Judge Greenlights Lawsuit Against xAI Over Data Center Pollution

A court has rejected xAI’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a civil rights organization over the company’s use of gas-fired turbines for its data center.

Elon Musk-owned artificial intelligence lab xAI argued that its power-plant turbines were exempt from permitting requirements under Mississippi’s state implementation plan (SIP) and that plaintiffs cannot bring the case under the federal Clean Air Act (CAA). A SIP is a collection of regulations and documents a state uses to attain and maintain clean air.

However, in an Oct. 30 ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, Oxford Division, rejected xAI’s arguments and moved the case forward, favoring the plaintiffs, the NAACP and one of its affiliates.

In the April lawsuit, the NAACP alleged that xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech LLC installed and operated 27 polluting gas turbines, collectively called the Colossus Gas Plant, in Southaven, Mississippi, “without an air permit or regard for the health and safety of people living nearby.”

“The Colossus Gas Plant emits significant amounts of harmful pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (‘NOx’) and formaldehyde, which are tied to increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and certain cancers in persons exposed to them. These emissions do not stop at the Mississippi state line; Tennessee residents are also exposed,” the lawsuit states.

“Together, the 27 unpermitted turbines have the potential to emit over 1,700 tons of smog-forming NOx, likely making the Colossus Gas Plant the largest industrial source of NOx in the greater Memphis area.”

These gas turbines power xAI’s Colossus 2 data center located in Whitehaven, Memphis, Tennessee.

The plaintiffs claimed that defendants violated Mississippi’s SIP by building and running a stationary power source without securing a permit. They also alleged violations of the federal CAA.

In a June filing, xAI said that the “portable temporary turbines” at the Colossus Gas Plant are “mobile sources” of pollution that are excluded from construction and operational permitting requirements under SIP. The company said these requirements target stationary sources of pollution.

The filing also states that CAA allows citizen lawsuits only when filed on “its own behalf,” so organizations can sue only if their direct interests are affected. In this case, the filing states, the NAACP suffered no injury as an organization and thus cannot bring its claim under the CAA.

In the Oct. 30 ruling, Judge Debra M. Brown dismissed the arguments.

The judge noted that the turbines at the Colossus Gas Plant cannot qualify as mobile sources of pollution because they are neither vehicles nor nonroad engines. As a result, xAI cannot claim a mobile-source exemption from permitting requirements under the CAA.

The judge also observed in the ruling that the CAA “explicitly allows citizen suits to be brought by associations,” asserting that the NAACP has statutory standing under the CAA to file the lawsuit.

The Epoch Times reached out to xAI for comment but did not receive a response.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) previously filed a motion supporting xAI. The DOJ sought to dismiss the lawsuit, raising concerns that it would hamper America’s AI innovation and security, according to a June 16 statement from the DOJ.

The data facility, powered by turbines facing the lawsuit, trains and develops new AI models that are critical not only to the U.S. economy, but also to the Department of War, the DOJ said. The department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division filed the motion.

“The Department of Justice will not sit idly by while private organizations use environmental laws to undermine our national security,” Adam Gustafson, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the division, said in the statement.