Much as I am not so outraged by VW’s gaming of emissions testing, given how environmental policy has been so driven by hysteria, goalpost-moving, and cult belief.

They met the letter of the law, in a manner reminiscent of James T Kirk’s response to the Kobayashi Maru.

I can see them requiring lights on really tall towers but what do they have to do with this tower?

The rocket maybe and yes. But the tower? No.

The EPA has already approved rocket launches and placed no limit on them.

Zimmerman replies: He can do anything he wants because….DEMOCRATS!

Not the worst logic I’ve seen on this site, but it’s pretty high up there.

Have the environmentalists explained exactly how rocket launches effect the nature in the area?

Or are they afraid if a crash? If they are afraid if a crash they should stop all oil tankers from floating in the Gulf of Mexico. They would cause more damage in the long and short run.

Over the past two decades, I have helped various national and regional environmental groups challenge everything from concrete plants to levees. When it comes to EIS, the only thing everyone must do is work hand-in-glove with revolving door bureaucrats to appear to follow it. You blind faith is touching and as accurate as Schoolhouse Rock’s portrayal of the legislative process in D.C.

b-against_mkents_feigned_naiviety: Very nice list of only a handful of the illegalities committed by Democrats and the political class in the past decades. Sadly, we both know you only listed a small sample.

Unfortunately, we now live in a tyranny where many people feel that if it is not expressly permitted by government then it must be illegal.

How about the extreme abuse of our intelligence apparatus against Trump? Or pissant left-wing district court judges just making up the law to “resist” the Trump admin and arrogating the power to rule by decree over the whole country to themselves? Or all the sabotage and illegal leaking by leftists throughout government to “resist” Trump? Or all the election law changes illegally ordered by judges in 2020 usurping the role of the legislatures? Or maybe Hillary Clinton and her aides getting off scot-free when they clearly and gratuitously broke the law with her home brew email server over which they routinely sent classified information illegally? Or the outright corruption and graft of the Clinton Global Foundation that no one did anything about? Or the Biden crime family for decades abusing his role in government to enrich itself? Or Hunter Biden’s lying on federal gun forms and disposing of a gun in a trash can? Or maybe Ilan Elmi (or, as she is known by her fake name Ilhan Omar) committing proven immigration fraud, marriage fraud, and tax fraud, and yet no one in government will do anything about it? Or how about the rioters (and spectators) of at the Capitol being locked up incommunicado and solitary for 6+ months while none of the “civil rights” organizations on the left lift a finger, while the left-wing rioters—who openly conspire to take down the government are not even arrested and if they are get back out on the street immediately with no charges? Or the officer who killed Ashli Babbit getting off with no charge at all and with the public not even being told who he is? Or how about Parler being taken down by Big Tech even though it was Facebook and Twitter—which are left untouched—who carried the bulk of the “coordination” of the riot? Or what about the NY attorney general going after President Trump and his organization in blatant political prosecution—name another company which has been similarly treated? Or the NY governor and attorney general harassing and attempting to destroy the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, the NRA, with patently illegal intimidation of it and businesses it engages with? Or the IRS subjecting non-leftist political groups to special scrutiny—oooohhh you’re “Tea Party” well, no non-profit status for you! and here, [ruffles head] how about an audit? How about how when left-wing Congressmen object to certifying election results they are lionized, while if right-wing ones do, they are white supremacist traitors and get their books banned?

Had enough? I can keep going all night but I have work to do. What’s happened is that our leftist gentry class rulers have decided on and devised a two-tier system of laws: one set for favored groups like illegal aliens and roughly everyone but straight white men, and left-wing NGOs and others with their preferred politics, and another set for disfavored, out-groups like those who believe in traditional American freedom or anyone who dares to associate himself with Donald Trump.

But unfortunately for them enough people are starting to catch on and realize that the America they love and that had existed, where people are not prosecuted for their politics, has been destroyed by the left. And they ask themselves, why should we keep playing the suckers who follow the laws, even ones they disagree with?

Does this apply to SpaceX? Well actually it doesn’t seem like they are doing anything illegal—they are just trying to push forward against all the vested interests arrayed against them whom they are proving to be poor stewards of the American space program and American interests in general. But if they decided to ignore whatever leftist-captured agency is trying to thwart their success over specious “environmental” review grounds (which by the way is a huge reason why in the USA we are singularly unable to build anything anymore), then more power to them! SpaceX is, nearly, single-handedly pushing America to stay ahead in space versus the Chinese and Russians, while NASA bureaucrats worry about boosting morale of people of certain religions and spending pork, and making sure scientists are wearing state-approved T-shirts, and other idiotic minutiae that will be the utter death of this nation.

ITAR would be a obstacle there, surely.

But realistically, there’s no plausible chance that the FAA will be able to shut this all down. Someone there wants to huff and puff, but in the end, there are now too many vested interests in SpaceX going forward.

Yes, it’s bananas.

The position Elon Musk, SpaceX, and in fact of previous administrators of various agencies, is that there is a lot of leeway in determining exactly how precise and limiting this is.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, we know this really is not a rational topic of discourse for your interlocutor, who is regrettably driven by a hatred for SpaceX and its chief.

This is NIMBYism at its finest.

Really, on the standard in play, it’s hard to see why development of *any* kind shouldn’t be banned on the entire coast of Texas.

That’s not actually clear as a matter of law. And it’s ridiculous on it’s face. The position Elon Musk, SpaceX, and in fact of previous administrators of various agencies, is that there is a lot of leeway in determining exactly how precise and limiting this is. Clearly it’s not as limiting as “we approved 12 flights of Falcon 9 1.0, you’re not allowed to launch Falcon 9 1.1”. You can’t expect a business to have to go back for a new EIS every time they change a small part of their business plan. SpaceX is basically saying “we proposed building a rocket construction, test, and launch facility here. Our intent on eventually using this as a large scale operational facility was clear at the time of the EIS. We provided our concrete plans of the time, and those were approved, but everyone understood that plans change. We believe our current plans are still in the scope approved.” On the other hand we have control freaks who take the view you espoused, that unless it was defined and approved PRECISELY, down to the letter, it’s not valid. That view cannot, MUST NOT, be allowed to prevail, if we want this country to survive and accomplish anything other than moving piles of paperwork from one box to another, endlessly.

Musk: GFY.

“When you are in power, I hold you to the law because your morality restrict your behavior. When I am in power, I can ignore the law because it’s not my morality.” If the past 18 months has taught the Right anything, it’s that we’ve been waging a moral fight against an immoral opponent. That will always lead to defat. The Left is just upset that we’re playing by their rules now.

The FAA has zero control over local land use and construction. None. GO SPACEX!!!!!

mkent: I would agree with you 100% in a different time and place. However, the law has now for more than a decade not applied to leftist Democratic Party politicians and the bureaucrats that work for them as well as the big money donars who support them. They can get away with riots, lying, investment fraud, and violence against innocent Americans, and nothing is done.

I am thus not so outraged by Musk’s actions. The law no longer really exists in America. It is now merely a political tool. Musk recognizes this. Too bad you do not.

The law needs to be once again enforced equally, against all lawbreakers. When that happens your argument will then carry some weight. Now I merely see it as an effort to use the law against those businesses you do not like.

Everyone … must obey it.
So, the piles of dead birds around windmills and the death-by-shade of all the plants in solar farms has been approved? Good to know.

people who claim to be on the side of law and order are OK with unequal law as long as it’s a hero of theirs who gets to flout the law
Describing everyone, ever. Somehow it mostly seems to break Left, though. Epstein didn’t kill himself, as a particularly egregious example. But the FBI, CIA, and DOJ of the last five years contain plenty of additional examples should you wish for more.

I don’t think we’ll ever get that principle back.
You first. Why should anyone – left or right – operate with one hand tied behind their back? Standing on principle is all well and good, but if one is beaten to death while standing there, one is a principled idiot.

The law requiring an Environmental Impact Statement is 50 years old. Everyone — every individual, every business, every state and local government, every agency of the federal government — must obey it. The DoT can’t even build a bridge over a creek without one.

But apparently that law doesn’t apply to Elon Musk, as he’s off building an entire super-heavy space launch facility without a proper EIS. The EIS he has is based on a facility allowing for 12 Falcon flights a year. Nothing more than that. He can’t launch more often than that. He can’t launch bigger vehicles than that. He can’t build more or bigger facilities than what was allowed by the original EIS.

If anyone else continued on like this in violation of the law, his facility would soon be behind a police barricade. But instead they allow him to continue. And even *that* is not enough for his fanboys.

You know, we used to have a principle in this country that the law was the same for everyone. That is clearly not the case any more. Considering that even people who claim to be on the side of law and order are OK with unequal law as long as it’s a hero of theirs who gets to flout the law, I don’t think we’ll ever get that principle back.