孟菲斯市议会周二晚以微弱差距未能通过一项为期18个月的数据中心暂建令，但批准了一项为期135天的开发暂停。埃隆·马斯克旗下的xAI公司已将该市称为其“大本营”，在孟菲斯都会区建设了三座超大规模人工智能数据中心，并寻求进一步扩张。但当地居民过去一年来一直在起诉这位亿万富翁的公司、组织社区力量要求xAI撤离，并推动实施暂建令——在一个有着悠久环境种族主义历史的城市，这种推动显得愈发紧迫。
The Memphis City Council narrowly failed to pass an 18-month data center moratorium Tuesday night, but instead approved a 135-day development pause. Elon Musk’s xAI has claimed the city as its “home,” building three hyperscale AI data centers in the Memphis metro area and looking to expand further. But the people who live there have spent the past year suing the billionaire’s company, organizing their communities to get xAI out, and pushing for a moratorium—a push that feels all the more urgent in a city with a long history of environmental racism.
周二晚孟菲斯市议会会场内人满为患，甚至溢出门外，与会者并未因“加强安保措施”（如仅允许携带透明袋子、严禁携带发声设备）而退缩。
The crowd at Memphis City Council on Tuesday night spilled out the door, undeterred by “enhanced security measures” like a clear-bags-only policy and strict prohibition on noise-making devices.
田纳西州众议员、民主党国会候选人贾斯汀·皮尔森出席了会议——他竞选代表孟菲斯选区，几周前曾因倡导数据中心暂建令被市议会驱逐出场。议会指控皮尔森和其他五名孟菲斯居民犯有“违反会场秩序”行为，原因是他们曾用扩音器高呼口号。
Tennessee state Rep. and Democratic congressional nominee Justin Pearson, who is running to represent Memphis, joined the meeting—though he was thrown out of City Council only weeks ago after advocating for a data center moratorium. Pearson and five other Memphians had committed “decorum violations,” the council had alleged, by chanting into a megaphone.
那次暂建令表决已两度推迟，重新定于10月20日举行。在以第一修正案为由起诉市议会并赢得临时限制令后，皮尔森返回会场，发言支持暂停孟菲斯所有数据中心开发。数百名其他市民也发表了类似发言。
That moratorium vote, delayed twice, was rescheduled for October 20. And after suing the City Council on First Amendment grounds and winning a temporary restraining order, Pearson returned to speak in favor of pausing all data center development in Memphis. So did several hundred others.
“如果你支持数据中心暂建令，请起立？”贾斯汀·皮尔森的弟弟、非营利组织“反对污染的孟菲斯社区”主席基肖恩·皮尔森问道。
“If you are for a data center moratorium, would you please stand?” asked Justin Pearson’s brother KeShaun Pearson, president of the nonprofit Memphis Communities Against Pollution.
大部分与会者起身，有人举着写有“投票支持数据中心暂建令”和“耶稣也会投暂建令赞成票”的标语牌。像许多发言者一样，皮尔森提到他家族成员患有呼吸道疾病，称病情因为xAI“科洛萨斯”数据中心集群——全球最大的数据中心集群之一——供电的燃气轮机而加重。
Most of the room rose, some holding signs reading “Vote Yes To Data Center Moratorium” and “Jesus Would Vote Yes On The Moratorium.”Like many speakers, Pearson brought up respiratory illnesses in his family that he says are aggravated by the gas turbines that power xAI’s Colossus, one of the world’s largest data center clusters.
“如果你从未冲着家人跑到沃尔格林药店买吸入器来救他们的命，你就不知道人们呼吸困难是什么滋味，”皮尔逊说。“我们最弱势的社区依然在忍受慢阻肺和呼吸道疾病的折磨。我们要求选出的代表站在我们人民这一边，而不是站在亿万富翁实验的利润这一边。” 最后关头，两名市议员提出了一项新法令：将暂停数据中心建设135天，而非18个月。但只有一个问题：“没人读过它，”贾斯汀·皮尔逊说。
“If you have never rushed your family to a Walgreens to get an inhaler to save their lives, you don’t know what it’s like for people to struggle to breathe,” Pearson said. “Our most socially vulnerable communities continue to suffer with COPD and respiratory illnesses. We demand representation that chooses us, the people, over the profits of a billionaire’s experiment.”At the last minute, a pair of city council members introduced a new ordinance: one that would pause data center development for 135 days, not 18 months. There was only one problem: “Nobody’s read it,” Justin Pearson said.
“他们没给公众任何时间阅读这项法令。它没有任何公众意见的输入，连台上那些人自己都没读过这项法令，”他说。尽管如此，只有135天暂停令动议获得通过；18个月暂停令以6比6平票未能通过。
“They haven’t given the public any time to read this ordinance. It doesn’t have any input from the public, and the people up there haven’t even read this ordinance,” he said. Nonetheless, only the 135-day moratorium motion passed; the 18-month moratorium failed on a 6-6 tie.
“我认为我们今晚辜负了孟菲斯市民，也辜负了他们的诉求，这真是令人失望，”提出18个月冻结提案的市议员杰里·格林对CNN表示。“现场挤满了数百人，他们等了好几个小时。这是第三次审议。他们为此推动了一年多；他们是深受这些环境危害影响的人。”
“I think we failed the citizens of Memphis tonight and what they have been asking for, so it’s really disappointing,” council member Jerri Green, who sponsored the 18-month freeze proposal, told CNN. “We had hundreds of people packed in there that waited for hours. This is the third reading. They’ve been pushing for this for over a year; they’re the people who are being deeply impacted by these environmental hazards.”
贾斯汀·皮尔森指责大孟菲斯商会，该商会一直试图将该市重塑为“数字三角洲”，以吸引更多大型科技公司。这种品牌定位导致该市一些企业直接向xAI员工推销服务。现在，孟菲斯地区数十处Airbnb房源均宣称“距离xAI仅几分钟路程”。
Justin Pearson blamed the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, which has been trying to rebrand the city as the “digital delta” to attract more big tech companies. That branding has led some businesses in the city to market directly to xAI employees. Dozens of Memphis-area Airbnbs are now advertised as “minutes away from xAI.”
“我们致力于与该社区共同发展，并为该市做最有利的事，”xAI高级基础设施经理布伦特·梅奥在2025年3月表示。“随着我们改造这处地产并提升设施，我们将为该地区带来更多就业机会和经济增长。”但住在设施附近的居民看不到多少好处。毗邻马斯克“科洛萨斯一号”超级计算机集群的以黑人为主的博克斯敦社区，因空气污染面临的癌症风险是全国平均水平的四倍。该社区因哮喘前往急诊室就诊的人数全州领先。
“We’re committed to expanding alongside this community and doing what’s best for the city,” xAI’s senior infrastructure manager Brent Mayo said in March 2025. “As we transform this property and enhance our facility, we’ll bring more employment opportunities and economic growth to the area.”But people who live near the facilities see little upside. Boxtown, the majority-Black neighborhood adjacent to Musk’s Colossus I, faces cancer risks from air pollution four times the national average. It leads the state in emergency room visits for asthma.
博克斯敦由曾被奴役的人们在《解放奴隶宣言》发布后不久建立，长期以来一直被市政府忽视。直到1975年，基本的自来水、污水和电力服务仍未覆盖博克斯敦许多家庭。“我们的人行道至今仍未修完，”一位在10月20日会议上的发言者说道。
Boxtown, which was established by formerly enslaved people shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation, has long been neglected by the city. Basic services like water, sewage, and electricity had not made it to many Boxtown homes by as late as 1975. “Our sidewalks are still incomplete,” one speaker at the October 20 meeting said.
如今，随着博克斯特恩和附近怀特黑文的居民反对数据中心扩建，他们面对的是世界首富——以及美国司法部。司法部今年夏天在全国有色人种协进会提起的《清洁空气法》诉讼中，提交了一份前所未有的动议，支持xAI。全国有色人种协进会律师提起的诉讼称，xAI在密西西比州南海文市（距州界不远）建设未经许可的燃气涡轮机，违反了《清洁空气法》，应每天支付超过10万美元的民事罚款。
Now, as the residents of Boxtown and nearby Whitehaven fight data center expansion, they’re up against the world’s richest man—and the US Department of Justice, which submitted an unprecedented motion backing xAI in a Clean Air Act lawsuit brought by the NAACP this summer. The suit, filed by NAACP lawyers, contended that xAI should owe more than $100,000 a day in civil penalties for violating the Clean Air Act by building unpermitted gas turbines just across the state border in Southaven, Mississippi.
尽管孟菲斯市没有通过全面暂停令，但该市反对xAI的斗争尚未结束。10月19日，一名联邦地区法院法官驳回了美国司法部驳回全国有色人种协进市民诉讼的请求。“特朗普政府不遗余力地保护埃隆·马斯克的公司xAI，使其免于承担责任，并剥夺当地社区保护自身免受非法污染的权利，”地球正义组织的劳拉·汤姆丝说，该组织是提起诉讼的团体之一。“我们期待在地区法院陈述我们的案件。”
Though Memphis did not pass a full moratorium, the city’s fight against xAI isn’t over. On October 19, a federal district judge denied the US Department of Justice’s attempt to dismiss the NAACP’s citizen suit. “The Trump Administration has gone out of its way to shield Elon Musk’s company, xAI, from liability and to deny local communities their right to protect themselves against illegal pollution,” said Laura Thoms of Earthjustice, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit. “We look forward to presenting our case before the District Court.”
对于贾斯廷·皮尔森来说，战斗才刚刚开始。他曾因要求暂停建设而被市议会驱逐，如今是国会候选人。“我们有一场要赢的国会选举，还有一项将在美国国会通过的暂停令，”他说。“我们需要新的领导，因为这届领导层已经出卖了我们。”
For Justin Pearson, the congressional candidate thrown out of City Council for demanding a moratorium, the battle is only beginning. “We’ve got a congressional race that we’re going to win, and a moratorium that we will pass in the United States Congress,” he said. “We need new leadership, because this leadership has sold us out.”