‘A different set of rules’: thermal drone footage shows Musk’s AI power plant flouting clean air regulations | Mississippi

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company continues to power its data centers with unauthorized gas turbines, according to an investigation by Floodlight editorial staff. Thermal images captured by Floodlight via drone show xAI still burning gas at a facility in Southaven, Mississippi, despite a recent ruling from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reiterating that doing so requires a prior state permit.

Mississippi state regulators maintain that because the wind turbines are parked on tractor-trailers, they do not require permits. However, the EPA has long maintained that such sources of pollution require permits under the Clean Air Act.

Any exemption for these machines “could leave these engines subject to no emissions standards,” the agency wrote in a final January decision.

However, thermal images captured by Floodlight – and analyzed by several experts – show that more than a dozen unpermitted turbines are still spewing pollutants into the plant nearly two weeks after the EPA’s recent decision.

“This is a violation of the law,” said Bruce Buckheit, former EPA enforcement chief, after reviewing Floodlight images and EPA regulations. “You’re supposed to get permission first.”

xAI, which is seeking permits for dozens of additional wind turbines in Southaven, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The EPA, which under Trump launched a record number of enforcement actions, refused to answer questions about the turbines at Musk’s AI facilities and deferred to local authorities for permits.

The first and only public hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday, February 17, and the public comment period is still open.

The Trump administration has made AI a priority, but as data centers proliferate across the country, regulators are struggling to keep pace with the industry’s growing reliance on tailored or ad hoc energy sources and their impacts on the public health of surrounding communities. And Southaven, where state regulators are at odds with federal guidelines, is a prime example.

The turbines help power Grok, the company’s controversial chatbot, and emit harmful pollutants linked to health problems such as asthma, lung cancer and heart attacks.

“The risk of living next to this type of power plant is well documented,” said Shaolei Ren, an associate professor at UC Riverside who specializes in the health impacts of data centers. “From a health perspective, we know it’s not good. »

Southaven residents have been expressing concerns for months about noise and pollution emanating from the 114-acre site that is largely hidden from public view — a site that xAI is seeking to expand.

“The fact that they are putting so much pollution into such a populated area, not to mention there are at least 10 schools within a two-mile radius of the facility, is really concerning,” said longtime resident Shannon Samsa. “It’s horrifying to me that we allow this in our community.”

From Memphis to Mississippi

The Southaven Turbine Group is part of xAi’s rapidly growing footprint along the Tennessee-Mississippi border. This expansion began in spring 2024 in South Memphis, adjacent to historically black neighborhoods., which often disproportionately bear the brunt of pollution from neighboring factories, with the construction of Colossus 1, which the company billed as the world’s largest AI supercomputer.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) released thermal images in April revealing that xAi was operating more than 30 unpermitted gas turbines at this site.

“We were hoping the Department of Health would intervene,” said Patrick Anderson, senior attorney at SELC. “That never happened.”

Tennessee county officials have argued that the turbines do not require permits, despite the EPA’s long-standing policy that they do. In July, in the face of local resistance, the county authorized the use of 15 turbines on the Colossus 1 site.

On January 15, the EPA reiterated its decades-old policy that such machines require a permit. By that time, xAi had already built a second data center in the area, Colossus 2. To power it, the company parked 27 turbines just across the border in Southaven, Mississippi, a diverse suburb of Memphis with above-average levels of air pollution.

“When you talk about these turbines, think of the jet engine,” Buckheit said.

Despite the EPA’s recent directive, Floodlight’s thermal imaging – analyzed by several experts – shows 15 unpermitted turbines operating at the Southaven facility. Public records obtained by Floodlight show that 18 of the 27 turbines have been in use at least since November.

“We could easily have expected, since this has been going on for several months, at least one order to stop work. [issued from the EPA]” said Buckheit, who served under the Republican Gerald Ford and George W Bush administrations. He also said the EPA could refer the matter to the Justice Department.

“But apparently that didn’t happen.”

Playing by a different set of rules

An EPA spokesperson did not respond to Floodlight’s questions regarding its enforcement options, instead stating: “EPA does not not approve the operation of gas turbines at the facilities, it would be the state or local authority authorizing the air.

Indeed, air permits are traditionally managed by state agencies. However, according to its own website, the EPA is responsible for ensuring that these agencies comply with federal regulations and will generally “take enforcement action” if a state government fails to “take timely and appropriate action.”

xAI “violated the Clean Air Act the first time, and now they’re going to copy and paste and do it again,” SELC’s Anderson said. “I perhaps had a naive hope that the regulators who deal most on a daily basis with implementing the Clean Air Act in Mississippi would do the right thing.”

In response to questions from Floodlight, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said the recent EPA rule leaves permitting decisions up to state officials.

“The turbines currently operating at the Southaven facility are classified as portable/mobile units under state law and therefore remain exempt from air permit requirements during this temporary period,” they said. “Nothing in EPA’s January 15 rule changed this determination under Mississippi regulations.”

Longtime resident Krystal Polk said she had no idea xAI was coming to Southaven until black fencing was installed in front of her house. The area, she said, was once calm and serene, with abundant wildlife, but is now bombarded by incessant noise and pollution.

“I feel like xAi plays by a different set of rules,” she said.

Polk, who suffers from asthma, said she was forced to empty the house that had been in her family for generations and cancel her plans to retire there due to health concerns.

“We are the victims of the whole data center race,” she said. “I feel like my voice doesn’t matter.”

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson said the agency takes seriously the public’s concerns about emissions, noise and overall quality of life, and that while the turbines — in the department’s view — do not require permits, all “applicable air quality standards still apply.”

AI’s Growing Thirst for Fossil Fuels

Despite lofty sustainability goals proposed by industry leaders, data centers across the country are increasingly turning to fossil fuels to power the AI ​​boom using custom-built power plants like those seen in Southaven.

About 75% of that energy comes from natural gas, according to a recent report from Cleanview, which tracks clean energy and data center projects.

“Almost all projects we reviewed mention renewables, hydrogen, or nuclear in their public announcements,” the author writes, but renewables are not scheduled until 2028 or later.

And “nuclear power will be a decade away,” he said.

XAI is now looking to expand at Southaven and in January applied for a permit to operate 41 turbines at the site.

The facility could emit more than 6 million tons of greenhouse gases and more than 1,300 tons of air pollutants harmful to health each year, according to xAI’s permit application. That would make it one of the largest fossil fuel power plants in the state. The company also purchased property in Southaven for a third data center that, when completed, will make the Colossus cluster — stretching from Memphis to Southaven — one of the largest data center complexes in the world.

“It would be devastating,” said Samsa, a Southaven resident. “No community in their right mind would want something like this in their backyard.”

Samsa, a medical assistant, had hoped to raise a family in Southaven, but the presence of xAi’s gas turbines caused her and her husband to reconsider their decision. She helped collect more than 1,000 signatures for a petition demanding that Mississippi officials close the plant.

“I don’t want my children to grow up in such a polluted environment,” she said. “I don’t want them to be forced to live in a place where their health and overall well-being isn’t considered ahead of the economy.”