Elon Musk’s xAI Boom Has A Dirty Secret And Black Neighborhoods In Memphis Are Paying The Price With Pollution From Illegal Gas Turbines
According to CNBC, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the NAACP, and the details are alarming. The company has been running natural gas burning turbines at its facility in Southaven, Mississippi for months, claiming no federal permit was required because they were only for temporary use.
The NAACP disagrees and so does federal law.
Article written by Capital B News states that the power plant is expected to emit more than 1,700 tons of smog forming nitrogen oxides every single year, making it the largest industrial source of nitrogen oxides in the greater Memphis area. The turbines also release formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter, all of which are directly linked to cancer and respiratory disease.
What makes this worse is where these facilities are located. The neighborhoods surrounding the plant already carry a cancer risk four times the national average. These are predominantly Black, working class communities that were never given a choice.
According to Futurism, The NAACP’s president Derrick Johnson stated that billion dollar companies cannot be allowed to set up polluting operations in Black neighborhoods without permits and simply walk away. The lawsuit demands xAI shut down the unpermitted turbines immediately and install proper pollution control technology.
xAI, now owned by SpaceX following a merger earlier this year, has not responded to the lawsuit directly. Meanwhile the company continues expanding its Colossus data centers in Memphis, racing to compete with OpenAI and Google in the AI market.
Like this article? Read our previous AI focused article here.
