Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI is stuck facing a lawsuit over alleged data center pollution after Donald Trump failed to convince a judge that his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has complete control over all Clean Air Act lawsuits and can dismiss any suit at whim.

Soon after unpermitted gas turbines were discovered powering Musk’s giant Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, the NAACP sued. Its lawsuit sought an injunction requiring xAI (which, following a merger, is known now as SpaceXAI) to use the best available pollution control technology when operating the turbines and ordering penalties up to $124,426 per day per violation. Without such remedies, the turbines risked drastically spiking pollution in already vulnerable neighborhoods housing predominantly Black communities nearby, the NAACP argued.

To block the lawsuit, Trump tried to intervene, arguing that the EPA had the power to unilaterally dismiss lawsuits any time the president decides against enforcing the Clean Air Act. According to Trump, it would supposedly “not serve the public interest” if citizens were allowed to seek massive civil penalties to punish polluting AI firms that were trying to get data centers operational as fast as possible to support Trump’s AI Action Plan.

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After nearly two decades, America's war on CO2 is being brought to a well-deserved end, with Lee Zeldin, the head of Trump's EPA, scrapping Biden-era green power plant rules, says Tilak Doshi.

The post Trump’s EPA Ends America’s War on CO2 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

We found grace, humanity and friendship in the stories of disparate Americans hit by climate chaos.

© Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Trump’s EPA strips itself of regulating ability, gutting Clean Air Act in what experts say is a gift to planet polluters

On the heels of the hottest summer ever recorded in the US, the Trump administration has said it will erase any limits on emissions from coal and gas plants that are dangerously heating up our planet.

The US Environmental Protection Agency said it will strip itself of its ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions coming from power plants under the Clean Air Act, removing a key tool to address the climate crisis.

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© Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Energy Transfer, whose CEO is a major Trump donor, named as biggest single methane producer in new rankings

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© Photograph: Matthew Brown/AP

© Photograph: Matthew Brown/AP

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The president’s push for data centers is driving a boom in gas-burning power plants. Texas is leading the way.

© The New York Times

The funds have been frozen since early in President Trump’s second term.

In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

In the latest example, the Energy Department will convert a shuttered Cold War-era uranium enrichment facility into a data center campus and gas plants.

The Trump administration is undoing fuel-saving efforts even as war in Iran, data centers and heat waves are pushing up gasoline and electricity costs.

© Michael Hickey/Getty Images

The Trump administration wants to roll back some Biden-era restrictions on smog-causing emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

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The lawsuit aims to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for a heat wave in Portland five years ago. The industry says the case should be thrown out.

© Michael Hanson for The New York Times

It has stopped criminal prosecutions of people who install “defeat devices,” which make diesel trucks faster and more efficient but also dirtier.

© Acacia Johnson for The New York Times

It has stopped criminal prosecutions of people who install “defeat devices,” which make diesel trucks faster and more efficient but also dirtier.

The parasitic, flesh-eating fly has now been confirmed in cows, goats and dogs.

US president announces plans for two new coal plants, in Alaska and West Virginia, using Defense Production Act

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© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

New guidance from the Energy Department would prevent people from receiving rebates after making such swaps.

© Bing Guan for The New York Times

The rules were established by the Biden administration after research linked the compounds to a range of serious health problems.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The administration is delaying a phaseout of hydrofluorocarbons, potent planet-warming chemicals used in air-conditioning and refrigeration.

© Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press