The data center fight in Socorro County, New Mexico
As of October 1, 2026, Socorro County, New Mexico has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jun 9, 2026; documented end date 2027-06-09).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
1-year moratorium on data centers and related infrastructure on unincorporated county land, adopted unanimously after 2+ months of opposition to the proposed Green Data Center; also began forming an advisory committee to recommend regulations.
SourceNews
read 2026-08-12
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
Green Data Socorro campus (New Mexico Tech land) — Withdrawn
Operator: Green Data Centers · Owner: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (proposed site) · Size: 2,000 MW · Acres: 10,000
Green Data Centers CEO Jason Bak proposed a 10,000-acre campus on New Mexico Tech land west of M Mountain and north of Highway 60 outside Socorro, powered by a 10 GW solar array delivering ~2 GW of base-load power, with atmospheric water generation for a water-neutral design; it was unveiled March 25, 2026 at a Socorro Electric Cooperative board meeting. After a raucous May town hall, New Mexico Tech announced June 2 it would not move forward, saying it lacks sufficient contiguous, undeveloped parcels for the ~16-square-mile footprint. Socorro County commissioners then unanimously adopted a one-year moratorium on data centers and supporting infrastructure on June 9.
Next: Withdrawn — confirm it is dead in the record and watch for the same site resurfacing under a new name or LLC.
Latest in the record
- 2026-06-09 — Socorro County commissioners unanimously adopted a one-year moratorium on development of data centers and supporting infrastructure, and opened applications for a committee to evaluate potential regulations. · source
- 2026-06-02 — New Mexico Tech announced it would not move forward with the proposed data center, citing insufficient contiguous, undeveloped parcels for the project's footprint. · source
- 2026-03-25 — Green Data Centers CEO Jason Bak presented the proposed 10,000-acre project at a Socorro Electric Co-op board meeting, in collaboration with New Mexico Tech. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-08-14.
Recent news
- Amazon data centers drive $1.6B Wiwynn expansion in Socorro, Texas
- Socorro County approves 1-year moratorium on data centers
- Attendees commandeer New Mexico Tech town hall to oppose proposed Socorro data center, solar array
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 3 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in New Mexico.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- New Mexico briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in New Mexico
- Rio Communities (41 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-26
- New Mexico (66 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Sierra County (68 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-01-22
- Santa Fe County (112 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-01-02
- Colfax County (240 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Raton (240 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
All 7 tracked actions in New Mexico are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.