Judge rejects xAI's bid to dismiss NAACP lawsuit over turbines powering its Colossus data center

A federal judge has denied xAI's motion to dismiss an NAACP lawsuit accusing the SpaceX-owned company of operating gas turbines without the permits needed to power its Colossus data center outside Memphis, TechCrunch reports. The Southern Environmental Law Center, suing on behalf of the NAACP, says xAI "installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without ever obtaining the necessary preconstruction or operating air permits," and accuses the company of violating the Clean Air Act. xAI argued that the turbines are exempt from permitting because they are mobile, that the plaintiffs lacked standing, and that citizen suits of this kind are unconstitutional. Judge Debra M. Brown rejected all three arguments. She wrote that the plaintiffs have statutory standing under the Clean Air Act, that the turbines are not "mobile sources" under Mississippi's State Implementation Plan, and that the citizen suit provision does not violate Article II or the private nondelegation doctrine. On the constitutional question, she wrote that citizen suit plaintiffs "sue on their own behalf, in their own name, and seek penalties that redress harm to themselves." The ruling lets the case go forward, keeping legal pressure on how AI companies power large data centers and on nearby communities' ability to challenge them. TechCrunch said it had asked SpaceX for comment.