Dona Ana County Commissioner Susie Kimble in a screen photo from YouTube during the Oct. 13 Board meeting.
Jason Groves/Las Cruces Sun-News
USA TODAY Network, Reuters
A scheduled Project Jupiter update took a surprise turn during the Oct. 13 Doña Ana County Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure executive Julia Robin announced early in the presentation a proposed Energy Services Agreement with El Paso Electric that would allow Project Jupiter, “to support late-stage construction, initial commissioning, emergency backup power at the site,” according to an Oct. 13 Oracle press release that caught Commissioners off guard.
“Now you are springing this on us,” District 3 Commissioner Susie Kimble said.
“I don’t think anyone knew about it.”
Oracle Executive Vice President Magesh Thiagarajan said the proposed agreement was not finalized so the agreement was not included in the slides provided to the Board for the update, which featured job number updates, and a request for proposal process to identify projects that would identify two gigawatts in carbon free projects in New Mexico that Oracle could invest in.
“Sir it’s an ongoing bad habit not getting information to this commission,” District 4 Commissioner Susana Chaparro said. “I think most of us work on fly but again transparency. We are still having the same issue. My residents deserve respect. They deserve honesty. You are not rising to the occasion and I don’t understand why.”
The proposed agreement with El Paso Electric would require amending agreements tied to the industrial revenue bonds that the Board approved in Sept. 2025, setting the project in motion.
After pushback from multiple commissioners, Thiagarajan indicated Oracle would not continue to pursue the agreement with El Paso Electric without further discussion with the county.
“If the county strongly believes this proposal is not OK, we are here to listen to you,” Thiagarajan said.
Thiagarajan said the proposal would serve to “take away” the ongoing El Paso Electric rate case with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission due to the potential presence of additional unused power on the grid.
“I don’t want to see you connect with El Paso Electric, that is something I’m not going to budge on,” District 1 Commissioner Christopher Shaljo Hernandez said. “That would be in violation. Not tying in is the only way to guarantee that El Paso Electric rate payers in New Mexico would not be affected.
“If you would have brought us along for the proposal, the county would have told you that you are not allowed to tie in.”
Robin said Oracle still plans to power the data center campus by Bloom Energy fuel cells, although there remains key regulatory obstacles including the construction of a natural gas pipeline and an ongoing air quality permit process with the state.
According to the Oracle news release, the proposed agreement with El Paso Electric Oracle, “expects to pay $10 million for power annually for 10 years even if its usage is below contracted levels.”
An additional agreement includes a proposal to provide $55 million annually in direct credits for up to three years for residential and small business customers.
“We welcome the opportunity to facilitate Oracle’s credit to further affordability for our customers,” El Paso Electric president and CEO Kelly Tomblin said in the news release. “Growth and investment in New Mexico has always been an EPE priority and we support the effort Oracle is making to ensure that this growth benefits our residential and small commercial customers.”
Board Chairman Manuel Sanchez said the proposal was “putting the cart before the horse,” referring to an assumption that an amendment would achieve three votes.
“I understand it’s a proposal, but we want to honor the agreement that was signed,” Sanchez said. “That is going against the agreement, which is the concern that we have or that I have. There are opportunities to protect rate payers, but that is a discussion that needs to happen with the county. It feels like it is always one step forward, two steps back.”
Oracle executive refutes reports of trucking natural gas to site
Thiagarajan refuted an Oct. 8 Bloomberg report that Oracle was considering transporting natural gas by truck to the Project Jupiter site to power the project before a pipeline is constructed.
When asked to address the report, Thiagarajan called it, “misinformation.”
“When I saw that was a proposal, I was like, ‘Wow’ that is news to me,” Thiagarajan said. “Someone knows more about the project than me, which is a lie.”
Thiagarajan said Oracle is waiting for pipeline approval on an application with the Federal Energy Regulation Commission, but couldn’t provide a date for an update.
Chaparro again encouraged developers to include the county in discussions regarding future agreements.
“We need to know your proposals and if there are proposals that are pending, you must and should engage with this commission,” Chaparro said.
Jason Groves covers local government and politics for the Sun-News. Reach him by email at jgroves@lcsun-news.com.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Oracle executive walks back surprise El Paso Electric agreement
Reporting by Jason Groves, Las Cruces Sun-News / Las Cruces Sun-News
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This story was originally published October 14, 2026 at 4:08 AM.