NAACP Sues xAI Alleging Unpermitted Gas Turbines Pollute Mississippi Data Center

# NAACP Files Lawsuit Against xAI for Unpermitted Gas Turbines in Mississippi The NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI on Tuesday alleging the company was running behind-the-meter gas turbines on a data center in Mississippi without a permit and polluting the community around it, Wired reported.

xAI did not immediately reply to a request for comment, according to Wired. Many data center developers are turning to building their own power sources known as behind-the-meter power in response to encouragement from the Trump administration to protect ratepayers.

Information Administration Announces Data Center Energy Surveys

The Energy Information Administration plans to develop a mandatory assessment of data centers' energy use.

The EIA announced on a day in late March that it would conduct a pilot survey in three areas of the country that have heavy data center development: Texas, Washington state, and the northern Virginia/DC metro area. The current EIA pilot asks the 196 companies identified across the three regions to choose just one location to report metrics on.

senators sent a letter to the EIA a day after the late March announcement, Wired reported.

In an April 9 letter, the letter stated that the EIA will announce a second tranche of pilot surveys covering at least three more states. The letter stated that both EIA pilot surveys would be complete by late September.

Collection The letter stated that the two pilot studies are a necessary step in the methodical development of a nationwide mandatory survey.

Information being collected by the EIA from data centers in these pilots includes annual electricity use and information on behind-the-meter power generation. The EIA surveys will include questions on the classification of different types of data centers, cooling systems, facility characteristics like square footage, and IT specifications including metrics on how efficiently a data center uses energy.