The DOJ says shutting xAI's unpermitted turbines would cut power to Grok, which the Pentagon uses for Iran strikes. The NAACP says emissions harm Black communities.
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The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit against Elon Musk's xAI over natural-gas turbines at a Mississippi data center. Federal lawyers wrote that shutting the turbines would cut power to AI models the Pentagon uses for intelligence work, including strikes involving Iran.
The case, which the NAACP filed in April, targets xAI's Colossus 2 site in Southaven. The group says xAI is running the turbines without Clean Air Act permits. Its original complaint listed 27 units. Emails with Mississippi regulators, later flagged by the Southern Environmental Law Center, showed 57 turbines operating by mid-May. The NAACP argues that means higher emissions of nitrogen oxides, PM2.5, and formaldehyde since April.
The Justice Department joined xAI and the state of Mississippi in seeking dismissal. A Defense Department official, Cameron Stanley, said in a declaration that Grok is one of four AI models the military uses across Secret and Top-Secret networks. The model supports mission-critical applications tied to recent strikes on Iran, Stanley wrote. Cutting power to the site "directly threatens ongoing national security interests," he said.
Abre' Conner, the NAACP's director of environmental and climate justice, responded in a statement. "At a time when the ultra-rich seem to be protected and supported by some of our government entities, it is important that polluting industries don't get to benefit at the expense of the health of Black communities," Conner said. She called citizen suits a bedrock insurance policy for communities to hold polluters accountable.
The case tests a conflict between two federal priorities. One is the Clean Air Act's citizen-suit provision, which lets groups sue polluters directly. The other is the government's desire to keep AI infrastructure running for military use. The DOJ memo argued that blocking the turbines would endanger national, economic, and energy interests tied to AI work the armed forces rely on.
Defense technology startups have pulled in a record $14.6 billion in venture funding in the first five months of 2026. The xAI case shows how those companies operate energy-hungry data centers without full environmental permits when the government signs off on the mission.
The NAACP is scheduled to file its next response in federal court by mid-July.
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