episode of “Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams,” Sabrina Bernadel of the National Center for Youth Law discusses the state of civil rights for today’s students. And Susan Moen, a Title IX advocate and advisor to Stop Sexual Assault in Schools who has worked with students and parents for more than two decades, unpacks the federal and local processes for reporting and investigating sexual assault in schools.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams, a monthly podcast that takes a deep look at critical issues impacting New Mexicans.
Last year, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Today, staffing cuts have hollowed out nearly half of the department&rsquo;s workforce &mdash; including at the Office of Civil Rights, which oversees federal protections against sexual assault in schools.
As federal oversight is scaled back, students and parents in some states are turning to state- and local-level protections. Often those protections are more robust than those provided by Title IX, the federal student civil rights law administered by the Department of Education.
But in states like New Mexico &mdash; where little or no state-level protections exist &mdash; students have few options when a school mishandles a report of sexual violence on campus.
A&nbsp;<a href="https://searchlightnm.org/she-claimed-rape-instead-she-got-class-suspension/">recent investigation</a> by Searchlight brings this gap into clear focus.
In April, a student named Larissa told administrators at her middle school in Hobbs that she was raped on campus as at least one onlooker filmed on their phone. Both the alleged assault and the video should have triggered Title IX investigations, according to experts. School officials disagreed.
Instead, the school wrote up Larissa for violating the student code of conduct and assigned her three days of on-campus suspension. She was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and is now being homeschooled.
Larissa&rsquo;s case was one of 47 instances of rape, sexual assault, or sharing of explicit images of students reported to police from Hobbs schools over the past three school years, according to police dispatch records. Hobbs is not unique &mdash; rates of rape and sexual assault in New Mexico are 40 percent higher than the national average. Students in many of the state&rsquo;s school districts have reported elevated levels of sexual violence.
On this episode of &ldquo;Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams,&rdquo; Sabrina Bernadel of the National Center for Youth Law discusses the state of civil rights for today&rsquo;s students.&nbsp;And Susan Moen, a Title IX advocate and advisor to Stop Sexual Assault in Schools who has worked with students and parents for more than two decades, unpacks the federal and local processes for reporting and investigating sexual assault in schools.

The federal government is scaling back civil rights enforcement for students. What does that mean for K-12 schools?

Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams is a monthly podcast that takes a deep look at critical issues impacting New Mexicans. 

Visit searchlightnm.org to read our latest investigative and public service journalism reporting.

Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams is a monthly podcast that takes a deep look at critical issues impacting New Mexicans.&nbsp;
Visit searchlightnm.org to read our latest investigative and public service journalism reporting.

Searchlight New Mexico with Ed Williams

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