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riversedge

(82,549 posts)
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 06:09 PM Thursday

Elon Musk's AI company got caught running an illegal power plant. --Then Trump jumped in to support him............ [View all]


Elon Musk's AI company got caught running an illegal power plant.

Dozens of gas turbines. No permits. Sitting half a mile from homes, a mile from an elementary school.

The pollution: over 1,700 tons of smog-forming gas a year. Formaldehyde. Carbon monoxide. In a county that already fails national air quality standards. In a community that's disproportionately Black.

The community sued to shut it down.


The Trump administration jumped in — not against Musk, for him.


Their argument in court: stopping the pollution would threaten "the Department of War's military operations."

Is that what they want us to believe? That a chatbot matters more than a kid's lungs?

Because this isn't a gray area. The EPA confirmed back in January that turbines like these need permits before they can even run.

xAI's excuse: the turbines are mounted on trailers, so they're technically "mobile," like a food truck.

The Trump administration is defending that argument in federal court.

A federal judge now has to decide whether the world's first trillionaire is worth more than the Clean Air Act.

If the EPA said "permit required" in January, why is a judge still deciding this in July?

#DemsUnited


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