Points of Contention
Corporate Claims and Community Counterclaims
Health
Corporate claim: Gas turbines are safe
Community counterclaim: xAI’s gas turbines are polluting the air and exacerbating health risks for a community already over-exposed to industrial pollutants.
Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP)
“We are breathing dirtier air, experiencing higher rates of asthma, and our children are spending more time in emergency rooms due to the misguided ambitions of billionaires who don’t see us as humans.” KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director of MCAP
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
“The health department failed to hold xAI accountable for unlawfully installing 35 polluting methane gas turbines at the site before getting a permit, setting a dangerous precedent that opens the door for xAI or other companies to disregard federal and local law and operate large polluting turbines without any permits or penalties.”
The People Say No!
“Nitrogen dioxide concentration levels have increased by 79% from pre-xAI levels in the surrounding Memphis area due to the data center being fueled by 35 unpermitted temporary gas turbines. Nitrogen oxide is linked to respiratory disease.”
Environmental Racism
Corporate claim: Colossus facilities are and will remain environmentally safe.
Community counterclaim: xAI data centers continue a long history of environmental racism in Memphis, using large land masses in ways that erode air quality and threaten the region’s water supply.
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
“xAI may also be exceeding the legal threshold for formaldehyde, a hazardous air pollutant that’s carcinogenic even in small amounts. They’re doing this with no oversight of their pollution, no apparent emissions monitoring, and no transparency. Just 35 turbines quietly installed, hidden from public view, in a community that’s already carried more than its fair share of pollution.”
Young, Gifted & Green
“As a Black woman born and raised in Memphis, I know firsthand how industry harms Black communities while those in power cower away from justice. Young, Gifted & Green is standing on environmental justice business and is challenging Shelby County's reckless approval of xAI's air permit. The Shelby County Health Department needs to do their job to protect the health of ALL Memphians, especially those in frontline communities like 38109, that are burdened with a history of environmental racism, legacy pollution, and redlining.” LaTricea Adams, CEO and President of Young, Gifted & Green
Tigers Against Pollution
(University of Memphis student group)
“Memphis has a long legacy of environmental injustice, where historically Black and working-class communities have been exploited, underpaid, and overworked. This has led to a drastic decrease in air quality, and increase in asthma, cancer, and lung issues.”
Energy Impact
Corporate claim: Memphis has ample power supply for the xAI facilities.
Community counterclaim: xAI data centers require massive energy supply that competes with local need and will stress the grid, ultimately raising consumer prices while exacerbating climate crises.
Protect Our Aquifer
“Memphis will be home to the world's largest supercomputer, xAI. It will eventually need 560 megawatts of power, enough to power 400,000 homes, and it will provide less than 100 jobs.”
Young, Gifted & Green
“Researchers have found that large-scale cloud computing facilities create a significant carbon footprint via high electricity usage, massive air conditioning units, and generators that negatively impact the environment. As reported by local media, xAI will need up to 150 megawatts of electricity to run its facility — enough energy to power 100,000 homes.”
Young, Gifted & Green
“Before we welcome xAI with open arms, we must consider how an industry using such a tremendous amount of electricity will further impact communities already overwhelmed with pollution and a high energy burden, such as those around the xAI facility in Southwest Memphis. The energy burden measures how much of a family’s income goes to paying their utility bill. The national average is 3%, but in Memphis, the average is 27%. Will xAI bear the cost of TVA’s fuel adjustment fee in times of high energy demand?”
Water Security
Corporate claim: there are ample protections for the region’s aquifer.
Community counterclaim: allowing xAI to consume millions of gallons of clean drinking water daily while discharging wastewater into fragile infrastructures endangers a vital resource for the city’s residents.
Young, Gifted & Green
“xAI is expected to need at least one million gallons of water per day for its cooling towers from MLGW Davis Wellfield in Southwest Memphis. This wellfield is where the Byhalia Connection Pipeline threatened to bisect and where levels of arsenic have been detected in shallow groundwater. We encourage xAI to support investment in a City of Memphis wastewater reuse system to reduce strain on our water supply and drinking water infrastructure.”
The People Say No!
“Only fresh drinking water can be used by data centers due to concerns of corrosion and bacterial growth. In addition, the water can’t be recycled – in fact 80% of it evaporates while the remaining is discharged to municipal wastewater facilities, which are having trouble handling the high volume of wastewater being produced.”
*In October 2025 xAI broke ground on a greywater facility, signalling the validity and efficacy of community mobilization.
Community counterclaim: secretive deals between MLGW and xAI, struck without public input, erode democratic accountability and place corporate interests above the well-being and oversight of the people.
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC)
“The health department failed to hold xAI accountable for unlawfully installing 35 polluting methane gas turbines at the site before getting a permit, setting a dangerous precedent that opens the door for xAI or other companies to disregard federal and local law and operate large polluting turbines without any permits or penalties.”
The People Say No!
“Data centers can consume millions of gallons of water per day. MLGW signed an agreement that permits xAI to use 1.3 million gallons of municipal drinking water per day until a greywater reuse facility is built. xAI has publicly committed to building such a facility but has yet to take concrete steps forward.”*
Democratic Accountability
Corporate claim: xAI’s approvals followed appropriate democratic procedures.
Protect Our Aquifer
“The building that xAI now occupies is in an area zoned ‘heavy industrial’, meaning there are many uses of this facility that do not need permits or any approvals from the local Land Use Control Board or the Memphis City Council. That was likely a reason this deal was kept so secret, without knowledge of even Memphis elected officials.”
Protect Our Aquifer
“POA's campaign for a water reuse facility at the City's wastewater plant is now supported by MLGW and local leaders - but doing business with Elon Musk is concerning. There has been no public process to approve MLGW contracts with xAI for work on a nearby substation and reduced electricity rates.”
Jobs
Corporate claim: data centers will create jobs.
Community counterclaim: data centers provide far fewer jobs than AI proponents claim, and the jobs they do create are low-paying and insecure.
MediaJustice
Environmental nonprofit MediaJustice finds that “data centers create very few permanent jobs. Most jobs created are construction jobs, which can last less than a year, often less than three.”
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
An April 2025 article by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy notes that the economic benefits of data center projects depend on generous public subsidies. When companies are no longer the beneficiaries of exclusive perks and taxpayer funds “they often pack up and leave, abandoning communities to deal with the toxic aftermath and economic fallout alone.”
Memphis Community Against Pollution
KeShaun Pearson, a Memphis climate activist affiliated with the Memphis Community Against Pollution, argues that the local jobs from data centers are often “janitorial or security jobs,” for which there are approximately “15 to 20 for these million square foot facilities.”
Taxes
Corporate claim: xAI’s facilities generate tax dollars for the city.
Community counterclaim: the Colossus project extracts huge tax incentives from cities without providing much in return.
MediaJustice
MediaJustice also notes that large tech corporations had spent over $400 billion on data centers in 2025 alone, and that they typically build centers where there is “cheap land, cheap energy, and major tax incentives.” Centers are only primarily built in desperate communities where local leaders are willing to offer public policy concessions to court corporate investment.
MediaJustice
“Tax breaks given to developers can amount over time to more than 2 million USD for every permanent, full-time job at an operational data center. Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First summed up the impact of this as, ‘When tax breaks don’t pay for themselves, only two things can happen: Either public services are reduced in quality, or everybody’s taxes go up in other ways if you’re going to try to keep things the same in terms of quality of public services.’”
Tigers Against Pollution (University of Memphis student group)
“There will also be very small tax benefits to Memphis, due to the immense tax cuts regulated under the current administration.”