Santa Fe County Commissioners last week unanimously approved an 18-month moratorium on new data centers.
The decision came in response to several proposals for AI data centers elsewhere in the state, such as Project Jupiter in Doña Ana County.
While there are currently no proposals for new data centers to be built in Santa Fe County, commissioners Lisa Cacari Stone (District 2) and Hank Hughes (District 5) proposed the ordinance to give county staff enough time to develop regulations and requirements if another data center project were to be proposed.
“We’re being preventative, we’re not waiting for an application to come forward,” Commissioner Cacari Stone told her constituents at the County Commission meeting on June 30. “Prevention is good for governance, and governance is good for business.”
The ordinance was introduced one week earlier as a year-long pause on accepting, processing, and issuing permits for “large-scale” data centers. Initially, this meant data centers that required 100 megawatts or more of energy, approximately the amount of power needed for 16,000 homes.
Environmental advocacy groups like YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action), Third Act, and New Energy Economy rallied in support of the moratorium. They also suggested amendments before the June 30 meeting to tighten up the ordinance, including reducing the 100 megawatts threshold, extending the length of the moratorium, requiring more community input, and expanding protections for potential environmental impacts.
During the meeting, commissioners amended the ordinance in real time to address the organizations’ concerns, including lowering the 100 megawatts threshold to 1 megawatt and extending the moratorium to 18 months, with an option to renew it in the future. Additionally, commissioners tasked their staff with drafting regulations that would require public disclosure of any proposal’s expected water and energy usage, as well as place limitations on non-disclosure agreements that could limit transparency around data center projects.
Advocates who showed up to give public comment were pleasantly surprised with the commission’s willingness to adopt the amendments.
“I came tonight with a list of asks,” started Albuquerque resident Grace Dukes. “And watching your amendments come up on that screen, I realized I can put that list down. You met them all.”
“I want you to know that folks all over the state are watching,” shared Bianca Sopoci-Belknap, co-director of Earthcare, an environmental advocacy group. “It’s unfortunately becoming less and less the case that folks give their input and feel heard. And so I’m standing here tonight to just thank you for doing democracy right.”
Santa Fe County joins Socorro County as the only counties in New Mexico with data center moratoriums.
Five organizations from New Mexico have joined an open letter calling for a national data center moratorium. US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have introduced national data center moratorium bills to their respective bodies of Congress.
