Elon Musk’s xAI company wins permit for power | Political News

Elon Musk, the wealthiest man on Earth, gained approval on Tuesday for his artificial intelligence company to practically double the quantity of methane fuel generators at its “Colossus 2” datacenter in Mississippi, a transfer that environmental advocates say would demand huge quantities of electrical energy and trigger dangerous air pollution.

Musk’s datacenter will probably be powered by the 41 generators, which in flip power his AI bot Grok, a instrument that has been embroiled in controversies from its manufacturing of nonconsensual pornography to posts expressing assist for Adolf Hitler, and Musk’s own public efforts to appropriate what he says are “woke” concepts that it sometimes spits out.

“Our communities are not playgrounds for corporations who are chasing profit over people,” said Abre’ Conner, the director of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP, referring to the choice by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that ran against huge protest from local residents. “MDEQ chose to bulldoze through a decision that silenced the very residents most harmed by it.”

At a public listening to in February, none of the a whole lot of people who appeared spoke in favor of the MDEQ granting Musk the permit.

In response, the NAACP has filed a lawsuit against xAI over the datacenter’s pollution, arguing the MDEQ dismissed legitimate issues by the group in an effort to hurry along the choice.

“The scale, the speed, the intensity of this expansion are unlike anything this area has absorbed,” said Southaven resident Nathan Reed at last month’s listening to, according to NBC.

“This was not a thoughtful, phased development. It was an industrial surge imposed on our residential community,” he said.

The generators used by xAI in its datacenters in Mississippi and Tennessee emit fine particulate matter containing dangerous chemicals such as nitrogen oxide and formaldehyde, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center. The chemicals are linked to increases in asthma, heart attacks and some cancers.

Even before Musk’s “Colossus” datacenter in Tennessee was constructed, the American Lung Association had awarded nearby DeSoto and Shelby counties an “F” grade.

“xAI’s 27 unpermitted turbines have the potential to emit a staggering amount of nitrogen oxides, a type of pollution that causes smog,” the SELC wrote in a February report. “This would likely make the facility the largest industrial source of NOx in the 11-county Memphis metropolitan area — an area already struggling with problems with smog.”

Connor said the SELC will not stand idly by as Musk’s AI-powering datacenters expand.

“As we shared when xAI began its operation in Tennessee, this illegal pollution only exacerbates complications to frontline communities who continue to bear the brunt of environmental injustice. We cannot allow for companies to promise a better future while pumping harmful chemicals into the air we breathe,” she said.

“We demand that xAI follow the Clean Air Act and stop operating these unpermitted turbines to protect the people of Southaven,” Connor added.