NASHVILLE, TN – The battle for the health of Memphis’ citizens and environment continues as Elon Musk’s xAI power plant, built for the purpose of powering his Grok AI, continues to face endless backlash regarding its construction and significant pollution output. Community members and activist groups, along with public representatives, continue to speak out against the pollution and lack of transparency shared by Musk’s team since before the Memphis facility opened. Tennessee State House District 86 Memphis Representative Justin J. Pearson said the xAI power plant’s initial construction was illegal, and that when the facility first opened, the air pollution being released was worse than that of Nashville’s International Airport.
Pearson said because of this, the air quality around Memphis, Shelby County, and the surrounding area became drastically worse, leading to exacerbated health conditions of many of its residents. “Tennessee is a very desirable state to be exploited. And that’s what’s happening to us. That’s what’s going to continue to happen to us, because we have weak leadership,” Pearson said “Look in our city. Our city and county is getting $26 million in taxes, and that is being touted as the reason we should allow for someone to illegally pollute our air and hurt our citizens when this company spends $33 million a day. They found a group of people who are easily exploitable. “The governor, Cameron Sexton, these people don’t care about people. They only care about the profits of corporations, and they’ve shown that with billion-dollar tax cuts to corporations.”
Pearson said regarding their responsibility in monitoring and improving the air quality for citizens, Mayor Lee Harris and the Shelby County Health Department “have woefully failed at their job.” Pearson said to empower the communi- ty to appropriately resist, he is holding town halls throughout Memphis. He said these town halls will discuss the xAI power plant pollution and the longstanding history of environmental racism through air pollution in Memphis and Shelby County, which are mostly populated by Black and minority communities. This time, however, the deterioration of their air quality is being exacerbated to power an AI that Musk has been accused of being unable to control across multiple occasions, including when Grok launched into far-right, white supremacist, antisemitic speech while renaming itself “MechaHitler.”
Pearson said, despite the documented il- legality surrounding the xAI power plant’s construction, and the incredible amount of documented pollution that the power plant released, which has very real health and environmental concerns, there have still been no fines. Pearson said fines could have been placed against the power plant by the Shel- by County Health Department, but they instead decided not to do so by interpreting the law “inaccurately” at the benefit of Musk’s corporation. Pearson said it was only after pressure from community activists and the com- munity itself that the xAI powerplant ap- plied for the permit they received in July. He said, however, that the pretenses under which the facility received its permit were not accurate, and he thinks they should not have been approved for a permit at all. Pearson said that now, the facility is op- erating under 15 gas turbines with selec- tive catalytic reduction technology, which should reduce the amount of pollution the power plant contributes. “But there’s been no reparation of the harm for the last year of unpermitted polluting in our community, and no one at the chamber or elsewhere has demanded it.” Pearson said organizations focusing on these issues include Memphis Community Against Pollution, MCAP. He said citizens can influence change by talking to their elected officials and telling them to stand up for the communities they have been vot- ed to represent.
