Judge rejects Trump's claim EPA can dismiss data center pollution lawsuits

A judge has refused to let Donald Trump shut down a Clean Air Act lawsuit targeting Elon Musk's AI data center business, rejecting the president's argument that the Environmental Protection Agency holds broad authority to dismiss such cases whenever it chooses. The ruling means SpaceXAI — the company Ars Technica reports is now known by that name following a merger with xAI — must keep defending itself against the NAACP's suit over pollution from its Memphis data center. Trump had tried to intervene in the case in order to block it.

The NAACP filed the lawsuit after unpermitted gas turbines were discovered powering Colossus, Musk's giant data center in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights organization is seeking an injunction that would require the company to use the best available pollution control technology when running those turbines, plus penalties reaching as high as $124,426 per day for each violation.

Without such remedies, the NAACP argued, the turbines risked causing a steep rise in pollution in nearby neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and already environmentally burdened. The group's case centered on the health risks those communities would face if the data center continued operating the turbines as-is.

Trump's attempt to intervene rested on the claim that the EPA can unilaterally dismiss Clean Air Act lawsuits any time the president decides against enforcing the statute. According to Trump, it would supposedly not serve the public interest if citizens were allowed to pursue large civil penalties against polluting AI companies that were rushing to get data centers operational in support of his AI Action Plan.

The decision keeps the NAACP's suit moving forward rather than ending it at the administration's request. It also puts a spotlight on the tension between the White House's push to rapidly expand AI infrastructure and the enforcement of federal environmental law.