“DO YOU SUPPORT XAI IN MEMPHIS?” We Ask All 16 Shelby County Senators & Reps

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Since the announcement that Elon Musk’s Supercomputer XAI would be setting up shop in Memphis, there has been a lot of blowback from the community. Locals feel they have been left out of the process, saying they are being exploited and harmed by the project’s pollution and hoarding of resources.

A recent Perfect Union piece about the environmental impacts on the air they breathe and other local resources shows why. Memphis already has extremely polluted air thanks to other companies moving in and taking advantage. The ease of that process and the chamber’s willingness to remove any and all barriers regardless of local health impacts seems to be at least part of the reason Musk chose Memphis as the place to set up shop.

TVA is not going to help protect the people. They are supportive of the project, and Donald Trump already kneecapped the board’s ability to raise prices on XAI.

The County Health Department has not yet stepped in either, despite calls for them to deny XAI’s gas turbine permits after it was discovered they have been operating 33 out of 35 without permits, and lying about it.

The pressure on the health department to take a stand was too much for Dr. Michelle Taylor, the head of the department, who just recently announced she’s going to abandon her post and flee to Baltimore rather than stay and make the tough decision. (Her announcement came one week after County Mayor Lee Harris called her the best Health Department Director in the country… life comes at you fast!)

The Greater Memphis chamber, led by Ted Townsend, has been more than willing to work with them to grease the skids, and was a big part of the recruitment process.

Both Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and Memphis Mayor Paul Young are supportive of the project.

Most county commissioners and city council members have been unwilling to speak up.

But one group we haven’t heard much from is the 16 senators and reps who represent parts of Shelby County/Memphis in the state legislature.

Rep. Justin Pearson has been a vocal opponent, along with his brother Keshaun, who runs Memphis CAP. Their position against XAI is clear, and they have been adamant that the Shelby County Health Department should reject XAI’s gas turbine permits.

But what about the rest?

We asked all 16. So far, only 5 have responded. Their responses are below.

4 Democrats told us they are against the project: Rep. Pearson, Rep. Salinas, Rep. Hardaway, and Senator Kyle.

1 Republican, Senator Brent Taylor, tells us he is for it, and provided a number of reasons why – including claims about the jobs the project is allegedly creating for Memphians. We asked him for evidence to support it, which we have yet to receive, largely because he says he doesn’t have access to specifics himself. (We will share Taylor’s entire response in another separate post)

Rep. John Gillespie (R) posted his support for the project on his twitter feed.

It has been crickets from the other 11 – 8 Dems, 3 Republicans – despite giving them multiple opportunities to weigh in before we posted this. We will update this post if and when more responses come in.

AGAINST XAI:

Rep. Gabby Salinas (D)

FULL RESPONSE: “As a scientist that has studied toxicology and an elected official, I cannot support a project that hurts the health and well being of Memphians. As our country continues to fail to meet deadlines to halt climate change, it is robbing future generations from the basic necessities of life. This project is moving at the speed of light in the wrong direction.

Air and water are our most precious resources here in Memphis. We have worked hard to improve our air quality, and we are all proud of our drinking water. This project puts our most valued resources at risk for the sake of a billionaire winning an ego-driven race. The health of our people is worth more than that.

We know it is black and brown communities who will face the highest burden. The lack of transparency of the project is extremely concerning. Show us the meetings. Show us the permits. And especially, show us the science. Our kids and our families will not be able breathe or drink good profit margins and economic growth.”

REP. G.A. HARDAWAY (D)

FULL RESPONSE: “The awesome power of AI is the motivation behind Elon’s speed. He’s gotta be first out the gate, because whoever comes in second is losing. He had access to all the data in the United States Government. Nobody else has what he has. So when he builds this out, he becomes the most powerful man in the world.

When he develops this superpower, resistance will be futile. He can sabotage any message or policies that regulate him. We won’t get a second chance to regulate him. We need to push back on this before it’s too late. It’s now or never. Elon already told you he only cares about productivity, and couldn’t care less about human beings.”

REP. JUSTIN J. PEARSON (D)

For his FULL RESPONSE about why “we deserve clean air”, watch this press conference with the NAACP.

SENATOR SARA KYLE (D)

FULL RESPONSE: “There is credible evidence that xAI is already violating our clean air laws. Yes, the gas permits should be denied. Memphis doesn’t need Elon Musk’s xAI bringing pollution without accountability.

Our city already bears the burden of some of the worst air quality in the state—and we’re not interested in becoming a testing ground for billionaire science experiments. If XAI wants to operate here, they should meet the same environmental standards as everyone else. No shortcuts. No backroom deals. Memphis families deserve clean air, not corporate smog.”

SUPPORTS XAI:

SENATOR BRENT TAYLOR (R)

Senator Taylor responded quickly and at great length. We will share his FULL RESPONSES in a separate post.

NO RESPONSE:

Again, all other Shelby county reps did not answer, despite multiple messages from us.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Rep. Gillespie (R) is Clearly in Support

SEN. CAMPELL: IRA’S HISTORIC CLEAN ENERGY INVESTMENT WILL PAY OFF BIG FOR TN

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Sen. Campbell: Inflation Reduction Act’s historic clean energy investment will pay off big for Tennessee

Legislation would lower costs, cut prescription drug prices and boost manufacturing jobs in Tennessee

NASHVILLE — Clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act will pay off big for Tennessee workers and the state economy, says state Sen. Heidi Campbell.

Campbell, a candidate for Congress in the state’s Fifth District, says the U.S. House should send the bill to the president’s desk.

“This is the boldest climate package in U.S. history and the clean energy incentives are a perfect match for the investments we’ve made in the electric vehicle industry,” Sen. Campbell said. “This legislation will lower costs for families, cut prescription drug prices and create thousands of good-paying jobs in Tennessee — all without raising taxes on working people.”

The Inflation Reduction Act passed the U.S. Senate 51–50 on Sunday with both Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Bill Hagerty voting against it. The measure heads to the U.S. House this week.

The bill allows roughly $374 billion in climate and energy spending, including an extension and improvement of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. Under the act, the tax credit is renewed for a decade starting in 2023 and, for the first time, all EV manufacturers will have access to unlimited credits — but the vehicles have to be made in North America.

“No state economy is better positioned to benefit from the electric vehicle incentives than Tennessee,” Sen. Campbell said. “We’re going to build a stronger middle class with American manufacturing jobs and our working families are going to build the world’s clean energy future right here in the Volunteer State.”

Tennessee is already the top state in the Southeast for electric vehicle jobs and investment with General Motors, Nissan and Volkswagen all producing electric vehicles here, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

Additionally, Ford Motor Company has begun work in West Tennessee on its $5.6 billion BlueOval City project, a partnership with SK Innovation that will produce the next generation of F-Series electric trucks and electric vehicle batteries.

Also, Tritium DCFC Limited, an international manufacturer of electric vehicle charging stations, announced in February it will establish a U.S. manufacturing base in Lebanon, Tenn.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives for electric vehicles complement Tennessee’s plan to deploy electric vehicle infrastructure announced in February.

Inflation Reduction Act, Beyond EV

As important as the electric vehicle incentives are in Tennessee, the Inflation Reduction Act does a lot more for working families. This economic plan would lower costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, bring down health insurance premiums on HealthCare.gov, and make investments in clean energy, like wind and solar power.

The legislation, which will also reduce the federal deficit by $300 billion, is funded by creating a minimum 15 percent tax on the corporate profits of giant companies and by cracking down on tax cheats.

“Americans deserve solutions from Congress and the Inflation Reduction Act delivers by putting freedom for families first,” said Sen. Campbell.

Campbell, a results-driven mom, former mayor and Tennessee senator representing parts of Davidson County, faces Republican Andy Ogles in the General Election for Congressional District 5 on Nov. 8.

Tennessee’s 5th Congressional is now the most closely watched race in the state.

This is Sen. Campbell’s fifth race in a purple area of Tennessee. She’s undefeated and headed into the General Election in a position of strength having raised about $430,000.

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(THIS WAS A STATEMENT SENT OUT BY THE CAMPBELL CAMPAIGN)

The Battle Against the Byhalia Pipeline

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Hale and Cassie are joined by Justin Pearson, one of the co-founders of the grassroots movement Memphis Community Against The Pipeline (MCAP). They dig into the movement’s fight against the Byhalia Connection Pipeline and the ongoing environmental injustices happening right now in Memphis, Tennessee.

Check out Memphis Community Against the Pipeline

Sign the petition to tell city council members to vote to protect Memphis’ drinking water on Tuesday

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FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you like to listen.

 

Regrounding Ourselves in the Movement

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Hale, Isabella, Owen, and Cassie join forces for a regrounding episode where we talk about what we are doing as a Movement here in Tennessee and what the larger fight looks like within the context of the Biden Administration. We also preview our next episode which will be on the fight against the Byhalia Pipeline in Memphis. (+ some ridiculous outtakes on the big dumb boat and the Kentucky Creation Museum)

Check out Memphis Community Against the Pipeline to get a preview of what is going down before the next episode

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FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you like to listen.

Students at Vanderbilt University hold Protest to Divest from Fossil Fuels

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By Connor Warmuth, DivestVU Executive | (connor.n.warmuth@vanderbilt.edu)

“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!”

Over thirty student protesters chanted these words as they marched from the campus Central Library to Kirkland Hall at Vanderbilt University. The protest was designed to get the administration to seriously consider divestment of the university’s endowment from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are significant drivers of climate change. The release of carbon dioxide and methane from fossil fuel combustion, exacerbates the Greenhouse Effect, resulting in increased absorption of heat and higher average temperatures globally. Warmer temperatures will mean more extreme weather events, a climate refugee crisis, increased likelihood of famine, reduced water capacity, mass extinction of ecosystems, and exacerbated global inequities.

Furthermore, particulates and chemicals released at all stages of fossil fuel extraction and consumption pollute the Earth’s atmosphere, water, ecosystems. Pollution from fossil fuels directly results in a variety of serious health issues from asthma to cancer, particularly in minority communities. Pollution causes nearly 400,000 deaths per year.

So how much of the endowment is actually invested in fossil fuels? According to the 2020 Financial Report, four percent of Vanderbilt’s 6.9 billion dollar endowment is invested in “natural resources.” These investments are in “timber, oil and gas production, mining, energy, and related services businesses.” While the endowment supports a large portion of the students attending Vanderbilt, many question the idea of receiving financial aid from fossil fuel investments. As environmental justice advocate Luis Martínez puts it,

“I feel morally opposed to having any monetary assistance I received for my education be sourced from fossil fuel investments, particularly in light of the education my own school gives me to clearly know the urgency of climate change in our lives. Our university education is a gift to effect change.”

The university has ignored support for divestment, despite the passage of resolutions favoring divestment in the Graduate Student Council (GSC) and the Vanderbilt Student Government (VSG), and the accumulation of 1100 student signatures in an online petition.  According to Emily Irigoyen, leader of DivestVU, a coalition of students advocating for divestment of the endowment of fossil fuels,

“The administration has not engaged with our divestment campaign and has ignored our attempts to reach out to high ranking officials in the endowment office.”

As a result, DivestVU, DoresDivest (a separate coalition of students advocating for divestment), and several other student-run university organizations agreed to host a protest.

“Unfortunately, climate change is too pressing of an issue to sit out on the sidelines–so we took action.” said Miguel Moravec of DoresDivest.

At the protest, students marched while holding up posters with messages reading “Divest Vandy Now,” “Anchor Down DivestVU,” and “You are on Native Land.” The protest even featured a giant fourteen-foot unicorn with the words “Divest Fossil Fuels” written on the side.

Finally, the protesters arrived at the steps of Kirkland Hall, the tall, brown building with a clock at the top, where many of the leaders in the Vanderbilt administration work. Each protester wore a mask and stood six feet apart to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Representatives from multiple campus organizations delivered speeches in favor of divestment. 

Speaker Luis Martínez urged the Vanderbilt community to join him in calling for the university to divest from fossil fuels. Born and raised in Miami, Florida by a Cuban father and a Venezuelan mother, he has witnessed firsthand the disproportionate effects of climate change from tropical cyclones, rising sea levels, and heatwaves on Black and brown communities.

“There is no place I love more in the world and I will do the best I can in this life to protect the communities it holds from the worst impacts of Anthropogenic climate change.”

Next, Emily Irigoyen acknowledged that Vanderbilt occupies the traditional lands of the Cherokee, Shawnee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek peoples.

“By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Vanderbilt University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and indigenous peoples.”

Ana Fonongava’inga and Gabby Guarna of Vanderbilt’s Indigenous Scholars Organization added that:

“By continuing to invest in fossil fuels, the university is complicit in the destruction of our ancestral lands in the South Pacific, the destruction of Native lands here on Turtle Island due to toxic pipelines, the perpetuation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis, the displacement of our relatives, and the attack on Indigenous futures and wellbeing globally.”

Emma Tharpe, co-president of Hidden Dores, spoke out about white supremacy at Vanderbilt:

“Despite the fact that climate change is already disproportionately impacting communities of color, the refusal [to divest] from institutions [like Vanderbilt] who claim to value their “minority” populations, and who have things like “perspectives” requirements to graduate, and more Instagram posts and pamphlet photos of Black and brown students than I could count is persistent. This is absolutely hypocritical.”

Finally, DoresDivest’s Ben Hayden and Miguel Moravec, DivestVU’s Hannah Bruns, and VSG’s Vice President Shun Ahmed shamed the Vanderbilt administration for their complete lack of morality:

“Investment decisions [made by Vanderbilt], like all other decisions, are moral decisions. And divorcing the two, and putting on blinders to all other effects of your decision making, is both a categorical mistake and a moral blunder,” Hayden said.

Bruns added,

“It’s embarrassing that we have to ask our own university to invest in our futures by divesting from fossil fuels.”

Ahmed said,

“Vanderbilt [needs] to realize that their students will not be quiet and sit in a meeting room and just watch these issues continue on.”

Looking to the future, Irigoyen hopes the university will be more engaged in the movement to divest from fossil fuels:

“The administration has to show a good faith effort in discussing fossil fuel divestment and the creation of an ethical divestment committee with student representatives. If they don’t we will be forced to escalate our disruptions until they listen to us. The University relies heavily on alumni donations and targeting alumni who care about climate change to withhold donations is a potential next step.”

 

 

The Intersectionality Between Climate and Reproductive Justice

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Hosts Isabella and Hale speak with Osub Ahmed, a senior analyst at the Center for American Progress, on the intersection between the climate crisis and reproductive rights. This is often an overlooked subject both in media and day-to-day conversations. That’s why we decided to dig deep and dissect the important relationship between the two.

Read the Environmental Reproductive Justice research

Check out In Your Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

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FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you like to listen.

Tennessean Insurrectionists and the Importance of Antifascism

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Journalists Abby Lee Hood and Matt Bastin join to talk about Tennesseans’ involvement in the undemocratic coup attempt by MAGA insurrectionists that took place at our Capitol last week. We explore the moment we are in and where to go from here, including how it is more important now than ever to include antifascism into everything we do. Not only is supporting antifascism the right thing to do, but we will never pass a Green New Deal or any other progressive legislation if we don’t both practice antifascism and push for democratic reforms.

Read Matt and Abby Lee’s piece in Tennessee Lookout that inspired this episode

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Read Angela Davis’ Abolition Democracy Beyond Empire Prisons & Torture

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As Georgia Goes, So Goes the South

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Erica Darragh, Communications Lead for Sunrise Atlanta, joins Hale and Cassie to talk about the upcoming Senate runoff elections in Georgia and how crucial they are to us winning a Green New Deal. There’s so much we can learn from the incredible organizing that led to Georgia’s turnaround, and it gives us a lot of hope for Tennessee and the rest of the South. Be sure to do whatever you can to support Warnock and Ossoff in Georgia with your time, money, or both. Let’s bring this home.

Volunteer for and donate to Reverend Raphael Warnock.

Volunteer for and donate to Jon Ossoff.

Support Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight.

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FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts and wherever else you like to listen.

Why The Way You Talk About Climate Change Matters

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Hosts Owen and Cassie talk about how to talk about climate change and why it matters. The media often frames human-caused climate change as a “belief” instead of asserting it as truth and attempts to provide balance to an issue in which only one side is based in fact. We cut through the bullshit and talk about how to frame climate change in ways that will actually bring solutions.

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COVID19 and Why We Need Medicare for All to Solve Climate Change

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Hosts Hale Masaki and Isabella Killius dive into the intersections between COVID19, climate change, and Medicare for All with Stephanie Kang, a good friend of Sunrise Tennessee, Nashville Native, and health policy adviser to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Congresswoman Jayapal is the lead sponsor of Medicare for All in the House of Representatives.

Email MidTN DSA’s M4A Working Group at m4amidtn@gmail.com to join the fight for Medicare for All here in Tennessee.

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