Judge Lets NAACP Air Pollution Suit Against xAI Proceed

A federal judge has rejected xAI's attempt to have an NAACP lawsuit dismissed, allowing the case to continue, according to TechCrunch. The suit accuses the SpaceX-owned company of running gas turbines at its Colossus data center outside Memphis without the permits it needed.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the case for the NAACP. It says xAI put in place and ran no fewer than 35 combustion turbines and other pollution sources at the site, and never secured the required approvals before construction or operation. The group also claims the company broke the Clean Air Act.

xAI argued the case should be thrown out on two grounds. It said the turbines count as mobile units and therefore fall outside permitting rules, and it said the people bringing the suit lacked standing to do so.

Judge Debra M. Brown disagreed on each point. She found that the plaintiffs have standing under the Clean Air Act, that the turbines do not qualify as mobile under the relevant state plan, and that the citizen suit provision does not breach the Constitution's separation of powers or the rule against handing off legislative power.

The judge also addressed xAI's argument that suits brought by private citizens are unconstitutional. She reasoned that such plaintiffs act for themselves and in their own names, and seek penalties that remedy harm done to them, so they are not wielding the executive branch's authority.

Abre' Connor, who leads environmental and climate justice work at the NAACP, called the ruling one more significant win in the organization's push to make xAI answer for its conduct. She said courts have now turned back repeated efforts by xAI and the DOJ to end the case, and that the group's stance is unchanged: the company cannot run gas turbines without the permits the law requires. A comparable dismissal request from the Department of Justice was turned down earlier this month.

The ruling lands as sentiment toward data centers has soured. New York recently approved a moratorium on new facilities, and other state and local governments are weighing similar steps. Amazon and Microsoft have said they will stop using NDAs when dealing with government agencies, and the issue may weigh on the coming U.S. midterm elections.