NAACP launches lawsuit over pollution from Musk's xAI
The NAACP intends to sue Elon Musk over the pollution caused by artificial intelligence company xAI's turbines in South Memphis.
The group filed an intent to sue letter Tuesday against Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, citing the public health risks posed by 35 unpermitted turbines and their pollution to nearby Black and minority communities.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is representing the NAACP in raising their concerns to the Shelby County Health Department. The group's attorneys said that xAI is in violation of numerous prongs of the Clean Air Act and the Shelby County Local Implementation Plan, including constructing and operating a major energy source without acquiring permits, not using best available control technology and failing to comply with regulatory limits on hazardous air pollution.
The turbines, in operation since last year, are located at xAI's Colossus site and help to power their supercomputer and data center. Their permit application takes into account only 15 of the 35 turbines the SELC and NAACP said are located at the facility, citing a flyover they did of the facility with environmental pilots from Southwings.
The company recently sought to acquire a permit from EPA as officials met with xAI at the end of May, but no development has since been made on their status.
The turbines 'have the potential to emit more than 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides ('NOx') per year and numerous other harmful pollutants, worsening Memphis' already poor air quality,' SELC said in its letter.
Memphis was ranked as an asthma capital of the nation by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America as it performed a worst than average rate of asthma prevalence and crude death rate.
Although Zeldin said in February that he intends to promote industry at the EPA, advocates have held rallies in Boxtown against the presence of the billionaire's company, the exhaustion of the power grid, and the threat they say it poses to public health.
'We're going to fight and we're going to do everything we can to stop this from polluting in our area,' said Barbara Britton, president of the Boxtown Neighborhood Association, in a press release from the SELC.
A decision on xAI's air permit is set to be reached in 'several weeks,' according to the Shelby County Health Department.
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