Judge lets NAACP lawsuit over xAI data centre pollution proceed

A federal judge denied xAI's motion to dismiss the NAACP's lawsuit over the gas turbines powering its Colossus data centre outside Memphis. The Southern Environmental Law Center, suing for the NAACP, says xAI ran at least 35 turbines without the required air permits.

xAI argued the turbines are exempt because they are mobile, and that the plaintiffs could not sue. Judge Debra M. Brown ruled the turbines are not "mobile sources" under Mississippi's State Implementation Plan and that the plaintiffs have standing.

Because citizen suit plaintiffs sue on their own behalf, in their own name, and seek penalties that redress harm to themselves, they are not exercising the federal government's executive power.

— Judge Debra M. Brown

Background

A similar motion to dismiss from the US Department of Justice was denied earlier this month. The ruling comes as New York has passed a moratorium on new data centres.