Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis: 35 gas turbines, no air pollution permits
The company’s turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is belching smog-forming pollution into an area of South Memphis that already leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma.
None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s massive supercomputer is equipped with pollution controls typically required by federal rules.
The company has no Clean Air Act permits.
In just 11 months since the company arrived in Memphis, xAI has become one of the largest emitters of smog-producing nitrogen oxides in Shelby County, an area whose air is already considered unhealthy due to smog.
The turbines spew NOx at an estimated rate of 1,200 to 2,000 tons a year — far more than the gas-fired power plant across the street or the oil refinery down the road. That’s according to calculations by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which used turbine manufacturer spec sheets to estimate emissions.
Just 3 miles away is Boxtown, a secluded neighborhood that officially became part of the city of Memphis in 1968, the year that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel downtown. While the annexation had come with the promise of connecting Boxtown to municipal utilities, many homes still had no running water or sewage service as late as the 1970s.
Today, more than 90 percent of residents living in Boxtown’s ZIP code are Black, with a median household income of $36,000, according to the Census Bureau. It’s also home to more than 17 industrial facilities — some of which share an industrial park with xAI — that release enough toxic pollution to require registration with EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory.
“I can’t breathe at home, it smells like gas outside,” Boxtown resident Alexis Humphreys said through tears, holding up her asthma inhaler during a public hearing about the turbines last Friday. “How come I can’t breathe at home and y’all get to breathe at home?”
Together the turbines produce enough energy to power 280,000 homes. XAI has been relying on them because the data processing center’s voracious appetite for energy has outpaced electric utilities’ ability to serve it.
XAI says the turbines are only temporary and don’t require federal permits for their emissions of NOx and other hazardous air pollutants like formaldehyde. The argument appears to rely on a loophole in federal regulations that environmental groups and former EPA officials say shouldn’t apply to the situation.
In January, facing pressure from neighbors and environmental groups, xAI finally applied for permits for 15 of its turbines, which it says will be permanent.
Only once their application is approved will xAI install pollution controls on the turbines it keeps onsite, a move that the company’s local representative, Brent Mayo, has said “will make xAI the lowest-emitting facility in the country.” He didn’t respond to calls and texts from POLITICO’s E&E News requesting comment and has not said publicly how much longer the “temporary” turbines will remain onsite.
The strategy violates the Clean Air Act, said Bruce Buckheit, who formerly directed EPA’s air enforcement division. At a minimum, he said, the turbines that will remain onsite should have had pollution controls from the start.
“There needs to be a permit beforehand,” he said. “You don’t just get that first year for free.”
The Memphis xAI showdown could become a national test case for artificial intelligence, which demands more electricity than regular internet searches to complete even simple tasks. Utilities across the country have struggled to keep up with the electricity demands of “hyper users” like data centers, which are often left to find their own power sources behind the meter.
The Trump administration, while allowing Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate programs dedicated to reducing the disproportionate amount of pollution in communities of color, has also vowed to support artificial intelligence. Before EPA said it would fire or reassign some 450 employees working on environmental justice initiatives last week, the agency listed making “the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world” among five agency priorities “that will guide EPA’s work.” And Thursday, EPA issued new guidance easing pollution rules for some internal combustion engines commonly used by data centers.
“Data centers are a highly competitive space, and other companies are watching what xAI does,” said Amanda Garcia, senior attorney for the SELC, which has advocated for data centers to use more renewable energy to reduce their pollution and draw from the grid. ”Right now, what xAI is doing is essentially running a power plant without a permit, and it has a real risk of harming people’s health.”
XAI’s main product is Musk’s chatbot, Grok, which also generates images. It has become known for having fewer user guardrails than other artificial intelligence programs, like ChatGPT, which often prevent users from requesting images that violate copyright standards or are deemed insensitive. Grok allows users to make deepfakes depicting things like Mickey Mouse wearing a Nazi uniform. Musk has called it “the most fun AI in the world.”
Boxtown residents say they have been paying for the images with their health.
At a public hearing on the xAI permits at Fairley High School last Friday night, multiple residents described cases of asthma cases of asthma and cancer in their families they attribute to air pollution, asking for the Shelby County Department of Health to deny xAI’s permit and shut down all the turbines. Some like Humphreys showed their inhalers and portable oxygen tanks as proof of the damage.
Many see xAI as just the latest example of Memphis designating their community as a “sacrifice zone,” said KeShaun Pearson, who leads the nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution. Both his grandmothers died of cancer in their 60s, and Pearson blames pollution for their deaths.
“It’s amazing when you grow up and realize how redlining has allowed these industries to kill your family,” he said in an interview. “Elon Musk is a representation of the oligarchy we already knew was operating under Jim Crow. It’s a familiar evil.”
‘Elvis is in the building’
The Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce heralds xAI’s arrival as a success.
An organization dedicated to economic development, the chamber actively courted xAI last spring, its President Ted Townsend said in an interview. But the decision about where to host the supercomputer powering Musk’s company came down to electricity. Colossus, as Musk calls it, contained some 100,000 computer chips at the time and demanded 150 megawatts of power.
Townsend and the head of Memphis Light, Gas and Water signed nondisclosure agreements with xAI and in private meetings helped the company craft a plan. They directed xAI to a former oven factory vacated just a couple of years prior that was already equipped with a gas hookup and a substation that could immediately supply 8 MW of power. During the meetings, the utility agreed to support xAI’s request for 150 MW, which would need approval from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors.
“The AI race is just that, it’s a race,” Townsend said. “So expediting and building out infrastructure as quickly as possible in the most appropriate ways, within the lines of regulations and laws, that is how we have been instructed and guided.”
The Memphis utility declined to make its president, Doug McGowen, available for an interview or answer written questions about xAI’s power supply, referring all comment requests to the Chamber of Commerce.
Left out of those negotiations were the Memphis City Council; the county Board of Commissioners; and TVA, whose board ultimately had to approve any requests for more than 100 MW of power.
They only learned about the deal in early June, after the deal was done, when Musk announced it with a post on X referencing Memphis’ illustrious music history: “Elvis is in the building.”
Almost immediately after becoming public, the deal sparked concerns about how xAI’s power use would affect Memphis residents. As recently as 2022, high demand during winter storms has forced TVA to undergo rolling blackouts on some of the coldest days.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water officials told the public not to worry, saying xAI had brought its own gas generators to power the data center before the TVA board voted on the power request. The company could also rely on the turbines when the authority called on industrial users to reduce their draw during times of high demand.
Typically, stationary gas turbines need permits before they can be turned on due to the levels of NOx and other pollutants they generate. The permitting process helps ensure that emitters use technology to limit air pollution. There are more stringent guidelines for NOx emissions in an already smoggy area like Shelby County. Smog, a mixture of gases and chemicals, can exacerbate lung diseases like asthma and increase hospital visits.
Other data centers have sought permits for the same make and model of gas turbines used by xAI before beginning construction.
But in August, the Shelby County Health Department said it had not issued any permits for the turbines, writing in a letter that EPA had agreed the department “does not currently have authority regarding those mobile gas burning turbines” because they were only temporary.
The letter included a copy of the request that department Director Michelle Taylor had made to EPA earlier that month saying that “a statement acknowledging mobile source gas-powered turbines do not require a local Title V permit until they have remained in the same location for more than 364 days would be advantageous to all parties concerned.”
That explanation didn’t make sense to the SELC’s Garcia. The Health Department seemed to be referencing an exemption in the law for smaller gas generators, like those used to power asphalt crushers for road projects. But the turbines at xAI were big enough and generated enough electricity that they should instead be permitted as stationary sources, even if they were portable.
The SELC told the Health Department as much in multiple letters, but neither Shelby County nor xAI has ever cited a legal argument for why the turbines should be exempt.
Locals feared Memphis had become yet another example of Musk’s companies pushing fast-paced development while disregarding environmental regulations. There was Tesla, which in 2021 was cited for 33 air quality violations in California; SpaceX, which has been fined by Texas for allegedly dumping industrial wastewater without a permit; and Musk’s underground tunneling business, The Boring Co., which was also fined by Texas for failing to get a permit to discharge industrial stormwater.
Since August, the number of gas turbines at the xAI site has only grown, with information only coming to light after community pushback.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water and chamber officials initially suggested last summer there were 18 turbines of varying sizes. But then, when xAI finally succumbed to pressure and filed a permit application in January, it listed 15 machines, at 16 MW each. Then, at the end of March, environmental groups flew over the facility and came back with aerial photos showing 35 turbines onsite. Memphis Mayor Paul Young defended the company, saying only 15 were actually running and that the rest were for backup.
But last week, environmental groups sent a plane with thermal cameras to fly over the facility and found 33 turbines giving off significant amounts of heat — a sign they were also generating electricity and pollution.
“The way they have come into the city, it’s like, oh, you think we are unintelligent, you think that the people in these communities aren’t able to comprehend what you are doing and will take this assault on our health lying down,” 15-year-old Boxtown resident Jasmine Bernard said.
Young did not respond to an interview request.
Shannon Lynn, the environmental consultant listed on xAI’s permit application, also didn’t respond to emails and phone calls for comment. He did speak at a webinar hosted by the Chamber of Commerce last week to answer community concerns about the turbines. Lynn didn’t disclose his connection to xAI during the webinar and was introduced as only “an expert … who brings decades of experience on environmental compliance issues.”
In the webinar, Lynn said xAI did not need air permits for 35 turbines already onsite because “there’s rules that say temporary sources can be in place for up to 364 days a year. They are not subject to permitting requirements.”
If a permit is approved, only seven of the current turbines will remain onsite, and they will be “retrofitted” with selective catalytic reduction pollution controls that will limit NOx pollution to 2 parts per million. Another eight turbines, also with pollution controls, will be brought in.
“That’s why we’re filing a permit because you have to have a permit for a stationary source,” Lynn said.
The other 28 turbines currently onsite are “temporary,” he said, and will be “slowly” moved out as xAI completes work building two substations. But the timeline for that is unclear, because only one of the substations has received the required approval of the TVA board. Townsend, the Chamber of Commerce president, said he doesn’t know what xAI’s timeline is.
‘How does the county know?’
The SELC says xAI’s turbines are too large to take advantage of the temporary permitting loophole and should be regulated as stationary sources of pollution, even if they are technically portable. John Walke, a former attorney in EPA’s Office of General Counsel who now works for the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, agrees that all the turbines require stationary source permits.
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Just like the left does, who is doing the study? Just because it's Elon, don't hold him to untrue things if the "watchdog" is biased.