Environmental groups said an Agreed Order between SpacexAI and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) will allow the company to continue “illegal air pollution into communities” for another year.
The comments come shortly after SpacexAI announced it would begin to remove all 69 temporary mobile turbines from its Southaven location as early as this month. The company said it entered into an agreement with MDEQ detailing the removal of the turbines.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) called the agreed order “a stark reversal” of the company’s promise to operate its turbines for one year.
“The ‘Agreed Order’ was negotiated in secret and without any input from the communities forced to deal with [SpacexAI’s] pollution,” SELC said.
Laura Thoms, enforcement director at Earthjustice, said MDEQ is “complicit in xAI’s lawlessness.”
SELC noted that the plant is a major source of air pollution in the region, which also fails to meet standards from the American Lung Association.
SpacexAI said it is making sure its mobile turbines are equipped with technology to “reduce environmental impact.” It said current monitoring showed air quality “continues to meet or exceed EPA standards.”
In addition to emission-control technologies, the company said it is also investing in sound walls, silencers, and “next-generation turbines with advanced quieting technologies.”
The company emphasized its intentions of being “good neighbors” to the community, however SELC called the terms a “reckless agreement.”
‘What this really means is that xAI is planning to saddle families in Memphis and Mississippi with dangerous, illegal, and unregulated pollution from its unpermitted power plant for at least another year, saying it will continue running its unpermitted polluting gas turbines until at least July of 2027,” SELC said.
Thoms added that the company’s actions contradict its commitment.
“The company is forcing the surrounding communities to sacrifice their health to ever-growing pollution to power [SpacexAI’s] chatbot, Grok, all while trying to take away the communities’ right to hold them accountable in court.” Thoms said.
Earthjustice, along with the SELC, represent the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in a lawsuit against SpacexAI for its use of gas turbines at the site located at 2875 Stanton Road.
The group took legal action against the company due to its violations of the Clean Air Act.
