The government of Mississippi issued an air permit on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, for the power plant of Elon Musk’s xAI, allowing it to operate dozens of methane gas turbines in Southaven, on the border with Tennessee. The approval comes despite opposition from environmental and civic organizations.
The permit authorizes the operation of 41 gas turbines intended to supply power to the company’s large Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, Tennessee. Critics argue this will make the complex one of the largest fossil fuel plants in the state and a major regional polluter.
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The decision has drawn strong criticism from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), who contend that the potential air pollution generated by the project was underestimated. The approval comes as xAI, recently merged with SpaceX, seeks to expand its capacity for advanced artificial intelligence development and compete with industry leaders like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
“We are outraged,” said Abre’ Conner, director of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP. “MDEQ chose to bulldoze through a decision that silenced the very residents most harmed by it.”
The permit includes “a number of serious flaws that violate federal law, contravene the agency’s own policies, and put families in North Mississippi and Memphis at risk,” the organizations stated in a joint release. The decision was made just three weeks after the close of the public comment period, raising concerns about the speed of the review process.
Internal documents from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate the agency faced significant pressure to quickly approve the permit, according to the NAACP.
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Organizations also complained that the public hearing was held on the same day as elections and nearly three hours away from affected communities. The NAACP noted its fight “to hold polluters and billionaires accountable is inseparable from the battle to stop dirty data.”
They detailed that the permit fails to acknowledge that “xAI is already operating up to 27 turbines without a permit at the site, which could violate the Clean Air Act.”
“We are extremely disappointed with the MDEQ’s decision to greenlight this flawed permit for the xAI power plant, which does not address the significant concerns about the impact these additional turbines will have on communities in North Mississippi and South Memphis,” said Patrick Anderson, principal attorney for the SELC.
The organizations detailed that these gas turbines release large amounts of pollutants that form smog and harmful chemicals like formaldehyde. They also indicate these turbines would emit significant amounts of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), capable of penetrating deep into the lungs and bloodstream, and linked to increased risk of asthma, heart attacks, respiratory illness, and stroke.
Source: EFE.
