{"id":76658,"date":"2026-06-17T08:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/76658\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T08:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:02:16","slug":"doj-seeks-to-dismiss-air-pollution-lawsuit-against-xai-data-center-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/76658\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ seeks to dismiss air pollution lawsuit against xAI data center"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is helping one of Elon Musk’s companies fight a civil rights lawsuit that alleges it is illegally running dozens of natural gas turbines to power a $20 billion data center<\/a> in Mississippi.<\/p>\n

The NAACP and other groups say Musk’s xAI subsidiary failed to get a permit for its power plant \u2014 which is located near homes, schools and churches \u2014 creating health risks for families<\/a> in North Mississippi and nearby Memphis and violating the federal Clean Air Act.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department, in a motion late Monday,<\/a> sought to intervene in the case and dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the plant is needed to power an AI data center that is \u201ccritical to the economy\u201d and the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

The state of Mississippi \u2014 not the federal government \u2014 is responsible for any permits for the power plant and \u201cdecided no permit was required,” the Justice Department said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimate responsibility for enforcing federal law belongs to the Executive Branch, not private interest groups,\u201d said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who is No. 3 at the Justice Department. The motion to intervene in the case is intended to protect national security and promote American energy and innovation, he added.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has made AI a top national and economic security priority. It has also upended policies meant to address climate change and has worked to undo environmental regulations on business.<\/p>\n

Trump also has had close ties to Musk, who led his federal government cost-saving initiative, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, early last year. Crowned the world\u2019s first trillionaire Friday when SpaceX went public, Musk financed Trump\u2019s presidential campaign more than any other donor and is pouring money into midterms.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department action comes just days after SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company and the parent of defendant xAI, pulled off the biggest initial offering of stock ever,<\/a> partly due to the Trump administration’s help supplying it with billions of dollars in federal contracts. SpaceX has a total value of more than $2 trillion, making it bigger than Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and Coca-Cola combined.<\/p>\n

The NAACP lawsuit, filed in April, accuses xAI of running dozens of portable natural gas turbines without proper controls to limit emissions and without the permitting required by the Clean Air Act., which requires industrial polluters to obtain air permits before construction or operation.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday referred questions on the case to the Justice Department, saying it is not a party in the dispute.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department action was not about national security, but instead was a \u201cdesperate attempt to protect wealthy tech companies from obeying the laws meant to protect people from pollution,\u201d said Laura Thoms, director of enforcement for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s Justice Department wants to shield Elon Musk\u2019s data center company, xAI, from being held accountable for its illegal pollution \u2014 and it\u2019s attempting to grab power from impacted communities, the courts and Congress to do so,” she said.<\/p>\n

The data center and its pollution are \u201cturning our communities into sacrifice zones,\u201d Thoms added.<\/p>\n

Abre\u2019 Conner, the NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice, said the Clean Air Act was designed to hold polluters accountable for decisions that cause harm to communities. “This should not be up for debate, and the NAACP will continue to stand up for democracy and against federal bullying and authoritarianism,\u201d Conner said.<\/p>\n

The NAACP brought the complaint under a provision of the Clean Air Act that allows groups or individuals to sue in \u201ccitizen suits\u201d to compel enforcement of the law — a power that the Trump administration now is saying it can undo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is particularly audacious because it is supposedly grounded in constitutional powers,\u201d said Ann Carlson, a professor at the UCLA School of Law. The Justice Department is saying it \u201ccan step in and dismiss a lawsuit on any ground and all grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Justice Department, in a statement Tuesday, said the Pentagon is one of many federal agencies that use AI. <\/p>\n

“Overly burdensome regulation, including private lawsuits that seek to implement their own environmental enforcement, can threaten technological growth, American energy independence and national security,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously said that it is in full compliance with the law and takes its environmental responsibilities seriously.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Condon reported from New York<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is helping one of Elon Musk’s companies fight a civil rights lawsuit that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23015,41745,309,9085,41748,2662,1477,7649,7602,12929,1474,464,8736,41747,526,3587,2899],"class_list":["post-76658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-xai","tag-air-quality","tag-black-experience","tag-business","tag-civil-rights","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-human-rights","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-military-and-defense","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-sustainability","tag-washington-news","tag-xai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}