xAI Adds 19 New Gas Turbines Despite Ongoing Lawsuit
Key takeaways
- A spreadsheet included in the email to MDEQ has a column labeled “Total Power Output” that appears to list the megawatt capacity of each turbine on the site.
- Burning natural gas can release planet-warming emissions and worsen air quality.
- “As indicated by the facility, all portable/temporary turbines are equipped with control technology to minimize emissions,” agency spokesperson Jan Schaefer told Mississippi Today.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: Brandon Dill/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this storyx AI has added 19 natural gas turbines to its second data center campus in Southhaven, Mississippi, over the past two months, according to internal emails seen by WIRED.
The additions come as x AI is fighting a lawsuit from the NAACP and several environmental groups, alleging that the company is violating the Clean Air Act by operating more than two dozen natural gas turbines at the site without appropriate air permits.
Emails between an official in the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and a representative from Trinity Consultants, obtained via a public records request by the Southern Environmental Law Center and shared with WIRED, show that xAI installed 19 portable gas turbines on its site in Southaven between late March and early May. That brings the total to 46 turbines operating at the site.