Laura Thoms (Director of Enforcement at Earthjustice): Elon Musk's company, xAI, built an illegal power plant in Mississippi to feed its data center, with no air permits and little protection for the people living around it. So, we are suing.
My name is Laura Thoms, and I'm the Director of Enforcement here at Earthjustice. I've been holding polluters accountable for 20 years, and we're not going to let xAI break the law and pollute communities for profit.
That's why Earthjustice is working with SELC to represent the NAACP, and fight for clean air for its members that are living beside the illegal power plant.
In the town of Southaven, Mississippi, xAI is running 27 gas turbines that pump out air pollution around the clock. At max capacity, these turbines will produce 495MW of power. For comparison, that's enough to power over 400,000 average American homes. Southaven only has around 23,000 homes.
This unpermitted power plant is illegally polluting nearby communities.
xAI is trying to use special exceptions in the law to evade pollution controls, but it can't. There are no exceptions that would allow this major source of pollution to evade the law.
Gas turbines release smog-forming pollution and hazardous chemicals, like formaldehyde which has been linked to cancer. And xAI's gas plant is located just a mile away from an elementary school and even closer to nearby homes.
Now, Trump is encouraging other big tech companies across the country to build their own power plants.
Building data centers should not come at the expense of the health of nearby communities.
If data centers are building power plants, they must follow the law, which requires meeting basic standards for transparency, public participation, environmental protections, public health, and pollution controls.
AI data centers require enormous amounts of energy. Companies like xAI could use clean energy to power them. But instead, they're often relying on dirty gas plants. The U.S. now leads the world in developing new methane gas plants. And it's being driven by increasing demand from proposed data centers.
But the data center boom shouldn't undermine our health, the environment, and clean energy. The companies driving this energy demand must build the clean energy infrastructure we need to power our future.
AI data centers shouldn't be allowed to enter a community, set up their own power plant without permits, and with zero guardrails to protect people's health.
We're fighting to ensure that AI data centers follow the law, disclose and mitigate their impacts, and choose clean energy. If you'd like to learn more, please visit earthjustice.org.
