Elon Musk Obtains Permit to Spew Pollution

Sunday, July 06, 2025

In the city that built the blues, Elon Musk's xAI data center has been given permission to keep polluting the air with fumes from burning methane gas -- which it had already been doing so without authorization for a year.

Posted by Corky at 07:30 PM | 11 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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300+ Memphians showed up to demand that the Shelby County Health Department DENY xAI's gas turbine permit. We must protect our air from toxic chemicals and pollution!

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-- TN State Rep. Justin J. Pearson (@justinjpearson.bsky.social) Apr 16, 2025 at 6:33 PM

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"In Boxtown, the historically Black neighborhood in South Memphis where xAI's data center is situated, Musk's unfettered pollution has ripped the band-aid off a wound that had barely begun to heal.

As Capital B News reported earlier this year, the neighborhood was once home to the Allen Fossil Plant, an electrical facility that left pits of noxious coal ash and a lengthy legacy of environmental racism behind when it was forced to close in 2018."

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Wow... sounds like he should have his own political party!

America Pollution First Party !

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-06 12:07 AM | Reply

www.wired.com

... A local health department in Memphis has granted Elon Musk's xAI data center an air permit to continue operating the gas turbines that power the company's Grok chatbot. The permit comes amid widespread community opposition and a looming lawsuit alleging the company violated the Clean Air Act.

The Shelby County Health Department released an air permit for the xAI project Wednesday, after receiving hundreds of public comments. The news was first reported by the Daily Memphian.

In June, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced that xAI had chosen a site in Memphis to build its new supercomputer. The company's website boasts that it was able to build the supercomputer, Colossus, in just 122 days. That speed was due in part to the mobile gas turbines the company quickly began installing at the campus, the site of a former manufacturing facility. ...

#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-06 12:09 AM | Reply

@#1 ... In Boxtown, the historically Black neighborhood in South Memphis where xAI's data center is situated, Musk's unfettered pollution has ripped the band-aid off a wound that had barely begun to heal. ...

Well, yeah.

The current GOP: ~it is OK to pollute their neighborhood, just don't pollute mine.~

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-06 12:12 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Carbon dioxide and water it's what plants crave.

#4 | Posted by visitor_ at 2025-07-06 08:45 PM | Reply

Carbon dioxide and water it's what plants crave.

I'm sure plants will be fine.

#5 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-07-06 08:50 PM | Reply

Carbon dioxide and water it's what plants crave.

BS they crave Brawndo! It's got electrolytes!

#6 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-07-06 08:56 PM | Reply

If you didn't know, that's what the very benign by-products are of burning methane.