A US regulator ruled on Thursday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company had acted illegally by using dozens of methane gas turbines to power massive data centers in Tennessee.
xAI has been fighting for a year and a half over truck-sized gas turbines the company had parked near its Colossus 1 and 2 facilities, arguing to local authorities that the electricity-generating turbines were exempt from requirements for air quality permits.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared on Thursday that the generators were not exempt. In its ruling, the agency revised the policies around gas turbines, saying that the operating the machines still requires air permits even if they are used on a portable or temporary basis, as had been the case.
When xAI first installed the portable turbines at Colossus 1, it took advantage of a local county loophole allowing the operation of generators without permits so long as the machines did not sit in one place for more than 364 days. At one point, up to 35 of these generators were powering Colossus 1. xAI eventually received permits for 15 turbines at Colossus 1 and is now operating 12 permitted machines at the site.
Under the EPA’s new ruling, the permitting for these turbines would fall under federal law. It is unclear how or whether the government will penalize companies who aren’t in compliance. The EPA spokesperson didn’t respond to the Guardian’s questions about enforcement.
The ruling is a win for community activists in Memphis who have been battling xAI’s use of the portable turbines as long as the generators have been in use. They say the data center, which sits a few miles from historically Black neighborhoods, has been adding extra pollution to already overburdened communities.
“Our communities, air, water, and land are not playgrounds for billionaires chasing another buck,” said Abre’ Conner, the director of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP, which initiated a lawsuit against xAI last July saying the unpermitted turbines were violating the Clean Air Act.
Methane gas turbines pump harmful nitrogen oxides into the air, which are known to cause cancer, asthma and other upper respiratory diseases.
“The agency estimates the final action will result in the net annual [nitrogen oxide] emission reductions of up to 296 tons by 2032,” an EPA spokesperson told the Guardian.
For xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, the turbines are necessary to supply additional power to its massive supercomputers. At full capacity, xAI’s Colossus 1 data center uses 150 megawatts of electricity – enough energy to power 100,000 homes for a year – and the company plans to expand.
Musk set up Colossus 1 in just 122 days during the summer of 2024, record time for getting a data center up and running. Colossus 2, which is even bigger at 1m-square-feet, went under construction last year and is located on the border of Memphis in Southaven, Mississippi. A third xAI data center, also in Southaven, just got underway last week. In a post on X, Musk said this supercomputer is named “MACROHARDRR” and will need nearly 2 gigawatts of computing power.
Colossus 2 also is also powered by dozens of gas turbines. According to Mississippi Today, the data center has 59 generators; 18 of those are considered to be temporary and do not have air quality permits.
Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which filed the intent to sue xAI alongside the NAACP, said the EPA ruling “makes it clear that companies are not – and have never been – allowed to build and operate methane gas turbines without a permit and that there is no loophole that would allow corporations to set up unpermitted power plants”.
“We expect local health leaders to take swift action to ensure they are following federal law and to better protect neighbors from harmful air pollution,” Garcia added.
xAI did not return a request for comment.
