If your neighbor fired up 35 construction/welding generators across the street you'd notice the smell, right?

These things are turbines, each the size of a shipping container.

I don't think you need IR evidence to know that it would be unpleasant.

Probably not, because there would be a significant distance between industrial and residential zoning, and in this age catalytic converters, scrubbers, carbon capture etc are all mandatory.

Except they are not, because all of these turbines are "emergency" generators which are completely exempt from any environmental regulations, due to being designed well....for emergencies. But it looks like xAI found a loophole that says they can operate them 364 days a year and it's still legal, so no, they don't actually do any emissions control on them.

And that certainly could be shown by simple air quality metrics, would you agree? Which hasn’t featured in any of the reporting so far. Showing thermal images capturing heat plumes does not equal air pollution.

Correct. And I wish someone would do that.