Trump DOJ Says xAI Gas Turbines Needed for National Security (1)

The NAACP’s attempt to shut down gas-fired turbines that power data centers that support xAI’s Grok chatbot threatens national security and must be dismissed, the Justice Department said in a Mississippi federal court filing.

The NAACP’s lawsuit argues the turbines disproportionately harm communities of color and lack a required permit under the Clean Air Act.

But the organization’s lawsuit “threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations,” the Justice Department said in its Monday motion to intervene and dismiss the case.

The Justice Department argued in its motion that the case should also be dismissed because the Clean Air Act doesn’t allow citizen-enforcement actions that seek relief the federal government chooses to “forgo.”

“Allowing this action to proceed over the United States’ objection would essentially cede principal enforcement authority to the NAACP,” the brief says. “The Clean Air Act does not contemplate, let alone require, that result.”

The NAACP pushed back against the DOJ’s argument in a statement Tuesday.

“Citizen suits are a bedrock insurance policy for communities to hold polluters accountable for decisions that cause them harm,” said Abre’ Conner, NAACP director of environmental and climate justice. “This should not be up for debate.”

Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality found that the turbines didn’t require Clean Air Act permits, according to the DOJ’s brief, and the state says a shutdown would “create an immediate and substantial disruption to the State’s economy.”

The NAACP in April sued Elon Musk’s xAI Corp. and its subsidiary MZX Tech LLC in the US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi for installing several gas-powered turbines in Southaven, Miss., to power its Colossus II data center in Tennessee without obtaining air permits. Such actions put predominantly Black communities on both sides of the states’ border at risk, the lawsuit said. The group also moved for a preliminary injunction in May to stop the turbines from operating.

The same companies are facing a separate complaint from residents and property owners claiming the Southaven plant was increasing anxiety, sleep disruption, and nausea for people in the area.

The NAACP is represented by Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center. xAI and MZX Tech are represented by Vinson & Elkins LLP, Boyden Gray PLLC, and Butler Snow LLP.

Earthjustice has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

The case is NAACP v. xAI Corp., N.D. Miss., No. 3:26-cv-00074, motion filed 6/15/26.