The key facts

  • Judge Debra M. Brown denied xAI's motion to dismiss the NAACP lawsuit under the Clean Air Act
  • The NAACP alleges that the company installed at least 35 turbines without the required permits
  • Earlier in October, the court had already denied the U.S. Department of Justice's motion to dismiss the lawsuit

The lawsuit will proceed

A federal judge has denied xAI's motion to dismiss a NAACP lawsuit accusing the company of operating gas turbines powering the Colossus data center near Memphis without the required emissions permits. TechCrunch reports. According to the outlet, the lawsuit, filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the NAACP, alleges that the company has installed and operated at least 35 gas turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without obtaining either construction permits or operating permits, thereby violating the Clean Air Act.

The parties' arguments and the court's ruling

xAI had sought to end the case, arguing that the turbines are mobile and therefore exempt from permitting requirements, and that the plaintiffs lack standing to sue. In her ruling, Judge Debra M. Brown found that the plaintiffs have procedural standing under the Clean Air Act, that the turbines are not mobile sources under the state of Mississippi's implementation plan, and that the citizen-suit provision does not violate the Constitution. Responding to the argument that such lawsuits are unconstitutional, she wrote that the plaintiffs are suing on their own behalf and seeking remedies that address harm to themselves, and therefore are not exercising the executive power of the federal government.

Context: a string of courtroom setbacks for xAI

This is already xAI's second defeat in this dispute: earlier in October, the court denied a similar motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, as SELC reports. Abre' Conner, the NAACP's director of environmental and climate justice, called the ruling another significant victory and said that the courts have repeatedly rejected attempts by xAI and the Justice Department to shut down the case. TechCrunch notes that the lawsuit is unfolding amid a sharp rise in discontent over data centers: New York recently imposed a moratorium on building new data centers, Amazon and Microsoft have pledged to drop non-disclosure agreements in their work with government agencies, and the issue could become a significant factor in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.