this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
338 points (99.4% liked)

News

28733 readers
6383 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

KeShaun Pearson took a seat in front of the Shelby county board of commissioners in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning. In the gallery behind him, a small group of people held up signs that said “Our air = our lives” and “Our water, Our future.” With a manner-of-fact demeanor, Pearson addressed the commissioners.

“I’m here because today we’ve learned that xAI is using 35 methane gas burning turbines,” said Pearson, who is the director of the advocacy group Memphis Community Against Pollution. “They have submitted a permit to our Shelby county health department for 15, yet they are using double that amount with no permit.”

It’s been known that xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, has been using around 15 portable generators to help power its massive supercomputer in Memphis without yet securing permits. But new aerial images obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center show that number is now far higher. The group says these gas turbines combined can generate around 420MW of electricity, enough to power an entire city.

“xAI has essentially built a power plant in South Memphis with no oversight, no permitting, and no regard for families living in nearby communities,” Amanda Garcia, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. “These dozens of gas turbines are doing significant harm to the air Memphians breathe every day.”

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 84 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's not illegal if nothing is done to stop it, I guess.

[–] julysfire@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Laws that aren't enforced are merely suggestions

[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

And when the penalty for breaking the law is only a fine, it means it's only illegal for the common folk.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Tell that to the Germans, who are still weeding through old WWII era documents to account for every last living Nazi before they reach the escape of death.

[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The Nazis, while in power, said what they were doing was legal. The Holocaust, according to those Nazis, was a perfectly legal thing to do because they changed and abused their laws to make it that way.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That did not stop the Nuremberg trials from prosecuting them.

Nor has it stopped Germany from continuing to prosecute people who were "just following orders".

Theyve convicted two people over the age of 100 in the last decade.

Both the German Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice have applied Radbruch's formula numerous times. Its first court appearances were in cases concerned with National Socialist crimes. The defendants in those cases argued that, according to Nazi statutes valid at the time of their acts, those acts had been legal. The courts used Radbruch's formula to argue that some statutes were so intolerable that they had not been law in the first place and consequently could not be used to justify the acts in question.

This is the current interpretation of the meaning of "law" in Germany. Laws which are entirely unjust must be disobeyed.

Though this is different from an administration ignoring the rule of law. In that case it's fairly obvious that violations of laws can be prosecuted by any following administration.

[–] dephyre@lemmy.world 63 points 1 week ago

Jesus, he can't even use power without committing a crime.

[–] Ekybio@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Would be a real shame if someone did sabotage the power plant somehow...

[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah, the law would get enforced on that person pretty quickly.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

Those power plants legally don't exist.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Now it makes sense - Musk did the Nazi salute because he didn’t want his power plant to get attacked!

Just kidding he’s a fucking actual Nazi

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 35 points 1 week ago

... while the rich exploit what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

[–] FrankFrankson@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Think how terrible it would be if someone went to Costco and picked up a bunch of the largest cans of baked beans they could get and filled up as many of those turbines as possible.

[–] Thorry84@feddit.nl 12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Have you ever seen the amount of security at a modern data center like this? No way you are getting in there with any kinds of beans.

[–] Litics@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 6 days ago

Its amazing how far water balloon launchers can send an object.

[–] FrankFrankson@lemmy.world 0 points 6 days ago

You can get in anywhere if you carry a ladder

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's why you play the long game... Get a job there and organize a potluck.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I’m seeing Kevin from The Office with a giant pot of chili.

[–] sidelove@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

"DROP THE BEANS AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"

[–] Lemjukes@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Isn’t the phrase ‘matter-of-fact’ and not ‘manner’?

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

You are, for all-intensive purposes, correct.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

You are correct. Bone Apple Tea!

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I gotta think those generators are pretty suseptible to object that penetrate them. Someone might be "hunting" in the area and miss the animal... ooops.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And then someone gets a free trip to El Salvador.

There were a bunch of cases where power substations got damaged a while back. If I recall correctly they never found the errant "hunter" except in a case where they did it multiple times or something.