The US Justice Department has taken Elon Musk’s side in a pollution lawsuit, arguing that the gas turbines powering his AI data centre are too important to national security to switch off.
In a filing on Monday, the department, joined by the state of Mississippi, asked a court to dismiss the case the NAACP brought against xAI in April. It is an unusual move: the government intervening to defend a private company against an environmental claim.
The NAACP sued over the methane gas turbines powering xAI’s Colossus 2 data centre near Memphis, which it says run without the proper Clean Air Act permits. It has asked the court to halt them, citing higher ‘risks of asthma attacks and heart disease’ for nearby residents.
‘National security’ as a defence
The Justice Department’s argument is striking. Stopping the turbines, it wrote, ‘threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations’.
