Do We Need To Annex Greenland Just to Put All the Data Centers There?

Sent to newspapers 8/28/2026

Will data center populism end their future in New Mexico?

Politicians are as steadfast as adolescents when it comes to changing their minds.

You’re my best friend! No, you’re my best friend. You’re my second-best friend….

The Washington Post analyzed more than 4,000 social media posts and newsletters about data centers from politicians from the last two years. The Post found that Democrats’ social media posts about data centers began to turn negative by July 2025, and by February 2026, Republicans joined them.

Just like their limitless love and respect for the late Dolly Parton, the opposing sides of the aisle can agree: Data Centers Are Bad For Us.

This is another no-brainer like affordability. Data centers are the ultimate NIMBY issue: they suck up precious water; they raise our electric bills; they never create as many jobs as promised; and they line the pockets of tech billionaires.

Campaign gold.

Here’s the problem. We need data centers. The way we use data has fundamentally changed in the last 18 months, and it changes at an exponential rate. Just as Google searching changed the workplace some 25 years ago, AI is changing it now.

Even the article I cite at the beginning of this column used AI – it includes a lengthy disclaimer explaining that it used GPT 5.6 Luna to analyze all of the posts collected.

New Mexico is being torn apart by data centers. The State Supreme Court just suspended the air and water use permits obtained by Project Jupiter, a 1400-acre project in Santa Teresa backed by a $165 billion partnership between Oracle and Open AI. If completed, Project Jupiter would generate between 700 and 900 megawatts with its on-site power station, making it one of the largest data centers in the world.

The water rights, legally purchased from a neighboring farm that voluntarily agreed to stop irrigating a portion of its acreage, are the largest concern in drought-ravaged Doña Ana County. Since the announcement of Project Jupiter, three counties – Santa Fe, Sierra, and Socorro, have voted across party lines to issue moratoria halting data center development within county boundaries.

A legal notice published in the Silver City Daily Press & Independent this week announcing public hearings regarding air permitting for a data center near Playas has launched the opposition in force. Expect pressure on the Grant County Commission to commence.

This, to me, is not a sustainable position. Requiring microgrids, tightly regulating water use, and being smart about site selection are sustainable positions.

I see it much like the copper mining industry in Grant County. The need for copper is growing. We can extract it at Chino Mine with American labor and American and New Mexican environmental standards. Or we can wring our hands about the evils of extraction industries and let those jobs go and let copper come from Chile or Congo, where working conditions are so fantastic and they take such great care of the land and groundwater.

I know what my preference is.

Innovation and technical dominance are central to the American economy and our GDP growth. At the local level we will have to address the issue of data centers intelligently and creatively.

New Mexico, with two national energy labs, should lean into this. One of the legitimate concerns about data centers is how they get their power and the impact on residential consumers. The Department of Energy has been charged to address AI as a national security issue while securing the national energy grid.

DOE is channeling billions of dollars into grid resilience and has established a voluntary ratepayer protection pledge where tech companies and utilities execute agreements where the data center operators pay for their own generation upgrades.

Local and state governments need to also react quickly and intelligently to avoid getting caught with the bill.

In New Mexico, we can do more than just ward off a ratepayer hike. We can be an energy leader for the data economy. It’s a different equation and one we should leverage.

Meta made a billion-dollar investment here last year into geothermal exploitation. Becoming a geothermal leader could quickly eclipse any of our other considerable renewable sources, not to mention our fossil fuels.

Even while waiting for a new geothermal boom, New Mexico currently generates 55.3% of its grid power from renewables, meeting 2030 statutory requirements five years ahead of schedule. The state has rapidly attracted clean energy investment, drawing in $21 billion through the first quarter of 2025 – a tremendous upsurge from the first part of this decade.

Significant investment has come from mega-projects. $11 billion comes from just a single project: the massive SunZia project, completed this June, where the largest solar grid in the Western Hemisphere is delivering power to California. The grid is located in Lincoln, San Miguel, and Torrance Counties.

This summer, Convalt Energy announced plans to develop a $5 billion campus in Gallup for solar panel manufacturing. The facility is to be completed by 2028 and is intended to create 900 permanent jobs.

This is the industry that is feeding the new energy economy. This is important stability as we continue increased production from the Permian Basin. Those oil and gas revenues – now becoming more dependent on natural gas – are expected to peak in the mid 2030s and then decline. The surge in renewables is coming at the right time to keep New Mexico a national energy leader.

Nuclear is another option we should consider. Reactor technology has changed drastically since Three Mile Island. We’re talking briefcase-sized reactors. Now, I come from a culture that embraces nuclear energy because the Navy runs them in incredibly small environments in extreme conditions with humans sleeping near them and a 70-year record of zero accidents. So I might have a comfort level that you don’t.

If you want to talk about serious wattage, though, geothermal and nuclear get us there with a much smaller footprint than wind and solar.

I don’t think data centers should be considered “digital landfills” as some are calling them. I’m at my computer, tablet, or smartphone 70+ hours a week. I need access to data tools for the majority of my waking hours to make a living, access entertainment, and connect with friends and family.

We can’t wish or regulate them away. New Mexico has an abundance of square footage and energy generation capacity few other places on the planet can achieve.

We can exploit this and take our state, economy, and workforce forward.

Or we can do things the way we always have. We can say, “we don’t do it that way here,” watch opportunities go to other states (or countries), and stay at the bottom of every list.

Merritt Hamilton Allen is an executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at merritt@merrittocracy.news.