Energy Transfer is seeking approval approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a 17-mile pipeline in Southern New Mexico but it’s already run into opposition from some state Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups.
The Texas-based company filed a request with FERC to construct the pipeline in Dona Ana County, home to Las Cruces and supply power to a controversial data center. The line would transport natural gas for Project Jupiter, according to the nearly 900-page application for the $60 million pipeline, dubbed the “Green Chile Project,” reported Source NM.
Energy Transfer filed the request with FERC in February and said the project would pipe 400,000 dekatherms of gas a day. The company is asking authority to begin construction in mid-April, shortly after the public comment period closes on April 13, in order for the pipeline to be operational by Aug.15.
Most of the construction would occur on federal Bureau of Land Management and private lands but it also needs approval from the New Mexico State Land office for a one-half mile stretch. But some lawmakers plan to put up a fight, including State Sen. Jeff Steinborn of Las Cruces.
“We continue to learn things daily about the scale, the breadth, and in this case, the speed of which they’re just dead set on moving their plan forward in a way that puts at risk the air quality and public health of southern New Mexico,” he told Source NM.
State Rep. Angelica Rubio, another legislator from Las Cruces fears federal regulators will only “rubber-stamp” approval.
“I’m flabbergasted — it is the only word that comes to mind,” she said in a call with Source NM. “It’s a threat to our democracy in the sense that people genuinely do not want this project here and it’s still moving forward as if it’s being supported.”
Director of the Rio Grande Sierra Club, Camilla Feibelman vowed a fight.
“If this company thinks that there won’t be any protests to turning New Mexico into a methane gas sacrifice zone, they have another thing coming.”