A lawsuit over unpermitted gas turbines used to power a data center for Elon Musk\u2019s company xAI Corp. and its AI assistant Grok has become an unexpected test for the US government\u2019s authority over air pollution. <\/p>\n
The US Department of Justice sought to join the case last week, citing national security reasons for allowing the turbines in Mississippi to power a hulking data center complex in nearby Memphis. The NAACP had sued over alleged pollution violations. <\/p>\n
The federal government moving to intervene in the case could mark an expansion of executive authority. If the US government decides to allow a company to pollute by foregoing enforcement, lawyers for the DOJ are arguing that local communities can\u2019t sue over the resulting pollution. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the stakes are high for this community in Mississippi, this is much bigger than one data center or one company,\u201d said David Uhlmann, a former top EPA enforcement official under President Joe Biden who now works with the nonprofit Environmental Protection Network. \u201cIf DOJ\u2019s unprecedented attack on the Clean Air Act succeeds, any administration could try to shut down citizen enforcement whenever a case conflicts with its political priorities, favored industries or preferred projects.\u201d <\/p>\n
The DOJ \u201cis committed to enforcing environmental laws,\u201d said agency spokesperson Matthew Nies. \u201cPrudent enforcement requires balancing public interests, including national security. The federal government exercises this enforcement discretion every day without favoritism for any individual or company,\u201d he added. He reiterated DOJ\u2019s position that it has authority to intervene on this case. <\/p>\n
An xAI spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment. Last week, xAI\u2019s general counsel James Burnham said in a social media post that he was grateful for the DOJ\u2019s support. Burnham has previously served as legal chief of the Department of Government Efficiency, as well as held senior roles in the White House and Justice Department during Trump\u2019s first administration. <\/p>\n
The outcome of the case not only has implications for other data centers, which have already been resorting to unconventional power sources to avoid long lines to be connected to the grid, but other types of polluters potentially looking to skimp on pollution controls.<\/p>\n
The Clean Air Act was designed with a provision for citizen suits, which has been used by the general public to fight pollution for decades. It\u2019s effectively a \u201cfail safe\u201d in the law, explained Biden\u2019s deputy EPA chief Janet McCabe, \u201cfor citizens directly to be able to enforce these important protections for public health\u201d when the government fails to do so.<\/p>\n
It was one of these suits that resulted in a record $97 million settlement requiring Michigan and the city of Flint to replace lead-contaminated pipes, do comprehensive tap water monitoring and more.<\/p>\n
Last year, xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech LLC installed and began operating 27 gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, without an air permit, which would have required the best available control technology to reduce emissions. It\u2019s unknown whether the turbines have any pollution controls. As of mid-May, the company had installed an additional 30 gas turbines, bringing the total up to 57, with two more expected to soon come online.<\/p>\n
Collectively, the 57 turbines have the potential to emit 5,300 tons per year of smog-forming nitrogen oxide (also called NOx), according to an analysis by a former EPA employee who is providing expert testimony in the lawsuit. This would make it the region\u2019s largest source of NOx pollution, which can worsen local asthma rates and contribute to other respiratory diseases.<\/p>\n
The turbines don\u2019t have air permits because Mississippi officials, who administer the state\u2019s permitting program, \u201cdecided no permit was required for the power source that powers the data center,\u201d according to Nies. Neither DOJ nor EPA made the permitting decision in this matter, he added.<\/p>\n
A key reason why Mississippi officials decided a permit wasn\u2019t needed is because the companies have said the gas turbines are temporary. However, an EPA rule finalized in January has clarified that temporary turbines are still subject to pollution controls. When asked about the Southaven turbines, EPA said it doesn\u2019t comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n
By inserting itself into this case, the DOJ is attempting to claim \u201cunilateral power to essentially veto citizen suits,\u201d said Laura Thoms, a lawyer with the nonprofit Earthjustice working with NAACP on the case. \u201cI have never seen DOJ make an argument like this. It has no legal or moral precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hirji writes for Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lawsuit over unpermitted gas turbines used to power a data center for Elon Musk\u2019s company xAI Corp.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47893,8432,16948,1401,47895,532,2386,26992,100,1254,9982,8059,47892,47894,2899,47896],"class_list":["post-90765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-xai","tag-air-permit","tag-air-pollution","tag-authority","tag-case","tag-clean-air-law","tag-company","tag-datum-center","tag-doj","tag-epa","tag-federal-government","tag-last-year","tag-mississippi","tag-turbine","tag-unpermitted-gas-turbine","tag-xai","tag-xai-spokesperson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90765","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=90765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}