New Mexico students walk out to 'pull the plug' on AI data center
Students and young people across New Mexico protested AI data centers and fossil fuel extraction.
More than 100 students at the New Mexico School for the Arts walked out of class on Tuesday to protest legislation proposed by New Mexico's senior U.S. senator and demand state lawmakers prioritize people and their futures over data centers, pipelines, and fossil fuel projects.
Students at NMSA marched from their school to the Santa Fe Plaza, then on to the Roundhouse where they rallied with state Reps. Micaela Lara Cadena and Tara Lujan in attendance. They packed the capitol building's halls and the lobby outside Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office on the fourth floor, where they wrote handwritten letters.
They joined other students at the University of New Mexico and young people in Las Cruces, staged simultaneous marches on the state capitol, Heinrich's office in Albuquerque, and at the Downtown Civic Plaza in Las Cruces in Doña Ana County where Texas-based multinational Oracle is building Project Jupiter.
Organizers say Heinrich's "Affordability and Jobs Act" would allow data centers, pipelines, and extractive fossil fuel projects to move faster.
