State permit board rejects appeal of SpaceXAI air permits in Southaven

After hearing hours of testimony over two days, Mississippi’s permit board rejected an appeal of an air permit awarded earlier in the year to SpaceXAI’s data center hub in Southaven.

The board, which makes decisions over permits issued by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, issued its decision Tuesday, the last day of the hearing.

In March, the board approved air permits for 41 permanent gas turbines that will power SpaceXAI’s data center operations in the area, which cross over the state line into Memphis.

The Safe and Sound Coalition — comprised of Southaven residents — the NAACP and Young, Gifted & Green appealed the decision shortly after.

On behalf of the appellants, the Southern Environmental Law Center argued that MDEQ erred in writing the permit in three ways: The agency relied on limited modeling, it didn’t require SpaceXAI to use less-polluting turbines, and it didn’t require emission offsets. In areas with poor air quality — referred to as “nonattainment areas” — the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires any new sources of air emissions to also include offsets mitigating those emissions.

While DeSoto County isn’t listed as a nonattainment area, SELC attorney Patrick Anderson argued federal law still requires offsets because the area fails to meet national air quality standards.

“All of this makes sense,” Anderson said Monday in his opening argument. “If the air is too dirty, MDEQ should not wait for action from the federal government. And, in fact, they can’t wait, they’re required to treat the source accordingly.”

MZX Tech LLC, a subsidiary of SpaceXAI that received the air permit, disagreed. Trudy Fisher, a former executive director of MDEQ who argued on behalf of MZX Tech, said the agency underwent extensive modeling of the turbines’ emissions and consulted with EPA throughout the permitting process.

“This was not a permit that was approved without careful consideration,” Fisher said.

The board’s lone dissenting vote came from state Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, also a Republican candidate in the 2027 gubernatorial race. Gipson voted against approving the permit because he didn’t get “answers to all the questions I have posed.”

One of the few state officials to publicly question Mississippi’s data center growth, the commissioner published a memo over the summer “requiring” data centers give certain information, such as around water use, before receiving a permit from MDEQ.

In response, MDEQ spokesperson Jan Schaefer told Mississippi Today that Gipson’s memo “does not alter” what information permit applicants need to submit to the agency.

During the hearing’s first day, Gipson tried to ask about MZX Tech’s water usage, yielding objections from MZX Tech’s attorneys who argued the questions were outside the scope of an air permit hearing. Kim Turner, the state’s hearing officer, agreed with the objection.

“I want to get an answer on the water usage, which I deem, as a member of this board, relevant information for me to ask,” Gipson fired back. “And if I’m not allowed to do that, there’s no point in there being a permit board.”

Shannon Samsa, a Safe and Sound Coalition member and Southaven resident, said after the hearing that the board’s decision was “reprehensible.”

“Whoever’s interests they are serving, it certainly doesn’t appear to be those of the people who actually live here,” Samsa said in a written statement.

Reporter Katherine Lin contributed to this story.