On July 16, 1945 the United States government detonated the world’s first atomic bomb at a ranch in the Tularosa Basin without warning or informing nearby residents.
While it is recorded by history as a success, things didn’t go flawlessly. Of the 13 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, only about three pounds actually ignited. The rest rained down like cancer falling from the sky, embedding itself in the land, water, animals and people who will be dealing with the impacts for generations to come.
While it is recorded by history as a success, things didn’t go flawlessly. Of the 13 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, only about three pounds actually ignited. The rest rained down like cancer falling from the sky, embedding itself in the land, water, animals and people who will be dealing with the impacts for generations to come.
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The Madison Avenue marketing geniuses trying to shove Project Jupiter down our throats know so little about our community that they think what was done at Trinity Site was something to be emulated. In a full-page advertisement in Sunday’s newspaper they boasted, “New Mexico is no stranger to fostering visionary breakthroughs. It was the birthplace of the atomic age …”
The advertising blitz for Project Jupiter is cranking up. And, with a $165 billion total budget, one imagines that would buy quite a bit of air time and print space. But no matter how many cheerful, young actors they hire to stand before the camera and promise to be good neighbors, it won’t change the shameful way this was passed without the consent or even the knowledge of those who will be harmed the most. It started at the state Legislature, where an exemption to the state’s clean-air law was tacked on as an amendment to an unrelated bill and passed in early 2025 before any of us had even heard of Project Jupiter. That will allow for the same kind of gas-powered generating stations that we just told El Paso Electric and The Public Service Company were no longer permitted. The $165 billion industrial revenue bond approved by the county calls for Project Jupiter to pay $360 million over 30 years in lieu of taxes that would otherwise be owed. That doesn’t seem like much for such a massive investment. And, when pressed, county commissioners would not explain how they arrived at that figure. I’m not as opposed to Project Jupiter as many of my fellow county residents are. The era of artificial intelligence is upon us. Ours will be one of the first massive data centers, but it won’t be the last. The environmental harms are well known before they ever break ground, and can be monitored and mitigated to an extent. Nobody wants one in their backyard, but the nation is going to need data centers. And, the residents of the south county need jobs and commercial investment My support might have been winnable if they had done this the right way - with thorough vetting, ample public meetings and an honest explanation of the environmental risks. The fact that it wasn’t done that way concerns me. I’ve seen the influence money has on the government. The $165 billion industrial revenue bond is about 15 times the size of the state budget. That much money can buy a lot of favorable outcomes. To be clear, I have no evidence that anybody took a nickel they weren’t entitled to. But when that much money is on the line and the skids get greased it is, in the words of those great American philosophers C+C Music FactoryCompany, “things that make you go hmm.” Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail,com |
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