Jet engines are a plentiful and untapped source. In January, the federal Energy Information Administration said that the engines from the 4,000 old military jets it parks at a single desert base in Tucson could create 40,000 megawatts of power. That’s more than the generation capacity of the entire state.

But repurposed aircraft turbines tend to be less efficient and more polluting than engines designed for conventional gas-burning plants. And data centers need more jet-powered generators to produce the same amount of electricity.

Elon Musk’s A.I. company, xAI, has installed eight converted turbines in Mississippi to power one of its massive data centers [in Memphis]...
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The generators have state permission to emit carbon monoxide at twice the rate of other turbines at the site. The permits also allow a 25 percent higher limit for pollutants known as volatile organic compounds. Both carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds pose significant health risks.

More than three decades after serving in Operation Desert Storm, Loretta Young Thornton never expected the sounds of war to follow her home.
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After a lifetime of work, she poured her savings into a modest, four-bedroom home built in the 1920s on a secluded two-acre lot in Memphis, near the Mississippi state line.
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In their place rose Colossus 2, a massive data center built for billionaire Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI.
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Now, the sounds of nature have been replaced by the drone of industrial machinery, a mechanical roar resembling a jet engine that Thornton said runs day and night.

Who cares about pollution anymore? Who cares about the health of the citizens?