# Judge Rejects U.S. Bid to Dismiss Clean Air Act Suit Over X.AI Plant

By Riza Dagoc

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/regulation/37735
Published: 2026-10-22T10:38:55.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-22T10:38:55.000Z
Section: Regulation

> The United States may join the case over a Mississippi gas plant whose turbines power X.AI Corp.’s Colossus 2 data center in Memphis.

A federal judge allowed the United States to join a Clean Air Act case over a Mississippi power plant serving X.AI Corp.’s Colossus 2 data center, but rejected the administration’s bid to end the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown’s Oct. 19 order grants the government permission to intervene and denies the rest of its amended motion. The case was filed April 14 by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP against X.AI Corp. and MZX Tech LLC.

The plaintiffs say the companies built the Southaven gas plant and continue operating it without required air permits. The plant’s gas-fired turbines power the Colossus 2 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Trump administration argued that its authority to intervene, together with the president’s constitutional powers, allowed it to dismiss the case. The Clean Air Act permits the Environmental Protection Agency administrator to intervene in a citizen suit. It bars such a suit when the EPA or a state has already begun and is diligently pursuing its own enforcement action. The government had brought no such action against the companies.

Brown wrote, “Nothing in the Clean Air Act allows the Administrator to unilaterally dismiss a citizen suit upon intervention.” Her order addresses the government’s authority to end the case; it does not decide whether the companies violated environmental law.

The plaintiffs seek an order requiring the companies to comply with the law and use the best available pollution controls. They also seek civil penalties of up to $124,426 per day for each violation. Those are requested remedies, not penalties imposed by the court.

In a separate order, the Fifth Circuit declined to pause district-court proceedings while the issue remained under consideration. The United States must file a pleading setting out its claim or defense by Oct. 23 if it wants to remain in the case. Any response required to that filing is due Oct. 30.