Trump admin tries to block Clean Air Act lawsuit over xAI's gas turbines - Ars Technica
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The Trump administration is trying to help Elon Musk’s xAI Corp. beat a Clean Air Act lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The US said the NAACP lawsuit threatens an xAI data center that powers Grok systems needed by the military.
The NAACP sued xAI and subsidiary MZX Tech in April, alleging that they violated the Clean Air Act by operating 27 gas turbines without an air permit in Southaven, Mississippi. The number of unpermitted turbines rose to 57 by mid-May and there were plans to install two more, the NAACP said in a June 12 filing.
“Defendants’ Colossus Gas Plant powers xAI’s nearby Colossus 2 data center, which in turn powers the chatbot ‘Grok,’” the lawsuit said. The gas turbines have fueled both health concerns and noise complaints.
US Department of Justice lawyers urged a federal judge to dismiss the case in a filing yesterday. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality determined that the turbines don’t require permits, the US filing said.
The lawsuit “threaten[s] artificial-intelligence innovation, plus the energy needed to power it,” the US filing said. “The NAACP’s attempt to cut off the power that supports Grok also threatens national security because… Grok provides critical support for the Department of War’s military operations.” The US court filing said xAI’s Grok Gov Model aided targeted strikes in Iran during Operation Epic Fury.
Grok was used with Maven Smart System to help US forces “deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury, a testament to the greatly increased operational efficiency made possible by the Grok Gov Model,” according to a declaration by Cameron Stanley, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer for the Department of War. The Grok Gov Model has unique features not found in any other AI model, he wrote.
US helping xAI break the law, group says
The US is arguing “that xAI should be allowed to break the law solely because the Trump administration says so,” said the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which represents the NAACP in the case.
“In the filing, the Department of Justice never disputes that xAI is pumping out unlawful and harmful pollution into Memphis and North Mississippi,” the SELC said today. “Instead, the Department argues that it doesn’t matter whether xAI is breaking the law and threatening community members’ health if the Trump administration blesses the lawlessness. While the Department points to vague national security concerns as its reason to let xAI continue to illegally pollute unabated, all companies, even ones that contract with the federal government, are required to follow the law.”
A letter from Gov. Tate Reeves said that in March 2026, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved xAI permits to construct several permanent gas turbines. It also gave written authorization for xAI to use trailer-mounted gas turbines to temporarily power the facility until the permanent ones are built. The department “determined that such temporary gas turbines are ‘mobile sources’ not subject to the Clean Air Act’s permitting requirements,” the letter said.
The case is in US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The US told the court that “the Clean Air Act does not authorize citizen-enforcement actions that seek relief the governmental enforcers choose to forgo… Nothing in the statute suggests that Congress, when enacting the citizen-suit provision, deputized citizens to ‘commandeer the federal enforcement machinery,’ especially where the United States has determined that a citizen’s suit would not serve the public interest.”
Citizen suit dispute
The NAACP lawsuit relies on a Clean Air Act provision authorizing citizen lawsuits “against any person who proposes to construct or constructs any new or modified major emitting facility without a permit.”
The NAACP said in its June 12 filing that under the Clean Air Act, “Citizen suits may still proceed after state agencies determine permits are not required, or while agencies pursue parallel investigations. Just as state applicability determinations do not bar federal enforcement under the Clean Air Act, they do not shield operators from citizen enforcement. If they did, it would frustrate the very purpose of the citizen suit provision.”
The SELC said today that the Trump administration’s argument against citizen suits...