NAACP calls on Memphis officials to halt operations at xAI’s ‘dirty data center’

The NAACP is looking on native officers to halt operations at Colossus, the “supercomputer” facility operated by Elon Musk’s xAI in South Memphis.

As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Well being Division and Memphis Mild Gasoline and Water criticizing the organizations’ “lackadaisical strategy to the operation of this soiled information heart” and calling on them to “difficulty an emergency order for xAI to cease operations fully” — or if there’s no order, to at the least cite and cease the corporate from allegedly violating clear air legal guidelines.

The letter expressed explicit issues across the gasoline generators that xAI runs to energy Colossus. The corporate has utilized for a allow to continue operating 15 gas turbines on the facility, though the NAACP mentioned authorities have “allowed xAI to function at the least 35 gasoline generators with none allowing” over the previous yr. Metropolis officers have beforehand mentioned xAI didn’t want permits for the generators’ first yr of use.

These generators reportedly emit hazardous air pollutants, together with formaldehyde, at ranges exceeding EPA limits. The NAACP’s letter additionally pointed to the generators’ nitrogen-oxide emissions.

Noting that the Colossus facility is situated close to South Memphis’ Boxtown neighborhood, which the letter described as a “traditionally Black group,” the NAACP mentioned the placement perpetuates “the development of industries including air pollution to communities who don’t trigger the issue.”

“As a substitute of [the Shelby County Health Department] working to cut back well being points recognized within the space together with that most cancers dangers are already 4 occasions the nationwide common, it has allowed xAI to function above the legislation,” the NAACP added.

The NAACP’s letter is addressed to Shelby County Well being Division Director Michelle Taylor, in addition to Memphis Mild Gasoline and Water’s commissioners; Taylor is leaving her role in Shelby County to develop into the commissioner of the Baltimore Metropolis Well being Division.

TechCrunch has reached out to the NAACP and xAI for remark. A spokesperson for Memphis Mild Gasoline and Water informed NBC Information that it had not but obtained the NAACP letter.