NAACP sues xAI over data center turbines in Southaven
By Alex Rozier | Originally published by Mississippi Today
The NAACP is suing data center company xAI, alleging that it is illegally operating natural gas turbines in Southaven without an air permit.
The company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, brought the 27 generators in question to north Mississippi last summer. In a letter, Mississippi officials told xAI it could run the generators without an air permit because they were deemed “temporary” and “mobile” units.
But lawyers at the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the NAACP in the federal lawsuit, have long maintained that such a loophole doesn’t exist, and that running such turbines without a permit violates the federal Clean Air Act.
“Mobile, temporary, portable, whatever you want to call them, turbines need air permits,” Patrick Anderson, a center attorney, told Mississippi Today.
READ MORE: Public gives resounding ‘no’ to proposed xAI Southaven permit
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which regulates air emissions, told Mississippi Today last year that federal requirements for “mobile” turbines don’t apply to “temporary” sources, which at the time meant running for less than a year. While the turbines run at a set location in Southaven, MDEQ wrote to xAI last July that because each generator will “remain affixed to a portable unit (i.e., a flatbed trailer),” they can be considered “mobile.”
Anderson recognized that the Clean Air Act allows for some exceptions for mobile turbines, but added the exception isn’t typically applied to generators big enough to power a data center.
“They’re generally much smaller, like a backup diesel engine or something you might tow behind a car,” he said.
Language from the federal law appears to back up the center’s case. The law defines a stationary turbine as “not self-propelled or intended to be propelled while performing its function.”
The SELC claims in the lawsuit that together, the 27 turbines are likely the largest industrial source of nitrogen oxides, or NOx, in the greater Memphis area. The federal government regulates NOx emissions because they can be harmful to the human respiratory system.
The complaint, filed in the Northern District of Mississippi, requests the court to stop xAI from operating the turbines in violation of the Clean Air Act, offset any public health impacts as a result of those violations and fine the company up to $124,426 each day of its legal breaches.
The SELC last week also sent MDEQ an appeal of the state’s decision to award xAI air permits for 41 permanent gas turbines, which would also be located in Southaven.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
