The federal Department of Justice may step into the NAACP's air-permit case against xAI's Memphis data center, where the number of unpermitted gas turbines has now grown to 46. South Carolina's utility commission unanimously approved a $5 billion gas plant on the Edisto River, with data-center demand named as the reason it's needed. And in Washington County, Ohio, residents are turning up at commission meetings demanding details on a Waterford data-center deal sealed behind a non-disclosure agreement — while a few hours east in Berkeley County, West Virginia, state officials and a Washington-based developer hosted a chamber-of-commerce panel selling a $4 billion campus to local business leaders.
The NAACP sued xAI and MZX Tech in April under the Clean Air Act, alleging the companies were running 27 gas turbines without an air permit at xAI's Colossus data-center site on the Tennessee–Mississippi border south of Memphis. Internal emails from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, reported by WIRED on Tuesday, show that between late March and early May xAI installed 19 more turbines at the same site — bringing the total to 46 while the litigation was already pending. On May 6, the NAACP filed for a preliminary injunction; the same day, Elon Musk announced the planned xAI–SpaceX merger would dissolve xAI as a separate company.
Earthjustice senior attorney Elias Quinn, opposing a defense request to extend the briefing schedule, wrote in a filing this week: "If defendants are amenable to shutting down the gas plant during the pendency of the briefing, we would be amenable to such briefing extensions." The defendants argue the turbines are exempt as “mobile” sources because each is bolted to a flatbed trailer. The plaintiffs cite the manufacturer's own specifications — once installed, each Solar SMT-130 unit is 14 feet tall, nearly 100 feet long, and weighs more than 200,000 pounds.
Source: Robert Walton / Utility Dive.
The seven-member South Carolina Public Service Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve a 2,200-megawatt natural-gas plant to be built jointly by Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper in Colleton County, on the site of a retired coal plant along the Edisto River. The plant will cost $5 billion — double the early $2.5 billion estimate — and an accompanying 70-mile pipeline built by Kinder Morgan will add another $431 million. Utility executives told regulators the project is needed to meet the state's power needs amid rapid growth, “including a ballooning number of energy-intensive data centers."
Commissioner Justin Williams, whose district includes Colleton County, acknowledged on the record that the since-repealed law that let utilities bill customers for the V.C. Summer nuclear-plant expansion before construction “is still echoing through the regulatory landscape in South Carolina.” Customers are still paying for those reactors, mothballed in 2017 amid fraud and cost overruns, that never produced a single megawatt. Kate Mixson, an attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center: "This massive, polluting plant has already doubled in cost from $2.5 to $5 billion in the last year, and the utilities admitted at the hearing that its final costs would likely be even higher." Sierra Club campaign organizer Paul Black, on the commission's response — quarterly construction-spending reports: "Addressing cost concerns with more reporting is like a car salesman trying to sweeten the offer with an itemized receipt."
Source: Skylar Laird / SC Daily Gazette.
In Washington County, Ohio, nearly four months after the county commissioners signed a non-disclosure agreement with a developer planning a data center in Waterford, residents are turning up at commission meetings demanding details. A Waterford resident identified as “Shawna” pressed the commissioners Thursday on whether they had anything in place to stop the project or protect residents from its effects. Commissioner Greg Nohe: "We did not have a say." Commission President Charlie Schilling said he signed the NDA so he could bring community concerns to the developer; he is "not any closer to an agreement than we were two to three months ago, but if I don't sign an NDA then I don't have an opportunity to address the concerns of the community." Schilling has now told the developers he will not sign any development agreement until a public meeting is held. Resident Dee Arnold pointed to the May 5 primary as a signal — challenger Stephanie Lang signed a moratorium resolution; incumbent Eddie Place did not.
A few hours east, in Berkeley County, West Virginia, the conversation is shaped differently. The Martinsburg-Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce hosted a “Lunch and Learn” Tuesday with state officials and Washington, D.C.–based developer Penzance to outline plans for the $4 billion Bedington Data Center campus — 548 acres, 1.9 million square feet, 600 megawatts of power. West Virginia has designated the site a “High Impact Intelligence Center” under a new state classification meant to attract data-center investment. Penzance partner John Kusturiss said FirstEnergy has indicated the existing Bedington substation — the largest in West Virginia — has capacity for the project "without causing an uptick in costs to local residents," and that the project will rely on reclaimed wastewater for as much as 60% of its needs. Buddy Rizer, Loudoun County, Virginia's economic-development director, was on the panel. Chris Morris, director of West Virginia's new Data Economy Office: "Data centers are all about access to power."
Source: Amber Phipps / Marietta Times; Toni Milbourne / Parkersburg News & Sentinel.
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