The post Civil Rights Group Gives Elon Musk’s xAI 60 Days to Fix Alleged Clean Air Act Violations appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

In brief xAI allegedly operates 26 or more gas turbines without required permits or pollution controls. Thermal images show turbines running despite the company claiming they weren’t operational. Groups estimate turbines could emit up to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxides annually if no controls are placed. In Memphis’s Boxtown neighborhood, where cancer rates soar up to four times more than the national average, residents face a new threat. Thermal images allegedly show how gas turbines from xAI’s facility pump toxins into already polluted air, prompting a civil rights group to give Elon Musk’s AI lab a deadline: install pollution controls, or face a lawsuit. In a letter, attorneys for the NAACP, via the Southern Environmental Law Center, accused xAI of running 26 unpermitted gas turbines at its Memphis supercomputer site. The company has 60 days to address the alleged Clean Air Act violations. “We cannot afford to normalize this kind of environmental injustice,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement. “We will not allow xAI to get away with this.” Decrypt has reached out to xAI for comment. Data centers that supply AI computing power are power-intensive and require a constant supply of electricity. Energy consumption from AI facilities is expected to account for 49% of global data center electricity usage by the end of 2025, surpassing even Bitcoin’s energy consumption. The civil rights organization alleges that xAI’s turbines have the potential “to emit more than 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides” annually, which could make it the largest industrial source in Memphis. However, due to slower clean-energy deployments, the rising demand is primarily met by utilizing fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. Thermal imaging conducted in April purportedly revealed nearly all turbines were operational, contradicting xAI’s claims. The NAACP noted that proper…

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Filed under: News - @ June 19, 2025 5:26 am