Mississippi environmental officials will hold a hearing Feb. 17 where members of the public can comment on a proposed permit to run 41 new turbines at xAI’s facility in Southaven.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at Northwest Mississippi Community College’s DeSoto County campus in Southaven.
The public has until the day of the hearing to submit comments to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality through the agency’s website or in writing to the Mississippi Environmental Quality Permit Board at P.O. Box 2261, Jackson, MS 39225.
The company, owned by Elon Musk, is looking to add the turbines to its facility that help power large data centers just outside Memphis. The news comes just after Mississippi leaders boasted about a record-setting $20 billion investment from the company to build a new data center in Southaven. With this new investment, the state now has five large data center projects in the works.
In recent months, residents in north Mississippi criticized the state for allowing xAI to run 18 “temporary-mobile” turbines without an air permit. As of Dec.18, xAI had added nine more turbines – bringing the total to 27, MDEQ said, adding that the turbines have “air pollution control devices.”
The agency contends that those turbines fall under an exception that lets the generators run without a permit as long as they operate for less than a year.
The other 41 turbines at the site, though, won’t be temporary, meaning they require an air permit. Specifically, they will have the potential to emit volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, the hearing notice says. Exposure to those chemicals can lead to a wide range of health impacts, including nausea, headaches and respiratory issues, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Neighbors of the facility have complained about constant humming noises from the turbines since August, despite Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite saying months ago he expected it would be a temporary issue.
Just north in Memphis, xAI already has faced similar public criticism over using temporary turbines to run its two data centers there. But after receiving pushback from groups such as the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center, xAI eventually applied for air permits for its Memphis centers before moving the smaller, temporary turbines to Mississippi.
Data centers are sprouting up across the United States to power the AI boom. Recently, there’s been a flurry of projects across the South. While these projects are bringing in billions of dollars in investment, they are also drawing concerns over the large amount of water and energy that these projects demand.
Does new EPA rule change permit requirements for xAI?
On Jan. 15, the federal Environmental Protection Agency finalized new air pollution standards that include a subcategory for temporary generators. While the new rules create a lower standard for temporary turbines, attorneys and Mississippi regulators disagree over how those requirements apply to the xAI site.
“The rule does not mandate that permitting authorities issue air permits for temporary turbines,” MDEQ spokesperson Jan Schaefer wrote in an email. “That decision remains with each state, based on its own permitting regulations.”
Moreover, “portable” turbines are exempt from Mississippi’s air permitting laws, Schaefer added, saying “nothing in the new EPA rule changes that determination.”
Amanda Garcia, an attorney who led the Southern Environmental Law Center’s fight against xAI in Memphis, said MDEQ is misinterpreting the new rules. She argued the rule doesn’t create an exemption for portable turbines. The new standards lower the regulatory burden for temporary turbines, but the EPA still requires them to have permits, Garcia said.
“While that burden may be reduced, EPA does not leave it up to states to decide whether to require permits for temporary turbines,” she said. “State air agencies are not free to follow less stringent rules than EPA’s, and MDEQ must comply with the Clean Air Act.”
Mississippi Today has made multiple attempts to clarify with the EPA its own standards. In November, when asked whether MDEQ was following federal law, EPA instead blamed Democrats for the recently ended federal government shutdown, adding that it was working “expeditiously” to finalize its new rule.
When reached on Jan. 29, the agency again provided little clarity, telling Mississippi Today instead to ask the state environmental agency about specific cases.
“It should be noted that source-specific air permitting questions are necessarily case-specific, often because their answers depend on a variety of factors and applicable requirements that may differ depending on the specific location of the source,” the EPA replied in an email.
In a recent interview on Fox Business, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency was working “very closely” with officials in Shelby County, Tennessee – where Memphis is located – and Mississippi “as they go through their permitting process to allow xAI to go forward.” Speeding the permitting process to “unleash energy dominance” is a “top priority” for President Donald Trump, Zeldin added.
