A Major Environmental Scew-Up

I’m writing this Thursday. You’re reading it Sunday.

Friday the Dona Ana County Commission, five basically good people, will have screwed up.

We're in trouble. Scientists agree that we’ve passed the point when we could have spared our grandchildren catastrophic consequences from climate craziness. We are already seeing some consequences.

Forests and even cities are burning. Rising seas endanger Miami’s drinking water supply and priciest properties. Rivers are flooding. People are being killed. It’s the start of bigger fires and floods, more powerful and frequent storms, and other disasters. (The politicians who denied the problem’s significance are cutting our ability to help people suffering victimized by the emergencies these forces create.)

We’re all too selfish. Our immediate goal – bigger profits, research, driving faster, writing a better column, winning at cards – justifies contributing a little to the continued emission of greenhouse gases. Having known the danger for decades, the world last year burned more coal and more wood than ever before.

The folks with big money (and expensive mouthpieces and politicians) said, “Don’t worry, let’s drill and sell more oil,” and either hid evidence, denied facts, or promised we could figure it out later. We couldn’t.

The big-money folks offered some to the County, in the form of a few more jobs and significant help in cleaning up the drinking water and infrastructure situation in the south county.

However, those folks’ data center would have water needs. Their planned gas-fired electricity plant would not only use water but need as much electricity as the entire El Paso Electric system does. Double this area’s energy use and emissions. That’s so extreme I can’t write it without doubting it. But it’s apparently true.

That’s huge. (One specious argument defending it is, “We’ll comply with the Energy Transition Act” by phasing our non-renewable energy by 2045. That is, we’re doubling an important negative impact on the environment, but it’s okay because we’ll stop. No. Tapering off in 20 years doesn’t justify starting now. Two commissioners laughed when I used an extreme analogy: “If we were trying to phase out a legal activity that helped the county, but caused ten percent of newborn infants to die until we stopped, you wouldn’t say, ‘Okay, double what we’re doing, ‘cause we’ll stop in 20 years.’” Poisoning our atmosphere harms us. The ETA illustrates our state’s determination to cease doing that. Adding this new project’s extremely high energy use sure contradicts the ETA’s purpose. And damages us all.

Our commissioners could have said, “No, thank you!” They could have said, “This looks great for our county economically, but such energy usage is disastrous. If you commit to using 60% renewable energy from the start, I’ll consider voting for it. Otherwise, try for 3 of the other 4 of us.” Our commissioners could have had experts study some of this, and not take the big money folks’ words for everything. They could have hired topnotch, experienced lawyers to help cut the best deal for us and our environment.

Our commissioners said, “Where do we sign?” Staff favored it, and gave commissioners little time – and citizens less.

We may need these AI campuses to keep up with China; but let’s compromise with the climate realities! If you had to see your doctor, you wouldn’t rush into a burning building to do so.

Our county government should have done better on this one.

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[The above column appeared Sunday, 21 September, 2025, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, and on the newspaper's website and the KRWG website (under Local Viewpoints). Sorry I was too lazy to post it until now; but the meeting on Friday the 19^th did go as expected, after hours and hours of public comment (a majority, but not an extreme majority, against the action the county commissioners were about to take.]