Elon Musk’s xAI faces second lawsuit over toxic pollutants from datacenter
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is facing a second lawsuit alleging it is illegally emitting toxic pollutants from its enormous datacenters, which house its supercomputers and run the chatbot Grok,The new pending suit alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act and was filed Friday by the storied civil rights group the NAACP,The group’s 40-page notice of intent to sue alleges xAI has been polluting Black communities near its facility in Southaven, Mississippi,The pollution comes from more than a dozen portable methane gas generators that xAI set up without permits, the notice alleges,The NAACP’s first notice of intent to sue was filed last June and involves similar allegations regarding the company’s datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee.
In order to file a lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, parties must file an intent to sue notice at least 60 days prior,The NAACP’s case in Memphis did not progress toward a lawsuit after xAI obtained permits for its generators there,“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,” said Abre’ Conner, the NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice,“We cannot allow for companies to promise a better future while pumping harmful chemicals into the air we breathe,”xAI set up its first datacenter in Memphis in the summer of 2024.
It’s a massive facility, roughly the size of 13 football fields, and named “Colossus”.The company has since erected a second, even bigger datacenter named Colossus 2 in Southaven.The building of a third xAI datacenter, also in Southaven, just got under way last month.Southaven is in the Memphis metropolitan area, but located just over the state border in Mississippi.Community members in Southaven have complained about the noise and pollution coming from Colossus 2.
They’ve also circulated a petition demanding accountability from Mississippi regulators,The NAACP’s suit in Southaven is intended to challenge xAI’s use of unpermitted turbines,The group alleges that the company has 27 generators without permits at this facility, and it has documented more than a dozen of them being in use since last fall,Separately, a Guardian investigation published on Friday found that xAI has moved in 27 portable turbines at Colossus 2,Using thermal imagery, the Guardian concluded that 18 of those generators have been used since November.
These types of gas generators emit fine particulate matter that contains hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde and nitrogen oxide.These pollutants are tied to an increase in diseases, like asthma, respiratory illness and certain cancers.The NAACP says that xAI’s 27 turbines in Southaven have the potential to emit a “staggering amount” of nitrogen oxides, likely making the facility the largest industrial source of the chemical in the metropolitan area.Mississippi state regulators say the turbines fall under a loophole and don’t require permits because they are portable and temporary, which is how regulators in Tennessee first dealt with xAI’s generators there.But the Environmental Protection Agency maintains that such pollution sources do require permits under the Clean Air Act.
“xAI has once again built a polluting power plant without any permits and without any notice to nearby communities,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is working with Earthjustice to represent the NAACP.“There are no loopholes or exceptions – xAI is breaking the law while leaving local communities to deal with the consequences.”If the intent to sue notice proceeds to litigation, the NAACP said, it is seeking injunctive relief, civil penalties and costs to cover attorneys’ fees.xAI did not respond to a request for comment.
Scotland 31-20 England: Six Nations – as it happened
Rob Kitson’s report has landed so I’ll sign off.What a day of rugby that was. Two cracking games. I had so much fun calling them both for you. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did
‘A big call for the IOC’: is the fight over Olympic rowing on Australia’s predator-infested Fitzroy River all a croc?
An act of God cancelled rowing at the first Olympics of the modern age.But since stormy seas off Athens scuppered the sport in 1896, rowing has featured in every Games since.Now, the deputy premier of an Australian state appears to have threatened to upend what would be 136 years of history by scrapping rowing from the 2032 Brisbane Games – unless international Olympic and rowing officials agree to race on a river some have expressed concerns may not be up to standard, and one which is within the natural habitat of one of the most deadly predators on Earth: the saltwater crocodile.The Queensland infrastructure and planning minister, Jarrod Bleijie, raised the stakes on his government’s bid to have the central Queensland city of Rockhampton host rowing in 2032 on Wednesday, sending a message to the International Olympic Committee that there was no option other than the “mighty Fitzroy River”.“Rowing is gonna be in Rocky,” Bleijie said
Canada’s curling war of words with Sweden escalates after warning over ‘F-bomb’
The Canadian curler at the centre of a cheating row at the Winter Olympics has denied any wrongdoing, accusing the Swedish team of deliberately trying to “catch us in the act”.On Saturday, World Curling confirmed that Canada had escaped punishment despite being accused of breaking the rules in the 8-6 victory over Sweden on Friday night. However, the sport’s governing body did warn Canada about their abusive langugage and introduced emergency spot checks on Saturday afternoon to make sure teams were not cheating when releasing the stone.A bad-tempered game erupted when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson told Canada’s Marc Kennedy he was double-touching the stone on the penultimate end, which led to Kennedy responding with an expletive.Speaking after Canada had lost 9-5 to Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, Kennedy insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing
Two races, two golds: Jordan Stolz smashes another Olympic record in 500m
The men’s 500m is speed skating distilled to its most unforgiving form: one and a quarter laps of the oval, no pacing, no recovery window, no margin for technical compromise. On Saturday afternoon in Milan’s western suburbs, Jordan Stolz mastered the sport’s fastest and most unpredictable race and pushed his Olympic campaign toward historic territory.The 21-year-old American won the 500m in an Olympic-record 33.77 seconds, securing his second gold medal of the Milano Cortina Olympics and adding pace behind what is rapidly becoming one of the defining individual campaigns of these Winter Games.It also means Stolz has opened these Games with two races, two gold medals and two Olympic records
Ireland 20-13 Italy: Six Nations rugby union – as it happened
Time to sign off with Brendan Fanning’s report from the Aviva Stadium. Thanks for joining us. Until next time …A huge game at Murrayfield, with kick-off in 10 minutes time …Some post-game reaction from Cormac Izuchukwu, via RTÉ. “We needed more fight and edge about us [after losing to France], and we showed that in the second half. It was tough this week, maybe we pushed too much
Baloucoune spares Ireland’s Six Nations blushes as they recover to see off Italy
After what felt like 40 days and 40 nights of darkness and rain, the sun came out in Dublin. Cold, yes, and a grey day by kick-off, but bright enough to throw light on an Ireland side scrambling for their footing, and a bullish Italy one looking to break new ground.Neither quite worked out. Never having won a Six Nations game in Dublin might be the sort of statistic to weigh you down but the Azzurri carried it here like a backpack with only a couple of bits and bobs. What they achieved was to give the Championship a highly competitive performance that was heartening, but not worthy of a note in history
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