Jul 20, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Oracle’s planned 2.5GW Project Jupiter data center in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, has faced another regulatory setback. The New Mexico State Land Office rejected Energy Transfer’s permit application for the Green Chile Project, a 17-mile natural gas pipeline extension intended to supply fuel for the site’s 2.5GW Bloom fuel cell deployment. The decision marks the second major permitting hurdle for the data center campus.
State officials cited concerns over water consumption, CO2 emissions, and limited state revenue benefits in rejecting the pipeline permit. Oracle said Project Jupiter remains on schedule despite the setback. The company may need to reroute the pipeline through private land if approval is not granted, potentially causing further delays. Announced in January, the 1,400-acre campus is being developed by Stack and BorderPlex Digital Assets, with investment plans of up to $165 billion.
Oracle will use Project Jupiter to host AI infrastructure for OpenAI, powered by up to 2.8GW of Bloom solid oxide fuel cells. While the fuel cells avoid direct combustion emissions, they still rely on natural gas, raising environmental concerns similar to those that led Amazon to cancel a Bloom deployment in Oregon.
