We converse with two brothers who’re combating Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence firm xAI over its large knowledge heart in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok. The power is subsequent to traditionally Black neighborhoods and is powered by 35 pollution-spewing methane fuel generators the corporate is utilizing with out authorized permits. Musk says he needs to proceed increasing the undertaking.
“What’s taking place in Memphis is a human rights violation,” says KeShaun Pearson, govt director of the environmental justice group Memphis Neighborhood Towards Air pollution. “Elon Musk and xAI are violating our human proper to wash air and a clear, wholesome surroundings.” His brother Justin J. Pearson, a Tennessee state consultant for Memphis, says Musk is “perpetuating environmental racism” by ignoring the needs of native residents: “They’re abusing our neighborhood, and so they’re exploiting us.”
TRANSCRIPT
It is a rush transcript. Copy will not be in its ultimate kind.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We finish right this moment’s present in Memphis, Tennessee, the place Elon Musk’s synthetic intelligence firm X, now known as xAI, opened an enormous knowledge heart, often known as Colossus, final yr that helps the chatbot Grok. The power is subsequent to traditionally Black neighborhoods and runs on 35 methane gas-powered turbine mills, which emit vital quantities of nitrogen oxide and different poisonous chemical compounds. The Southern Environmental Regulation Heart says the generators are working with no allow. These permits are the main target of a Shelby County Well being Division listening to happening right this moment, Friday, as Musk says he needs to proceed to develop his undertaking. In February, Elon Musk defined why he determined to construct Colossus in Memphis.
ELON MUSK: Effectively, we would have liked a constructing. We will’t construct a constructing, so we should use an current constructing. So we regarded for — principally, for factories that had been — that had been deserted, however the manufacturing facility was in fine condition, like an organization had gone bankrupt or one thing. So, we discovered an Electrolux manufacturing facility in Memphis. That’s why it’s in Memphis, house of Elvis and likewise one of many oldest — I believe it was the capital of historic Egypt.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Tennessee state Consultant Justin J. Pearson, a Democrat who represents Memphis.
REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON: xAI, Elon Musk’s firm, is working 35 fuel generators in southwest Memphis, within the neighborhood the place myself and my total household lives. That is horrific information. They’re rising the quantity of nitrogen dioxide, which causes smog and continues to hurt folks with bronchial asthma, by probably 30 to 60%.
AMY GOODMAN: For extra, we’re joined in Memphis, Tennessee, by state Consultant Justin J. Pearson and his brother KeShaun Pearson, govt director of Memphis Neighborhood Towards Air pollution.
We welcome you each to Democracy Now! KeShaun, let’s start with you, as you’re quoted throughout about what’s taking place in your neighborhood, Memphis, Tennessee, the place Dr. King was assassinated April 4th, 1968; Memphis, Tennessee, the place Elon Musk needs to construct — is attempting to develop Colossus. Clarify what’s taking place and the neighborhood response and what you’re planning to say right this moment on the well being division listening to.
KESHAUN PEARSON: What’s taking place in Memphis is a human rights violation. Elon Musk and xAI are violating our human proper to wash air and a clear, wholesome surroundings. Right this moment I plan to deal with the Shelby County Well being Division in stating that this has not been a clear course of, this has been accomplished in a clandestine approach, and this isn’t the best way that we will transfer ahead healthily for our neighborhood. We want justice in processing. We want justice within the course of. We want redress and restore. We don’t want continuous air pollution.
We’ve seen this story earlier than, the place polluters come to our metropolis, whether or not it has been TVA of their Valero plant, sterilization companies of their ethylene oxide plant. Now we have continued to be checked out as the trail of least resistance. Right this moment I’ll make and clarify to our Shelby County Well being Division that we aren’t the trail of least resistance. We’re a resilient neighborhood that deserves the human rights of fresh air, clear water, clear soil and a wholesome surroundings. We should always not proceed to bear the burden of the damaging well being impacts of this facility and its speedy tempo and motion. A phrase and a time period coined by Leah Thomas, “environmental intersectionalism” —
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you —
KESHAUN PEARSON: — explains how Black — yeah, certain.
AMY GOODMAN: I need to ask you, Elon Musk claims he selected the previous Electrolux constructing in Memphis as a result of he needed to get his AI purposes up as quick as potential, inside 122 days. He determined to make use of the deserted constructing as a substitute of a brand-new one. Are you able to discuss what Electrolux was earlier than the method it took for Musk’s firm xAI to buy the constructing?
KESHAUN PEARSON: Electrolux was an organization that scammed town of Memphis. Electrolux got here to our metropolis and promised jobs, promised prosperity, much like what xAI is doing, after which they left. They left with out fulfilling the promise of jobs. They left with out fulfilling the tax — the tax suggestions and the taxes that they stated that they would offer that may elevate our neighborhood. They made guarantees, after which they left and deserted us.
This is identical course of that we’ve seen Elon Musk do in Texas, in addition to California. He’ll create a plan, after which he’ll go away. And so, what we’re seeing proper now’s that this continuous course of is constant to occur with a brand new tenant. Electrolux supplied him the ability, and he’s scamming town of Memphis whereas placing out air pollution.
AMY GOODMAN: KeShaun, I need to introduce your brother. That is an fascinating inside-outside technique. Tennessee Democratic state Consultant Justin J. Pearson of Memphis, well-known to folks across the nation. The 2 Justins, the representatives who had been pressured out of the Legislature, then reelected again in by their communities, Justin J. Pearson representing Memphis. Justin, thanks a lot for being with us, state consultant. If you happen to can discuss your opposition to Elon Musk and xAI? Very fascinating that your fellow Republicans, who’ve a supermajority within the Tennessee state Home, lately handed a decision recognizing Musk as, quote, “an excellent businessman who’s saving lives and serving to to revive America as a helpful ally of Donald J. Trump.” Speak about your considerations about what this AI knowledge heart will imply.
REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON: Yeah, look, my concern is that Elon Musk is shopping for and paying for entry to pollute, hurt and harm our neighborhood. Sadly, our mayors and elected officers and appointed officers — Mayor Lee Harris, Mayor Paul Younger, Shelby County Well being Director Michelle Taylor — and the Better Memphis Chamber all determined that the neighborhood of 38109, the place I reside, might be on the public sale block for Elon Musk to purchase.
And it’s a horrible, horrendous undertaking that’s having severe ramifications for our neighborhood. The rationale that in laws that my colleagues handed praising Elon Musk I put a number of amendments was to inform the reality, that Elon Musk is polluting the air of Tennesseans. He’s persevering with and perpetuating environmental racism and environmental degradation in our neighborhood. This undertaking is an software for 15 fuel generators, however we all know right this moment that they’ve 35 generators, and yesterday a report confirmed 33 of these in operation, even if the mayor of Memphis stated solely 15 of them had been getting used, as a result of that’s what xAI had informed him. They’re liars. They’re abusing our neighborhood, and they’re exploiting us, and it’s having horrible ramifications — 17.2 tons of formaldehyde being sprayed into our air due to these fuel generators, over 130 tons of nitrogen oxide, making them a bigger polluter than the Memphis Worldwide Airport. It’s taking place proper now in our neighborhood.
And elected officers and appointed officers have a accountability to the individuals who they had been elected and appointed to serve, to not the billionaires and the oligarchs who’re misusing and abusing their authority to harm our neighborhood.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you able to discuss Memphis Mayor Paul Younger, after public strain mounted, providing to earmark a portion of the roughly $15 million in tax proceeds from xAI’s operation?
REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON: Yeah, I imply, Mayor Younger’s concept that he’s going to provide us tax cash instead of our well being and our lives is totally asinine, and it’s an insult to the folks on this neighborhood. Nevertheless it isn’t simply Mary Younger who’s problematic. It’s Mayor Lee Harris of Shelby County, who has stated nothing about this undertaking because it began, and he was all reward and all happy-go-lucky about it, and now we will’t discover him. He’s solely invisible, even if the well being division is below his purview. And so, he hasn’t come out with a press release saying that we have to shield our air, we have to shield our residents, we have to shield our neighborhood. And that’s giving license to Elon Musk and to xAI that they’ll pollute our neighborhood, they’ll harm us, with none ramification.
However the folks energy that’s rising up, the democracy that’s being proven right here by folks of all constituencies, folks all throughout our district, in District 86, however all throughout this metropolis and this county, is exhibiting that we aren’t going to yield to the anti-democratic, anti-constitutional actions of individuals. We aren’t going to yield our lives and our lungs to Elon Musk, to Paul Younger, to Lee Harris, to Michelle Taylor. We aren’t yielding our lives for the earnings of the richest man on the planet.
That is ridiculous that the Better Memphis Chamber and so many different folks have actually determined that we might be sacrificed for the advantages of an information heart and a supercomputer, and we not be included within the course of, our voices not be heard. That isn’t the best way that financial improvement is meant to go. And if that’s the approach that financial improvement must go in our metropolis, we don’t need it. It’s an insult to the folks in Boxtown, in Westwood, in West Junction, in Walker Houses, in Coro Lake that we’re being handled this manner, and that the individuals who have a accountability and an obligation to do one thing about it are refusing to take action.
AMY GOODMAN: Democratic state Consultant Justin J. Pearson, I needed to increase my condolences in your child brother’s loss of life, not such a child anymore, took his personal life in December. And I perceive, going again in time, when Tim was born, he wanted a machine to breathe. KeShaun, when he was born, was born untimely. Are you able to, first, discuss what you are feeling this all has to do with, communities which have most cancers clusters and are in environmentally actually fragile form on account of air pollution?
REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON: Completely. So, KeShaun and I misplaced my center brother, his child brother, youthful brother, Tim Pearson, in December, and we miss him each single day, one of many causes that it’s so essential that we do one thing about this gun violence epidemic. And he was a proponent and a brilliant advocate in our neighborhood and would have been at this public listening to right this moment combating alongside of us, as nicely, however he’s with us in spirit, for certain.
However he was born with bronchial asthma, my oldest brother born prematurely. My uncle sleeps with a CPAP machine. My auntie is at the moment combating most cancers, breast most cancers, proper now, and the identical sort of breast most cancers that my grandmother died from. We all know that environmental injustice is having a severe impression on the very lives and the well being of the folks in our communities.
And these points are interconnected. It’s no coincidence that 75% — if you’re Black, African American on this nation, you’re 75% extra prone to reside close to a poisonous hazardous waste facility. It’s no accident that on this district, on this neighborhood, we’re 4 instances likelier to have most cancers in our our bodies. It’s no accident that on this neighborhood there are over 17 Toxics Launch Stock amenities surrounding us — now 18 with Elon Musk’s xAI plant. It’s a constant follow that is part of the historical past of our nation, to first redline communities, pressure folks to reside in sure areas, and for those who have a look at those self same maps and the place industrial amenities are being positioned, they overlap.
Our communities are being focused. None of that is unintended or coincidental. We’re being focused, and our lives are constantly and constantly being harm and harmed by the actions of companies and by leaders just like the Better Memphis Chamber, Mayor Younger, Mayor Harris, Director Taylor, who should not stepping as much as the plate to say, “You recognize what? We do want to search out out extra details about the environmental penalties earlier than we greenlight initiatives like this.”
And if I can say this, look, whenever you have a look at —
AMY GOODMAN: And we simply have 20 seconds.
REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON: Oh, go forward. Look, we’ve got to struggle. That’s our accountability. Combat, as a result of clear air is a human proper.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Tennessee Democratic state Consultant Justin J. Pearson, who’s holding a information convention right this moment at 4:30 in Memphis. And I need to thank KeShaun Pearson, govt director of Memphis Neighborhood [Against] Air pollution. We’ll proceed to observe this story.
Democracy Now! at the moment accepting purposes for an individual giving manager to help our fundraising group. Test it out at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.
Indignant, shocked, overwhelmed? Take motion: Assist impartial media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the past months, every govt order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core a part of a method to make the right-wing flip really feel inevitable and overwhelming. However, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to recollect in Truthout final November, “Collectively, we’re extra highly effective than Trump.”
Certainly, the Trump administration is pushing via govt orders, however — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in authorized limbo and face courtroom challenges from unions and civil rights teams. Efforts to quash anti-racist educating and DEI applications are stalled by training school, employees, and college students refusing to conform. And communities throughout the nation are coming collectively to lift the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and shield one another in transferring exhibits of solidarity.
It will likely be a protracted struggle forward. And as nonprofit motion media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we attraction in your help. Please, for those who discover worth in what we do, be part of our neighborhood of sustainers by making a month-to-month or one-time present.
Source link