The NAACP and an environmental group are planning to sue Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, amid concerns that its supercomputer facility is prompting air pollution in Memphis, the groups announced Tuesday.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), on behalf of the NAACP, sent a letter to xAI and its affiliates on Tuesday notifying the company of their intent to sue over its alleged continued use of methane gas turbines in southwest Memphis, SELC attorney Patrick Anderson told reporters Tuesday.
The facility, which opened in June of last year, is located near predominantly Black communities in Memphis, according to the NAACP.
The turbines, Anderson said, have pumped hazardous materials into the air for the past year and are in violation of the Clean Air Act.
“The law is abundantly clear. XAI needed to get an air permit before installing and operating any of the turbines at their facility,” Anderson said during the Tuesday press conference. “Over the last year, these turbines have pumped out pollution that threatens the health of Memphis families.”
Some local officials claimed that an exemption allowed xAI to operate the turbines for up to 364 days without a permit, but Anderson argued that there is no such exemption for turbines and that no official has been able to point to a specific exemption.
“We cannot afford to normalize this kind of environmental injustice — where billion-dollar companies set up polluting operations in Black neighborhoods without any permits and think they’ll get away with it because the people don’t have the power to fight back. We will not allow xAI to get away with this,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.
The NAACP pointed to studies showing Boxtown, the neighborhood closest to the xAI data center, faces a cancer risk four times the national average.
A spokesperson for xAI said the company’s temporary power generation units are “operating in compliance with all applicable laws” in response to the announcement.
“We take our commitment to the community and environment seriously,” the spokesperson added.
xAI has said the turbines will have technology to reduce emissions and it is improving the city’s economy by investing billions of dollars into the supercomputer facility, the Associated Press reported.
