Yes, I believe it's xAI's position that they were technically in compliance at the time. I don't know that a judge would agree. The new EPA rule is more of a clarification; they do not concede that point.

Proper utility scale gas generators come with proper utility scale pollution controls to make sure nasties like fine particulate and NO is filtered or properly reduced into some much less harmful to human health.

CO2 is bad for us long term. But there are plenty of other nasty combustion products that are extremely bad for humans in the short term. Which is why we have pollution and air quality regulations.

Portable generators don’t meet any of the stronger requirements that utility scale systems have to meet, because it’s assumed they’re only operated in small numbers for short periods of time. They’re not designed to safe to operate in large numbers over long periods of time in the same place. For that you need proper pollution controls

If you are burning that much fuel it needs to have emissions regulations. How would you feel if 20 miles upwind of you somebody fired up a few hundred random gas generators and kept them running 24/7 with no emission controls on them, rather than using utility power which is far cleaner and more efficient?

Public power utilities get permits for their operations. xAI tried to get around permitting regulations and environmental laws by claiming the generators were temporary, got sued [0], and even the Trump administration's EPA ruled against them [1]. They are also now trying to do it again in another state with Colossus 2 [2].

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/18/xai-is-facing-a-lawsuit-fo...

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/15/elon-musk...

[2] https://www.selc.org/news/xai-built-an-illegal-power-plant-t...

Blocking openclaw made everyone realise that what anthropic giveth, anthropic can take away.

It is similar to the xAI gas turbines in that it tarnished their image - at least amongst those naive people who saw them as a plucky startup rather than a profit seeking corporation who don't like competition.

I agree with you that the ethics are very different.

I don't get it. On the one hand we had Steve Jobs saying "No App Store!" and everyone getting up in arms, then here we have "no obligation to have Anthropic support other people's software," and that being OK. So which is it? Or does the answer change daily depending on what makes us feel good?

Emphasis my own:

> "The xAI facility has already deployed *nearly 20 gas turbines, including four large units with a combined capacity of 100MW*, to power its AI system Grok... There are plans to add *15 more gas turbines between June 2025 and June 2030*, and the turbine application projects *annual emissions of around 11.51 tons of hazardous air pollutants*."

> "it is currently *running gas turbines without the necessary permits from the Shelby County Health Department*"

> "findings from the Southern Environmental Law Center indicate that the facility has 'installed' gas turbines. This suggests that new industrial systems are in place and that *xAI is obligated to comply with the new NSPS* [New Source Performance Standards] *to avoid violating the Clean Air Act*"

> "NSPS are authorized under *Section 211 of the Clean Air Act*... All new sources must comply with the *Best System of Emission Reduction (BSER)*, which mandates the use of state-of-the-art technology to minimize air pollutants."

> "there is a history of Elon Musk's companies, such as *SpaceX and the Boring Company, being fined thousands of dollars for violating environmental law* to circumvent regulation"

Report from February 2026:

  The independent study, conducted by EmPower Analytics Group and commissioned
  by the Southern Environmental Law Center, was led by a Harvard-trained 
  environmental health scientist Dr. Michael Cork and shows that operation
  of xAI’s proposed permanent gas turbines would measurably increase 
  health risks for families throughout the area—even in places as far away
  as Germantown and North Memphis.