The Trump administration urged a federal court on Monday to dismiss an environmental lawsuit against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, saying the company’s Grok government model and the data centers that power it are crucial to national security.
The NAACP alleges that xAI has rushed to build and continue expanding its Colossus Gas Plant in vulnerable and heavily Black communities near the Tennessee-Mississippi border without legally required permits or pollution controls.
In court papers filed Monday, the Justice Department argued that the suit would impair the White House’s priority of promoting AI infrastructure, which it says the military needs to “meet its national security mission and keep pace with adversaries.”
“Grok’s continued operation and availability ‘is a matter of paramount national security’” because it is one of only four cutting-edge AI models that can support national security applications, and one of just three suitable for “mission-critical operations across Secret and Top-Secret classified networks,” the department told U.S. District Judge Debra Brown, who is presiding over the lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi.
The relief sought by “the NAACP threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations,” the department said.
Brown is an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
The DOJ noted that the military used Grok during Operation Epic Fury, the massive U.S. attack on Iran, to aid in the deployment of more than 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours.
The administration added that the court should give priority to its position because the government remains the primary enforcer of federal environmental laws, despite provisions allowing for citizen suits. Officials’ decision to forgo enforcement in a particular case should therefore supersede any private actions, the Justice Department said.
The Trump administration’s support for xAI comes as Americans are expressing increasing wariness about data centers — and their views fluctuate depending on whether President Donald Trump is associated with them. A February POLITICO Poll found that support fell by roughly 20 percent among Democrats and undecided voters when asked if they would support a Trump-led push to expand data centers, compared with a plan that does not mention the president.
The NAACP contends that xAI has been running at least 57 polluting turbines at its gas plant in the Tennessee-Mississippi border area — enough to power an estimated 738,000 to 950,000 homes — without first obtaining permits or installing pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act.
Last week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency would not set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for data centers.
Attorneys with Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center are representing the NAACP and its local branch in the lawsuit, which also names xAI subsidiary MZX Tech as a defendant. The companies and parent corporation SpaceX are also facing a public nuisance lawsuit by local residents alleging the power plant emits inescapable noise affecting their health and home values.
