Local health The Memphis department has awarded Elon Musk’s XAI data center to continue operating the company’s Grok chatbot’s gas turbine. The permit is amid a wide community opposition and looming lawsuit alleging that the company violates the Clean Air Act.
The Shelby County Health Department released an air permit for the XAI project on Wednesday after receiving hundreds of public comments. The news was first reported by The Daily Memphis.
In June, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced that XAI chose its website in Memphis to build its new supercomputer. The company’s website boasts about its ability to build supercomputer Colossus in 122 days. The speed is partly attributed to the company’s soon-to-be-installed mobile gas turbines on campus, home to the former manufacturing plant.
Colossus allows Xai to quickly catch up with competitors OpenAI, Google and humans to build cutting-edge artificial intelligence humans. It is built using 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, making it the largest supercomputer in the world.
Located in a predominantly black community called Boxtown, Xai has historically been burdened with industrial projects that cause pollution. Gas turbines like XAI used in Memphis can be an important source of harmful emissions, such as nitrogen oxides, which produce smoke. Memphis already has some of the highest childhood asthma rates in Tennessee. Since XAI started running the turbines, residents have repeatedly encountered each other and opposed the project.
“I was scared, but not surprised,” said Keshaun Pearson, the leader of the Memphis community. “Blatantly violating the Clean Air Act and ignoring our human rights to clean air, Xai burned an illegal methane turbine, which has been allowed to be stamped by the Shelby County Health Department. More than 1,000 people submitted public comments to demand protection and pass an ambitious experiment for billionaires.”
Under the Clean Air Act, “main” emission sources (such as a group of gas turbines) require a license, known as a prevention of significant deterioration (PSD) license. But Shelby County Health Department officials told local journalists in August that this is not a necessary condition for XAI because its turbines are not designed to be permanent. Among the growing local opposition, Xai finally applied for permission from the Shelby County Health Department in January, just a few months after it started running the turbine.
Last month, NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced that they intend to sue XAI for violating the Clean Air Act.
“Xai’s decision to install and operate dozens of polluted gas turbines without any licence or public supervision is clearly a violation of the Clean Air Act,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior SELC attorney, in a press release. “In the past year, these turbines have introduced pollution that threatens the health of Memphis homes. The notice paves the way for a lawsuit that can leave XAI responsible for its illegal refusal to obtain its gas turbine license.”
