Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has installed 59 natural gas turbines for its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee without obtaining state clean air permits, according to communications between regulators and xAI representatives.
The potential emissions from the turbines are above the threshold that would require a federal permit, and will be produced near predominantly Black communities that are already estimated to have high rates of lung disease, according to a Reuters analysis based on data and government information in communications with regulators.
The results, which have not been reported before, show how the increasing demand for electricity from AI data centers is pushing companies to build power plants off the national grid at a rate that exceeds environmental considerations, with significant risks to public health.
The number of unauthorized installations identified by Reuters is almost double what xAI has publicly acknowledged. The company previously said it was operating 27 unauthorized plants for Colossus 2 as of January and has said those permits are not required. At least 57 of the 59 turbines are located in Mississippi, just over the state line from Tennessee where the data center is located.
The xAI plants are among the off-grid power plants for data centers proposed or under construction across the country. Local authorities often pursue approvals in just weeks or months, without the years of environmental studies and public hearings typically required for such grid-connected power projects, Reuters reported.
Mississippi regulators in March issued a permanent Colossus 2 turbine permit, allowing construction of 41 gas-powered turbines. The approval came three weeks after the only government hearing on the project.
The xAI group of temporary plants in Mississippi is already among the largest off-grid data center power projects in the nation, according to Ben King, an analyst at Rhodium Group, who reviewed the analysis for Reuters.
“This appears to be an unprecedented level of back-of-the-meter gas being placed in one place,” he said, referring to off-grid natural gas plants serving only one customer.
Communications reviewed by Reuters show xAI, now owned by billionaire Musk’s SpaceX SPCX.O, has installed 57 off-grid turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, across the state line from its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, the facility that supports the Grok chatbot and other AI systems. Records show the company has also installed two other plants that have not been approved for the project at different sites. Reuters could not specify the location.
The communications, obtained through a Reuters public records request, included emails between Trinity Consultants, representing xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
xAI did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The xAI plants are part of a growing environmental justice battle over whether the rise of AI is adding disproportionate pollution burdens to communities of color.
Civil rights groups including the NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center sued xAI in April to halt their operations, arguing that the plants emit pollutants under the federal Clean Air Act and should not be operated without permits. They claim the plants pollute homes, schools and churches in historically Black communities.
“The scale of it is staggering,” said Patrick Anderson, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “This is a serious violation of the Clean Air Act that threatens public health.”
Getting Clean Air Act approval would expose the xAI project to extensive review and public input, which could take years. Mississippi environmental regulators and xAI have argued in court filings that the turbines are not permitted because they are “mobile” and intended to operate on the site for less than a year.
“MDEQ has determined that portable/temporary installations do not require an air permit,” the agency said in a statement to Reuters.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in January 2026 that even temporary plants that exceed emissions standards must obtain permits. The agency, however, told Reuters it was considering changes that would allow for “regulatory changes” to portable units while still protecting public health.
xAI, MDEQ and EPA did not respond to questions from Reuters about the impact of pollution on communities of color from energy production to serve data centers.
The US Department of Justice considered the case in a June 15 filing, saying that blocking the installations could threaten national security interests because xAI systems support US military operations, including operations involving Iran.
The outcome of the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups could help clarify how environmental laws apply to the fast-growing AI industry, where companies are scrambling to bring electronics online to support power-hungry computing.
“This creates an environment where the government can create sacrifice zones and tell communities they have to breathe illegal air pollution,” said Mary Rock, senior attorney for Earthjustice who represents the NAACP and SELC.
The dispute refers to the results of a 2022 survey by researchers from UCLA and Columbia University and published in the journal Nature Energy that found that previously resettled communities – where banks historically discriminated against Black mortgage applicants – now face very high exposure to pollution from fossil fuels.
“Air pollution from these and other sources contributes to ethnic disparities in chronic disease and ultimately shorter life,” Lara Cushing, a UCLA public health professor who co-authored the study, told Reuters.
Big production
The emails reviewed by Reuters included profiles of 32 of the 59 generators, including 30 on the Southaven site.
A Reuters analysis based on the news found that the 30 turbines alone could emit about 2,500 short tons of nitrogen oxide, 4,000 short tons of carbon monoxide and 22 short tons of formaldehyde annually, assuming they operate continuously at 80% capacity. According to the EPA, gas turbines are typically operated at 80% load or higher to achieve efficiency.
Nitrogen oxides contribute to smoke and respiratory inflammation, according to the American Lung Association. Carbon monoxide deprives the body of oxygen, and formaldehyde is a carcinogen.
The xAI site’s potential emissions exceed the Clean Air Act maximum that requires permits for facilities with a capacity of more than 100 short tons annually of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.
“This is an incredible amount of turbines and an incredible amount of air pollution,” Southaven resident Shannon Samsa said in an interview.
“It’s not a myth,” he said, “that air pollution is bad for you.”
Nitrogen oxide emissions calculated by Reuters for about half of the plant’s plants would put the facility “up there with some of the most polluting natural gas plants in the country,” said Nicholas Mailloux, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the air quality and health benefits of the clean energy transition.
He said the facility would be on par with the top 25 U.S. gas plants for nitrogen oxide emissions, citing EPA data for actual production.
Affected people
In the Colonial Hills neighborhood of Southaven, the plants that service Colossus 2 can be heard around the clock, often emitting blasts of noise that residents liken to airplane engines.
Ervin Laws, a Colonial Hills resident in his 20s, said the noise wakes him up at night. “I can’t do anything about it, because he has more money than me,” he said, referring to Musk.
The plants were placed in communities already estimated to be facing high burdens of respiratory diseases, according to a Reuters analysis of CDC data.
In 27 of the 28 census tracts within five miles of the site — ranging from Mississippi to Tennessee — the estimated asthma rates were higher than their countywide figures. In 24 ways, chronic lung disease rates were also high.
Five miles is a distance commonly used in environmental health research to capture the population that may be exposed to air pollution from a stationary source.
A separate Reuters analysis of Census Bureau data found that residents living near the center are disproportionately black. Because the five-mile stretch crosses state lines, Reuters compared each side against its county baseline.
Within five miles of the facility in DeSoto County, Mississippi — where the plants are located — about 46% of residents are Black, compared to 33% countywide, according to census data.
Across the Tennessee state line, where residents have no say in Mississippi’s permitting process, about 94% of residents within five miles of the facility are Black, compared to 52% in surrounding Shelby County.
Jayajit Chakraborty, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the Reuters analysis was consistent with research showing communities of color face higher exposure to oil pollution.
Shelby County and parts of DeSoto County have also previously failed to meet federal ozone standards and remain under EPA-approved programs to ensure they do not fall back into violations, according to regulatory documents. Nitrogen oxides are an important precursor to the formation of ozone, which the EPA says can harm respiratory health.
“With this community struggling with high levels of asthma, additional exposure to NOx at such high levels could exacerbate public health concerns in a community that already sees more than its fair share of exposure to toxic air pollution,” said Victoria Nelson, an independent environmental engineer, previously at the EPA.
Sarah Gladney, 72, has watched the rapid expansion of xAI’s Memphis-area presence from her home in the historically Black neighborhood of Boxtown, a few miles from where the company built its Colossus 1 data center in 2024.
“Once they got in the door in Memphis, I feel like it’s going to be a continued movement of xAI into these other communities,” he said. “It’s all about the money, and not about the health or well-being of the people who live in or around these communities.” – Rappler.com
