The $165 billion Project Jupiter data center, which Oracle and OpenAI are developing in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, as part of the Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure project announced by Donald Trump in 2025, is facing protests and lawsuits over its environmental impact. Oracle’s call for proposals on 8 September for new renewable energy projects does not change the fact that the center will be powered by natural gas-burning fuel cells.
According to Cleanview CEO Michael Thomas, the 2 GW of renewable energy will not directly supply electricity to the data center. The 2.2 gigawatt natural gas generation initially planned by Oracle and OpenAI could have caused 14 million tons of CO 2 emissions annually and erased 20 years of emissions reductions in New Mexico. Following backlash from state residents and environmental organizations, the plan was changed from gas turbines to fuel cells.
Oracle executive Julia Robin said that the 2.45 gigawatt fuel cell system would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 90% compared with gas turbines and would also significantly reduce other pollutants such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. Bloom Energy technology could be used with cleaner fuels such as hydrogen or biogas and with carbon capture systems. Oracle also announced that it would allocate $1 million to carbon capture and storage research. However, the fuel cells will consume natural gas for now because it is “available and reliable” in the region.
Oracle’s goal of “100 percent carbon-free energy matching” by 2031 will not directly reduce the center’s natural gas-related emissions, as it will use the environmental attributes of renewable projects to be built elsewhere. Thomas said the facility could become the largest source of emissions in the state.
New Mexico Land Office rejected requests for natural gas pipelines to the data center twice. The New Mexico Supreme Court halted the air quality permitting process on August 23. The project is 26 percent complete. Oracle also pledged a publicly accessible dashboard and independent assessments for air, noise, heat, light and water data. While the company has $125 billion in debt, CFO Hilary Maxon said on September 10 that construction was progressing on schedule.
Why it matters
Project Jupiter is creating serious local tension over New Mexico’s emissions reduction targets, with the possibility that the facility could become one of the state’s largest sources of emissions. Although fuel cells could reduce some air pollutants compared with turbines, the center’s continued reliance on natural gas in the short term means that renewable capacity to be built in other regions will not eliminate direct emissions in Santa Teresa. The issue therefore concerns not only the choice of energy source, but also how the impacts on residents’ air quality, water and living environment will be monitored. The rejection of the pipeline requests and the suspension of the permitting process continue to create uncertainty over the project’s legal basis as construction moves forward. Publicly available data and independent reviews will show whether the company’s environmental commitments can be measured.
Term: data center
A data center is a facility that houses servers along with cooling systems and uninterrupted power; debates over the electricity and water consumption of artificial intelligence investments are conducted through these facilities.