US District Judge Debra Brown denied the Justice Department’s attempt to dismiss the NAACP’s Clean Air Act lawsuit against xAI on 19 October, while allowing the government to intervene. The case challenges gas-fired turbines used to power the company’s Colossus 2 data centre in Mississippi, according to Earthjustice, which has partnered with the NAACP to support the lawsuit. Brown rejected the department’s argument that it could end the citizen suit on its own.
Key points
- The NAACP’s Clean Air Act case against xAI can proceed, with the Justice Department participating as an intervenor.
- Brown rejected the government’s claim that the EPA’s enforcement role gives it unilateral authority to dismiss the citizen suit.
- The NAACP alleges that 69 turbines at the Southaven site operate without required air permits.
- The judge has asked government lawyers to set out the extent of their proposed intervention by 23 October.
Brown separates intervention from dismissal
The Justice Department sought to join the lawsuit in June and argued that the Environmental Protection Agency’s responsibility for enforcing the Clean Air Act entitled the federal government to dismiss it, Mississippi Today reported. Brown wrote that the EPA’s role as primary enforcer did not put every Clean Air Act case under federal government control. Congress had allowed individuals to sue even when state and federal authorities chose not to enforce the law, she wrote.
The court found no reading of the Clean Air Act that would let the United States unilaterally dismiss a citizen suit, Earthjustice reported, quoting the order. Brown nevertheless granted the government permission to intervene and distinguished that permission from what it could do once it had joined the proceedings. Before the district court ruled, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the department’s request to pause the case, citing the absence of a district court decision on the issue.
The accounts differ on the date of Brown’s ruling. Earthjustice places it on Monday, 19 October. Ars Technica places the judge’s ruling on Tuesday, 20 October. Ars Technica reported that Brown examined a provision permitting dismissal when government authorities are themselves pursuing enforcement or requiring compliance. The administration instead relied on its right to intervene, while opposing the NAACP’s case.
The 69 turbines at Southaven
The NAACP alleges that xAI, now known as SpaceXAI following a merger, uses 69 gas turbines at its Southaven data centre without the air permits required by the Clean Air Act. It has asked Brown to bar operation of the turbines unless the company goes through Mississippi’s permitting process, Mississippi Today reported. The lawsuit also seeks emissions-control technology and penalties of up to $124,426 per day per violation, according to Notus.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality initially told the company that permits were unnecessary because the turbines were “temporary” and “mobile”, Mississippi Today reported. Mounted on trailers, the turbines can operate for up to 12 months. The state agency subsequently allowed some generators to operate for an additional five months because permanent, permitted turbines had been delayed. It maintains that the temporary equipment complies with state rules.
Earthjustice says the plant’s annual emissions potential exceeds 47 tons of formaldehyde, 400 tons of fine particulate matter and 5,000 tons of nitrogen oxides. Those are figures for its capacity to emit, rather than measurements of emissions. The NAACP’s requested injunction would require the company to install pollution-control technology, Notus reported. The permit dispute and the requested remedies remain before the district court following Brown’s decision on the government’s dismissal request.
Grok figures in the DOJ’s case
The Justice Department also argued that dismissal served national security and the public interest. In a declaration described by Notus, Cameron Stanley, the Defense Department’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, called preserving xAI’s data-centre capacity “a matter of paramount national security”. He said the department relies on a product called Grok Gov Model for military operations and other activities, and that Grok helped it “deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets” during the US campaign against Iran.
Brown said those national-security concerns were not relevant to whether the department had the authority to dismiss the whole case, Notus reported. In court filings described by the publication, xAI’s lawyers said Grok would “effectively cease to function” if a preliminary injunction forced the company to shut down generators. The Justice Department and Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves have argued that the penalties sought by the NAACP threaten operation of the data centre.
Brown has asked Justice Department lawyers to explain how far they intend to intervene by 23 October.
