Tech
DOJ Files Notice It May Back xAI on 46 Unpermitted Turbines
No utility could supply xAI's 1.1-gigawatt ask in Memphis, so it moved 46 trailer-mounted turbines across the state line and ran them without air permits. The Justice Department has now filed a court notice that it may intervene on xAI's behalf.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water declined xAI's 1.1-gigawatt request in 2024, citing reserve capacity it does not carry on demand.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, MLGW's wholesale supplier, never confirmed it would serve that load either.
So xAI went to Southaven, Mississippi, a former power plant site across the state line from its South Memphis campus. It brought trailer-mounted gas turbines classified by state regulators as "temporary-mobile engines," a designation that allows operation without air permits for up to twelve months.
Mississippi DEQ confirmed all 46 are running without permits and noted the agency does not require notification when additional units arrive. In March 2026, the state Permit Board approved 41 permanent generators for the site; none are installed.
The NAACP and Earthjustice sued April 14 in the Northern District of Mississippi, arguing xAI is running an unpermitted stationary source in violation of the Clean Air Act. The facility projects more than 1,700 tons of nitrogen oxides and 180 tons of fine particulate matter annually. A residential neighborhood starts half a mile from the turbines; an elementary school is one mile out.
The NAACP filed for a preliminary injunction May 6, asking the court to halt operations until permits are secured. Nine days later, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson filed a notice to the Northern District court that DOJ may intervene or appear as amicus. Gustafson heads the Environment and Natural Resources Division; his notice invokes "the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America's global AI dominance."
The filing reframes Mississippi's mobile-equipment exemption: no longer a state permitting shortcut, it is now a contested interpretation the federal government may defend in open court. The Environmental and Natural Resources Division, which sues municipalities for Clean Air Act violations, has placed itself on the other side of one. For developers using gas generation to bridge an interconnection gap, the signal extends to any permitting track, including El Paso Electric's CCN approach at McCloud on different statutory authority.
Watch the preliminary injunction ruling. A grant before DOJ formally moves to intervene would shut down Colossus 2's bridge generation and force a collision between a federal judge's order and the administration's stated AI-dominance policy.