xAI’s notorious data centers near Memphis, Tenn., are appropriately named Colossus 1 and Colossus 2. The supercomputers that power the Grok chatbot are indeed enormous — they’re also environmental menaces, according to the NAACP.
The civil rights organization sued Elon Musk’s xAI last year over Colossus’ numerous methane gas turbines, saying the company used a legal loophole to install them without permits and, in doing so, threatened the health of the nearby Black-majority community of Boxtown. Somewhat shockingly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed with the NAACP, ruling in January 2026 that Colossus’ turbines were not exempt from air quality permit requirements. Curtailing the turbines, which emit nitrogen oxide into a community already dealing with high levels of pollution, was a victory for the NAACP and Abre’ Conner, director of the organization’s Center for Environmental and Climate Justice.
Just this month, Conner and the NAACP were buoyed when New York state introduced a three-year moratorium on data center construction, potentially giving legislators time to enact regulations for the energy-sucking facilities. Conner, a lawyer and longtime environmental justice leader, spoke with Mashable about her mission and how the data center build-out is reminiscent of the destructive highway construction of the last century.
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