The NAACP is suing xAI and a subsidiary called MZX Tech for allegedly operating unpermitted methane gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center in South Memphis. The association is asking the federal district court of the Northern District of Mississippi to declare that the company has violated the Clean Air Act, force it to stop using its unpermitted turbines and assess financial penalties against xAI for violating federal law, among other requests.
The lawsuit claims that xAI — the Elon Musk-founded AI startup now owned by SpaceX — is operating 27 gas turbines without an air permit to power Colossus 2, one of a growing number of data centers xAI has set up to train Grok, its AI assistant. Gas turbines expel pollution, hazardous chemicals and fine particulate matter that are linked to things like heart problems, respiratory diseases and even certain cancers, issues that are particularly concerning given Colossus 2’s close proximity to people’s homes. Operating these turbines without an air permit also violates the Clean Air Act, which requires sources of pollution to be permitted before being operated or constructed.
The NAACP is represented in the lawsuit by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice. Before filing today’s lawsuit, the NAACP sent xAI a 60-day notice of intent to sue in compliance with the Clean Air Act. xAI’s failure to respond to the notice is why the lawsuit is moving forward today.
“xAI’s continued operation of these turbines without a permit and without adequate pollution controls is not only illegal, it’s an insult to families living nearby who for months have expressed serious concerns about how air pollution from the company’s personal power plant could impact their health and well-being,” Ben Grillot, a Senior Attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. “xAI must be held accountable for its reckless, unlawful actions — and that’s exactly what this lawsuit aims to do.”
Besides the high cost of sourcing the components that train and run AI models, AI companies often have to generate power to run the data centers where all those components are being installed. Oracle is reportedly turning to gas generators like xAI. Google, Meta and Amazon, meanwhile, have all invested in or signed deals with nuclear energy providers to power their data center efforts. Building new energy sources for data centers is one of several price-lowering methods proposed by the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, an agreement several tech companies signed to try and prevent data centers from raising the cost of the average person’s energy bill.
Quickly building out new energy sources might help ease costs, but it doesn’t account for the negative environmental impacts of having a new power plant in your neighborhood, something the Trump administration doesn’t appear all too interested in addressing. In his latest AI framework proposal, President Donald Trump largely ignored the environmental impact of AI in favor of calling for the permitting process for things like on-site energy generators to be streamlined.
