Overview
- Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality issued a Clean Air Act permit to xAI subsidiary MZX Tech LLC for 41 natural-gas turbines, totaling roughly 1.2 gigawatts to supply on-site power.
- The NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center say xAI operated “temporary” turbines without required federal approvals and will challenge the permit in court.
- Residents near the site report persistent noise and health worries, pointing to a University of Tennessee study that linked earlier turbine use to increased air pollution in Greater Memphis.
- Regulators said the approval followed public comment and met state and federal standards, with an MDEQ official asserting no nearby residents would face unhealthy pollution levels.
- xAI, now part of SpaceX, frames on-site generation as essential to its AI expansion around Memphis, including the Colossus data centers and a planned Southaven facility called Macrohardrr, consistent with a 1.2 GW power commitment discussed at the White House.