SOUTHAVEN – In a room of a couple hundred attendees, not one spoke in favor of a proposed air permit for an Elon Musk-owned operation in Southaven during a two-and-a-half hour public hearing.

MZX Tech LLC, a part of Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company, applied for permits to construct and operate 41 natural gas turbines in the north Mississippi city. Those turbines would power the company’s nearby data centers, which include two just across the state line in Memphis as well as a recently announced $20 billion investment in Southaven.

Mississippi’s environmental permit board, which is made up of seven appointees from several state agencies, will decide whether to approve or deny MZX Tech’s application.

The South African-born billionaire has already funded 27 “mobile-temporary” turbines at the Stanton Road facility. Mississippi regulators maintain those turbines don’t require an air permit because of their “mobile-temporary” designation. Environmental lawyers disagree, and for months residents have complained about the turbines’ uncounted emissions and perpetual high-pitched humming.

Tuesday night’s hearing, held by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, affirmed and amplified those concerns. About 30 audience members spoke — few stayed under their allotted three minutes, and all either expressed fear of the turbines’ potential pollution, asked the agency to reject the application or requested MDEQ shut down the already operating generators.

Taylor Logsdon, a mother of three who lives less than half a mile from the plant, said two of her children have developed respiratory problems just in the few months since xAI’s temporary turbines began running over the summer. Her eczema has spread “dramatically” in the last month, which her dermatologist attributed to formaldehyde exposure, Logsdon said.

Formaldehyde is a known release from gas production, but without a permit xAI’s exact releases are unknown. Logsdon called the state’s lack of information on the turbines’ releases “irresponsible.” She and other members of a local advocacy group called the Safe and Sound Coalition donned T-shirts reading, “not all money is good money.”

“Since August, we have slowly fallen out of love with where we decided to grow our family,” she said.

Chestela Farmer, another mother who said she lives less than a half mile from the plant, said she’s recently felt increased shortness of breath and seen more frequent asthma flareups.

“My family shouldn’t be forced to live in fear of long-term health consequences simply because pollution is being allowed to continue and expand,” Farmer said. “I never thought after 23 years here I would have to fight for the basic right to breathe clean air in my own house.”

A number of Southaven residents complained of the noise the turbines made, a concern they raised over the summer. In November, the city’s mayor, Darren Musselwhite, a supporter of the xAI investments, said the company assured him that any noise issues would be resolved in a matter of days. Yet just before the Tuesday hearing, Mississippi Today reporters could clearly hear the constant humming near homes less than a mile away from the facility.

Devan Jenkins, whose family has lived in a nearby neighborhood for five generations, described it as a “deep, constant drone that vibrates in your house.”

No officials from the city of Southaven or xAI spoke during the hearing.

Several residents pointed to the already poor air quality in the area. Last year, the American Lung Association gave DeSoto County — where Southaven is located — an “F” grade for high ozone, or smog.

The public hearing also saw attendees from neighboring Memphis, including Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson. In 2023, the Republican-led Tennessee House expelled Pearson and another representative because of a gun protest at the capitol. They regained their seats in a special election. Pearson also co-founded Memphis Community Against Pollution, which pushed back against unpermitted xAI turbines there.

“The consequences of this air pollution are going to be in Southaven, in the Horn Lake area, but it’s also going to be in the Westwood and Whitehaven communities that I represent in Memphis,” he said. “Pollution doesn’t care about the imaginary boundary between states, which is why we have to have solidarity.”

The hearing came just days after the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, on behalf of the NAACP, sent a notice of their intent to sue over the use of the “mobile-temporary” turbines. The letter — addressed to Musk, xAI, EPA, Gov. Tate Reeves, MDEQ and others — argues the use of the turbines without a permit violates the Clean Air Act.

Update, 2/18/2026: This story has been updated with additional photos.