"Images confirm xAI is continuing to defy EPA regulations in Mississippi to power its flagship data centers."
"Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is continuing to fuel its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage shows xAI is still burning gas at a facility in Southaven, Miss., despite a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling reiterating that doing so requires a state permit in advance.
State regulators in Mississippi maintain that since the turbines are parked on tractor trailers, they don't require permits. However, the EPA has long required that such pollution sources be permitted under the Clean Air Act.
Any exemption for these machines “could leave these engines subject to no emission standards at all,” the agency wrote in a January final ruling.
However, thermal images captured by Floodlight — and analyzed by multiple experts — show more than a dozen unpermitted turbines still spewing pollutants at the plant nearly two weeks after the EPA's recent ruling."
Evan Simon reports for Floodlight February 13, 2026, produced in partnership with the Guardian.
