Whitehouse Calls for Answers About Musk-backed xAI’s Pattern of Operating Illegal Data Center Gas Plants

xAI operated dozens of unpermitted gas turbines in vulnerable communities

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), today launched an investigation into the Elon Musk-backed artificial intelligence company xAI for its continued operation of unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, and its pattern of illegal behavior in the region.

"Residents in Southaven and the Memphis metropolitan area, already disproportionately exposed to air toxics, have expressed concerns that the turbines will further degrade air quality and increase noise levels. And of course, the xAI turbines will also release millions of tons of greenhouse gases annually, further accelerating climate change which endangers Americans and drives up household costs across the country," Whitehouse wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. "Given the scale of emissions, the repeated use of unpermitted turbines, and the disproportionate effects on surrounding communities, EPA's lack of enforcement is alarming."

Late last year, xAI trucked 27 gas turbines into Southaven, a town that has long dealt with unhealthy air quality, to power its Colossus 2 data center across the state line in Memphis, Tennessee. Without securing the permits required under the Clean Air Act, xAI began running the nearly 500MW turbine array, still on the backs of the tractor trailer trucks they arrived on, as a de facto power plant. Whitehouse noted that in the absence of permitting action by the state of Mississippi, EPA has a legal responsibility to act, including by imposing civil or criminal penalties, where appropriate. EPA has taken no action to date.

xAI has a history of operating unpermitted, polluting turbines in vulnerable communities. At its Colossus 1 data center in South Memphis, Tennessee-where residents face cancer risk four times higher than the national average-thermal imagery from last April showed over 30 unpermitted gas turbines running. Community members opposed the disproportionate impact, air pollution, and increased water and electricity use associated with the project, and the Southern Environmental Law Center sued. xAI only removed the unpermitted turbines after receiving a state permit for 15 permanent units.

Seemingly emboldened by xAI's success in Tennessee, xAI senior manager Brent Mayo declared last summer that the company planned to "copy and past[e] what [it] did at the Colossus 1 site" for Colossus 2.

Despite overwhelming community opposition and xAI's apparently illegal behavior, last month the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved xAI's permit application for 41 permanent turbines at the Southaven site. This came just three weeks after the public comment period closed, including a public hearing in which residents overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. Meanwhile, the illegal unpermitted turbines are still running.

Whitehouse is requesting answers from EPA by April 29^th about the Agency's plans to fulfill its enforcement obligations, as well as any information regarding the agency's knowledge of xAI's plans to operate unpermitted turbines before seeking permits for permanent units. The letter is available here.

Earlier this month, Senators Whitehouse, Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) initiated an investigation into AI companies' plans to power hyperscale data centers across the country with massive new gas plants. The investigation began with letters to eight AI companies planning 12 new gas plants, and noted that if all the gas projects currently under development in the United States, including those 12, were completed, they would emit a combined 12.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions in their lifetimes - double the annual greenhouse gas emissions from all other sources in the U.S.