US judge rejects xAI bid to dismiss NAACP pollution suit over the gas plant powering its Colossus 2 data centre

A federal judge in Mississippi has refused to throw out a Clean Air Act lawsuit that the NAACP brought against xAI over the gas-fired power plant that supplies its Colossus 2 data centre, TechCrunch reported on 31 October. In a 28-page order signed on 30 October, US District Judge Debra M. Brown denied the motion filed by xAI and its wholly owned subsidiary MZX Tech, so the plaintiffs' claims go forward. The ruling decides only that the case can continue. It does not decide whether the companies broke the law.

The NAACP and its Mississippi State Conference sued on 14 April 2026. According to the complaint as the order summarises it, the companies installed gas-fired combustion turbines at the Colossus Gas Plant in Southaven, DeSoto County, between August and December 2025 without the air permits that stationary sources need. The plaintiffs count at least 27 turbines on site as of 7 April, with a combined capacity of at least 495 MW, and estimate that together they could emit about 1,700 tons of nitrogen oxides a year. The plant feeds the data centre across the state line in Memphis, Tennessee. These figures are allegations, not findings of the court.

The defendants argued that the NAACP had no standing to sue, that the turbines were mobile units outside the permitting rules, and that the Act's citizen-suit provision is unconstitutional. In July 2025 Mississippi's environment department had told xAI by email that it treated trailer-mounted turbines kept on site for less than 12 months as exempt, on conditions. Judge Brown rejected all three arguments. She found that the plaintiffs have statutory standing, that the turbines are not "mobile sources" under Mississippi's implementation plan, and that the citizen-suit provision does not breach Article II of the Constitution.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the NAACP together with Earthjustice, says the court had already turned down a separate Justice Department motion to dismiss, and has not yet ruled on the NAACP's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the turbines. TechCrunch said it had asked SpaceX, which owns xAI, for comment.