I'm going to be blunt; this is a wildly bad-faith argument. You started the quote right after the important word: illegal.
> the illegal, unpermitted gas turbines they've been running at their Memphis Colossus data center
Illegal. These turbines are illegal. What xAI under Musk's direction is doing is illegal. A business that must break the law to be practical isn't a business, it's a criminal organization operating by hurting people (which is WHY it's illegal to run gas turbines like this), and both it and those running it must be held accountable.
You're arguing that it's fine to break the law if it would otherwise cost a business money. I don't accept that, and nobody else in this community should either.
> this is a wildly bad-faith argument
No. Calling it illegal is just something people do because they hate musk. They fell into a loop hole and had no permits as they were technically allowed if they stayed in 1 spot for less than 364 days. EPA later determined they did not qualify and required permits, permits were later granted.
Musk operated in a grey area to run his business to avoid having an idle data center while other people dragged their feet.
I purposely cut off `illegal` because calling it `illegal` was bad faith to begin with. But it's not unexpected that musk haters will come out raising banners in protest.
Are they actually missing required permits? what does the government say? Why haven't they gone in with the police?
I expect they have permission or dont need it.
At the very least, they have permission of the federal government which threw out all of the court cases against them.