EPA Rules "That Doesn't Count, Asshole"

Elon Musk's xAI is hyping up Grok 5: the next iteration of their non consensual deepfake generator. It can presumably do other things, too.

Recall that xAI's flagship datacenter is in Memphis, Tennessee. Recall also that they've been polluting the air in the region with gas turbines to power the datacenter. Recall also also that Musk is the definition of an asswipe.

The datacenter, called "Colossus," is in a former Electrolux facility in Memphis. The location houses a massive array of servers and needs power equivalent to that of an entire city to operate.

xAI has been using "portable" methane gas turbines, exploiting a permitting loophole for portable turbine generators. To keep them "portable," they just had to move the turbines' on-site locations once every 364 days. Wow, that sure fixes the problem!

Though, to their credit, xAI did get some permits to use the turbines. 15 of them, even! They then went on to run more than twice as many turbines as they were permitted to use.

After years of work from local activists, the US Environmental Protection Agency ruled that turbines like the ones xAI uses are a subcategory which require specific permits for operation. Though, under the current administration, it's hard to see that actually being enforced. Still, this is a huge legal win for locals whose home has been a historic site of industrial poisoning.

Here is a quote from an interview with KeShaun Pearson, a local activist whose family has directly suffered generations worth of industrial pollution of his home in the region:

Electrolux signed deals that demanded that they create jobs, […] They got tax breaks and then they left. We know this scam. We've seen it before, and the irony isn't lost on us, that it's in the same building. It's the exact same building and it's the exact same story. […] We know exploitation because in this same exact area, there are 17 toxic release facilities. Over 90% of the particular matter in the air in all of our county is in southwest Memphis.

And guess where there isn't a air monitor for pollution?
—KeShaun Pearson, interviewed by WBUR

Cancer rates in the area around the datacenter are up to four times higher than average. When xAI began operating the turbines, it became the 18th toxic release facility in the region.

Data centers are the focus of quite a lot of activism right now, as they're basically massive, physical monuments to faceless corporations exploiting land they'll never steward in exchange for—at best—a tiny fraction of the profits. Usually in the form of a check to whatever local politician greenlit construction.

But here's a nice lil' nugget: data center project cancellations have quadrupled in the past year, with 21 projects cancelled in the second half of 2025 alone. The growing ire towards the constant exploitation from these corporations is real. While some of the increase in cancellations can be explained by the sharp increase in data center demand, but such a statistic only happens because people spoke out and stood up for their communities.

Yay, communities.