Latest news with #SouthernEnvironmentalLawCenter
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Before Massachusetts attracts more data centers, other states sound a warning
'Data centers are extremely power hungry and can put local communities' air quality at risk,' said Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney in Tennessee for the Southern Environmental Law Center. Advertisement Elon Musk's xAI recently built a huge data center in Memphis Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the White House, the Trump administration released a 'We need to build and maintain vast AI infrastructure and the energy to power it,' the report said. 'To do that, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape, as the Administration has done since Inauguration Day. Simply put, we need to 'Build, Baby, Build!'' Advertisement In Virginia, which has 'We know that the customers, the utility customers that are not data centers, are going to be subsidizing the electrical infrastructure for the richest companies in the world,' Bolthouse said. Massachusetts has But last year's economic development legislation exempted data centers from 'sales and use' taxes in an effort to attract more of the facilities to the state. And Markey acknowledged the importance of building data centers to support AI, but said the effort needs to take into account local concerns and protect the environment. 'AI has the potential to offer real public benefits ... but those benefits cannot come at the unchecked expense of our environment and our health,' Markey said at Wednesday's event. Advertisement He also criticized the Trump administration for cutting subsidies for solar and wind power. Big tech companies had been supporting such projects to power their data centers. 'Our environment doesn't have to be a sacrificial lamb on the altar of innovation, Markey said. 'We can have green growth.' Aaron Pressman can be reached at
New York Times
21-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
For Once, Some Good News About a Fragile Ecosystem
When Twin Pines, an Alabama-based mining company, bought a big chunk of land abutting the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Georgia and announced plans to build a titanium dioxide mine there, environmentalists, paddlers and anglers raised a great alarm. The proposed mine is on a geological formation known as Trail Ridge, which serves as a sort of earthen dam holding in place the waters of North America's largest ecologically intact blackwater swamp. The Okefenokee is huge, covering hundreds of miles, but it is shallow — only two feet deep in many places — and it isn't fed by any waterways. Rain is the swamp's only source of replenishment. News of a proposed mine at the doorstep of the Okefenokee 'landed like a punch in the gut,' said Bill Sapp, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, in an episode of 'Broken Ground,' the nonprofit's podcast. 'Even very small changes in water elevations can really have a dramatic effect.' A mine on Trail Ridge would be an existential risk to an ecosystem already under threat by climate change, pollution and Republicans' capricious interpretation of environmental protection laws. Wetland ecosystems are always complex, but the scale of the Okefenokee makes it particularly so. Its many habitats include marsh, upland forest, prairie, cypress swamp and a meandering web of waterways. It hosts more than 600 plant species, in addition to dozens of mammal, reptile and amphibian species, as well as a spectacular 234 species of birds. It is a porous, breathing place, as close to pristine and primeval as any we are likely to see in the 21st century. This ethereal place is also crucial to the human beings who live nearby. Drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, it supports hundreds of jobs and contributes approximately $65 million to the local economy. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
E&E News
17-07-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Enviros appeal permit for Musk's xAI turbines
Environmental justice groups are appealing the decision by Memphis-area regulators to issue a Clean Air Act permit to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company. The Shelby County, Tennessee, Health Department issued a permit to xAI for 15 methane gas turbines earlier this month. The permit came after months of the company operating as many as 35 of the machines at its South Memphis facility without a permit or any pollution controls on the turbines. Environmental and community groups had argued that the Health Department should have shut down xAI rather than issue a permit. In officially appealing the permit, the groups now say that the Health Department's decision failed to address the unpermitted turbines at the facility and ignored public comments raising concerns about the generators. Advertisement 'The health department failed to hold xAI accountable for unlawfully installing 35 polluting methane gas turbines at the site before getting a permit, setting a dangerous precedent that opens the door for xAI or other companies to run any number of new polluting turbines at any time without any public oversight or approval,' said Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Amanda Garcia. The xAI permitting decision came just a couple of weeks before the Department of Defense announced a new $200 million contract with the company behind Musk's chatbot, Grok. The company has already started work to bring its supercomputer to a second site in South Memphis. Documents have shown that xAI is considering using 40 to 90 gas turbines to power the second site, and on Tuesday, xAI Senior Manager for Infrastructure Brent Mayo told the Rotary Club of Memphis that when it comes to powering its second facility, 'we are copying and pasting what we did' at the first location. When xAI first came to Memphis in June 2024, it initially argued that it did not require any permits for the methane gas turbines that would power its supercomputer. The company said the gas-burning turbines were only temporary and too small to require Clean Air Act permits, even as the SELC calculated that the turbines had cumulatively become the largest emitter of smog-forming pollution in the county. The Health Department, in its response to comments on the permit application, agreed. Gas turbines are seen outside the xAI data center May 7 in Memphis, Tennessee. | George Walker IV/AP Now, the SELC's appeal says the fact that xAI ultimately applied for Clean Air Act permits for the same machines shows that they required permits from the beginning. What's more, they say that because the turbines had already been running for months before a permit was issued, the Health Department should have considered the data center's application as a major modification, not as a new minor source of pollution. The SELC filed its appeal on behalf of community groups and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which had previously told xAI it intended to sue the company over its operation of the turbines without a permit just a few miles from majority-Black neighborhoods. The appeal itself discusses the impact that xAI's turbines have had on people living near the facility in an area that EPA had already designated as having unhealthy air due to smog-forming emissions before the company's arrival. 'Appellants members and supporters have taken steps to reduce their exposure to air pollution, including avoiding spending as much time outdoors as they would ordinarily, wearing masks when outside, and closing windows when home,' the appeal says, adding that people's 'quality of life is negatively affected by the precautions they feel compelled to take to reduce their exposure to air pollution.'
Int'l Business Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
W. Virginia Villagers Take On AI-driven Power Plant Boom
Al Tomson, mayor of a tiny town tucked away in an idyllic corner of the eastern United States, points to a spot on a map of his region. "The power plant would be there," says the former military man, who is fighting against construction of the mysterious project on the outskirts of Davis, designed to power a vast data center. Tomson, whose town is about a three-hour drive from Washington and is home to 600 people, says the plant is being "crammed down our throats" by the state government. This fight in the woods of rural West Virginia is the latest example of the war between the US tech sector -- and its rapidly rising need for energy to power the AI boom -- and the communities it affects. In a scramble to quickly bring more data centers online, US cloud computing giants are now getting directly involved in energy production. And while they are using some renewable energy options and trying to revive nuclear power, they are also turning to fossil fuels like gas, which in the United States is relatively cheap. In neighboring Pennsylvania, a former coal plant will now run on gas to power a data center. In Georgia, xAI, the Elon Musk-owned company behind the Grok chatbot, directly connected 35 methane turbines to its servers, all without permits, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center NGO. Data centers' share of US electricity demand is expected to rise from current levels of around five percent to between 6.7 percent and 12 percent by 2028, according to government estimates. The US electrical grid is facing demand growth "that we haven't seen for more than a generation," says Todd Snitchler, head of the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents many producers. To respond, they are acting on all fronts. Across the country, the retirement of old power plants is being postponed and additional turbines are being added while waiting for new plants to be built. But AI's thirst for energy is such that more and more tech giants are building their own power plants off the grid -- even if it means doing so against residents' wishes. In Davis, the mayor and hundreds of his constituents have been fighting since April against Fundamental Data's power plant project. For Mayor Tomson, the firm is just a "shell company" laying the early groundwork on behalf of an unidentified major tech company. Fundamental Data did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP. In the mayor's office hangs a printed map showing that the gas turbines, with their toxic emissions, would be located about a mile from residents of this nature-blessed tourist town. But Tomson feels powerless. West Virginia recently adopted a law that, in order to attract billions of dollars in data center investment, prohibits local officials from taking measures opposing them. The frustration of Davis residents boiled over during a particularly tense public meeting at the end of June. For five hours, about 300 people attended the meeting with regulators responsible for approving an initial air quality permit, which is likely to be granted. Afterward, volunteers distributed "No data center complex" signs to install in people's front yards. Some were already posted in shop windows. Davis's residents say they just want to keep their corner of the Appalachians free from pollution -- but there are powerful political and economic forces against them. "A failure to power the data centers needed to win the AI arms race... could result in adversary nations shaping digital norms and controlling digital infrastructure, thereby jeopardizing US economic and national security," warned a recent US Department of Energy report. Some in Davis and West Virginia favor these projects, seeing them as an opportunity to re-industrialize an economically devastated region. The proposed plant would be built on the site of a former coal mine, for example. Since mining jobs left, "we need something here to keep our younger people," said Charles Davis, who lives in nearby Thomas. Jojo Pregley, however, wants nothing to do with it. "A lot of people are battling cancer here," she says, sitting on a bench in front of her house with her husband Pat, who spent 40 years working in the mines. "We don't want more pollution from data centers or whatever else." Mount Storm coal-fired power plant, West Virginia, June 30, 2025 AFP Al Tomson, mayor of Davis, West Virginia, chats with his constituents before a public meeting on June 30, 2025 in Canaan Valley AFP
10-07-2025
- Business
Alabama utility commission allowed to hike prices behind closed doors, judge rules
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama's utility regulators can continue to hold closed-door meetings to determine price hikes, in an apparent departure from common practices in neighboring states, a circuit court judge ruled. The decision on Monday rejected a lawsuit filed by Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for renewable energy sources. The watchdog group was denied access to two meetings in 2024 where the public service commission decided how Alabama Power — the state's largest electricity provider — should adjust prices based on volatility in global fuel costs. The lawsuit argued the denial flouts both local regulations and regional norms. Montgomery circuit Judge Brooke Reid ruled against the environmental advocates in a one-page order after a hearing in June. She said the group's rights had not been substantially violated. At the June hearing, Reid said the commission's 'interpretation of its own rules should be given deference.' Christina Tidwell, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, blasted Reid's decision in a statement on Monday. 'While other Southern states have meaningful public engagement in fuel cost proceedings, Alabama Power customers will continue to be shut out of the process,' Tidwell wrote. The Alabama Public Service Commission has rules that govern how Alabama Power can change electricity prices to offset increases in fuel costs, which tend to be volatile. Those rules say that the public is entitled to hear evidence and participate in proceedings that adjust fuel costs to ensure these changes are 'just and reasonable.' The lawsuit said there have been only two public fuel cost hearings since the commission's current rules were adopted in 1981. By contrast, the Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates a sister company of Alabama Power, has held at least 26 public formal fuel cost proceedings, according to the complaint. The last public meeting in Alabama was called because the 2008 financial crisis caused fuel prices to skyrocket rapidly, according to attorneys for the state commission. They argued that the commission hasn't technically initiated a new proceeding since that change 16 years ago, even though rates have been adjusted over 15 times since then, so they are not compelled to invite public input. Attorneys for the state also argued that the public has 'plenty of opportunities for input' even without public meetings, because the commission publishes monthly reports on fuel prices online, and rate changes are subject to public appeal. Alabama Power is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, which reported $4.4 billion in profit in 2024, according to annual shareholder reports. Alabama Power serves about 1.5 million of the state's roughly 5 million residents. Most Alabama residents get electricity through municipal or cooperatively owned utilities. In 2023, the average Alabama Power consumer was paying about $159 per month, compared to the statewide average of approximately $132 per month, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Alabama Power did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Wednesday afternoon inquiring about recent rates. After the ruling, Energy Alabama's executive director Daniel Tait said in a statement that the decision was 'disappointing' for 'Alabamians who have no choice but to pay the high cost of fossil fuels on their Alabama Power bill.'
