Plus, OPEC’s rose-colored glasses on oil demand ...

Message From the Editor

Elon Musk crashed and burned out of government, but his toxic fingerprints remain in a pollution-spewing AI center in Memphis, Tennessee, that he built in a hurry.

DeSmog’s Nick Cunningham wrote about a shocking new video [[link removed]] showing billowing clouds of pollution — invisible to the eye but glaringly obvious through an optical gas camera — spewing from xAI’s unpermitted gas turbines.

Without waiting for grid upgrades or permits, xAI fired up 35 portable gas turbines to feed Grok, its chatbot. Local residents didn’t get a say, as Nick reports [[link removed]]. Now they’re breathing the consequences: methane, nitrogen oxides, even formaldehyde — pollutants linked to asthma, heart disease, and cancer.

Ned writes that this isn’t an isolated case. AI’s massive energy demand is fueling a U.S. surge in gas infrastructure — federal officials project a tripling of data center power use in just three years.

Now, groups including the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center are threatening to sue Musk over the toxic brew his turbines release in the area, and demanding an emergency shutdown. For more on the story, read here [[link removed]].

Meanwhile, watchdogs warn the public about another major polluter: Australian energy giant Woodside [[link removed]]. They say that Woodside’s polluting and safety disaster trail now stretches from Australia to Louisiana, with the go-ahead of a $17.5 billion LNG terminal in the southern U.S. state, as Sharon Kelly explains [[link removed]].

In just the past year, a worker was crushed in Woodside’s Stybarrow field; another was killed in a Texas tank collapse; and a 64,000-liter toxic spill poisoned the waters near Australia’s World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef.

Australian union leaders call the recent spill the worst safety crisis in 20 years. Environmentalists say it's proof of a company cutting corners — especially during cleanups.

This all comes about just as U.S. President Trump’s regulators are asking how they can weaken, not strengthen, LNG safety rules.

Woodside says it’s committed to safety and climate performance. But with rising injury rates and mounting environmental damage, that promise doesn’t ring true. Read Sharon’s story [[link removed]] to see what activists, union leaders, and regulators say about Woodside’s safety records and why we need to be vigilant as the big energy company expands around the world.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter [[link removed]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

P.S. DeSmog continues to keep you informed about threats to our climate across the globe — from up-to-the minute reporting to essential database profiles that help others fight climate denial and delay. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work? [[link removed]]

Photo: Woodside Energy's Louisiana LNG facility in Calcasieu Parish. Credit: Tellurian

xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows [[link removed]]— By Nick Cunningham (6 min. read) —

A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee, is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Safety Warnings Follow Australia’s

Woodside Energy to U.S. as $17 Billion

LNG Project Moves Ahead [[link removed]]— By Sharon Kelly (6 min. read) —

Just as Trump moves to weaken LNG rules, environmentalists are alarmed by the oil giant’s toxic spills, work violations, and a risky expansion.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Pioneers of Europe’s Citizen-led

Solar Revolution Sound Alarm Over ‘Corporate Capture’ [[link removed]]— By Ana Muñoz and Jairo Marcos (8 min. read) —

A third of energy communities receiving subsidies from the Spanish government are managed by subsidiaries of oil giant Repsol, DeSmog review of official data finds.

READ MORE [[link removed]]

Alberta’s ‘Emissions Intensity’ Hasn’t Improved, Despite Government Claim [[link removed]]

— By Mitch Anderson (4 min) —

The 26 percent reduction the Alberta government recently bragged about happened almost entirely between 2012 and 2016.

READ MORE [[link removed]]

Mental Health Professionals Join

Calls For Boycott of Advertising Agencies

Over Work for Polluters [[link removed]]

— By Ellen Ormesher (2 min. read) —

Growing toll of climate anxiety shows it’s time to stop greenwashing fossil fuels, clinicians say.

READ MORE [[link removed]] From the Climate Disinformation Database: Clay Higgins [[link removed]]

Clay Higgins [[link removed]] is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District. “Higgins believes in smaller government, less bureaucracy, free markets, a strong national defense and securing America’s sovereign borders,” his House bio reads. Consistently pushing for decreased energy industry regulation, offshore and onshore drilling, Higgins has indirectly compared those seeking alternative forms of energy as looking to a future powered “by rainbow dust and unicorn milk.” Higgens has opposed Earth Science research funding at NASA which would examine climate change, and has said climate models are “fraudulently manipulated.”

Read the full [[link removed]] profile [[link removed]] and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database [[link removed]], Ad & PR Database [[link removed]], and Koch Network Database [[link removed]].

[[link removed]]

DeSmog

1455 NW Leary Way, Suite 400

Seattle, Washington, 98107

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