Mississippi Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson will lead a rare SpaceXAI Southaven power plant hearing on Monday, Nov. 9, when the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Permit Board holds an evidentiary hearing involving MZX Tech, the SpaceXAI subsidiary that built the gas-fired plant in Southaven. The hearing starts at 9 a.m., according to the DeSoto Times-Tribune.
Gipson, who sits on the Permit Board, said in a press release that he believes this is the first evidentiary hearing MDEQ has ever held over a power plant tied to a data center. “Mississippians have questions, and I believe they deserve answers, and I intend to get them,” he said.
What the SpaceXAI Southaven power plant hearing covers
The hearing concerns the construction of the Southaven plant, which supplies electricity to SpaceXAI’s Colossus II cluster of data centers. An evidentiary hearing works differently from the public comment hearings held earlier in the permitting process. It is a formal proceeding where the board can take testimony and evidence before it makes a decision.
The Permit Board approved a construction permit in March that lets MZX Tech operate gas turbines at the Stanton Road site. Residents and environmental groups have challenged the plant ever since, citing air quality, noise and truck traffic.
SpaceXAI’s growing footprint in Southaven
The Southaven sites now include:
MACROHARDERR, a data center
The gas-fired power plant on Stanton Road
Gun Range and Spam, two new data centers expected to be running by the end of the year
Just across the state line in Whitehaven sit Colossus II (also called MACROHARD) and Minihard, which is still under construction. The company’s first local facility, Colossus I, is in South Memphis, less than 10 miles away.
Penalties and a federal lawsuit are still pending
The hearing comes while SpaceXAI faces other legal and regulatory pressure in DeSoto County:
Possible $6.1 million in penalties: According to the company’s quarterly SEC report, MDEQ sent MZX Tech notices of violation in August. The notices say the company disturbed land at its three Southaven sites without state stormwater permits. MDEQ can seek up to $25,000 per day, and the company put its preliminary exposure at about $6.1 million. MZX says it is cooperating and is trying to settle the matters through one agreed order.
NAACP Clean Air Act lawsuit: The NAACP is suing over the plant’s gas turbines, alleging Clean Air Act permitting violations. U.S. District Judge Debra Brown recently refused to let the federal government end the case. She ruled that the Clean Air Act does not give the EPA unilateral power to dismiss a citizen lawsuit, although the agency can take part in it.
Earlier this week, DeSoto County supervisors also pressed SpaceXAI to raise the buyout offers it has made to nearby homeowners. Some residents have called those offers too low.
DeSoto County News will report on the outcome of Monday’s hearing.
