Environmentalists sue local Boca Chica officials for closing beaches for SpaceX
Muskhate: The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have now sued a variety of local Boca Chica government agencies for periodically closing the beaches during hazardous SpaceX operations.
The Sierra Club, the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and non-profit Save RGV have joined together in a lawsuit against the Texas General Land Office, Texas land commissioner George P. Bush and Cameron County in Texas for closing Boca Chica Beach periodically for SpaceX operations during Starship tests, the Sierra Club stated May 5. The Boca Chica beach is near SpaceX’s Starbase facility, where it is building Starship rocket prototypes and their massive Super Heavy boosters.
“Restricting access to a public beach, as the defendants have done, violates the Texas constitution,” the Sierra Club said in a statement. None of the allegations have been proven in court, and the statement does not name SpaceX among the entities pursued in the lawsuit.
These are the same groups that have been lobbying government officials for the past few years to shut SpaceX down. They claim that a change to the state’s laws allowing these closures that was passed in 2013 violates the state’s constitution, and want the courts to agree.
Of course, we all know these organizations really have no interest in keeping the beaches open for public use. What they really want is to shut down SpaceX in Boca Chica, because that company is actually doing something exciting and innovative while bringing billions of investment capital to the Rio Grand Valley, including tens of thousands of new jobs. (The group called “Save RGV” is especially ironic and dishonest, since RGV stands for Rio Grand Valley. If their effort succeeded, they would not save RGV, but destroy it. All those jobs and billions would vanish, leaving the area as depressed and as poor as it has been now for decades.)
These groups also wish to destroy Elon Musk, because he has recently made it clear that he no longer is a knee-jerk supporter of all leftist causes.
Nor will their effort cease should they lose this case in court. They will do what environmental groups have done now for decades, find another minor legal issue and sue again, and again, and again, and again.
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Muskhate: The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have now sued a variety of local Boca Chica government agencies for periodically closing the beaches during hazardous SpaceX operations.
The Sierra Club, the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and non-profit Save RGV have joined together in a lawsuit against the Texas General Land Office, Texas land commissioner George P. Bush and Cameron County in Texas for closing Boca Chica Beach periodically for SpaceX operations during Starship tests, the Sierra Club stated May 5. The Boca Chica beach is near SpaceX’s Starbase facility, where it is building Starship rocket prototypes and their massive Super Heavy boosters.
“Restricting access to a public beach, as the defendants have done, violates the Texas constitution,” the Sierra Club said in a statement. None of the allegations have been proven in court, and the statement does not name SpaceX among the entities pursued in the lawsuit.
These are the same groups that have been lobbying government officials for the past few years to shut SpaceX down. They claim that a change to the state’s laws allowing these closures that was passed in 2013 violates the state’s constitution, and want the courts to agree.
Of course, we all know these organizations really have no interest in keeping the beaches open for public use. What they really want is to shut down SpaceX in Boca Chica, because that company is actually doing something exciting and innovative while bringing billions of investment capital to the Rio Grand Valley, including tens of thousands of new jobs. (The group called “Save RGV” is especially ironic and dishonest, since RGV stands for Rio Grand Valley. If their effort succeeded, they would not save RGV, but destroy it. All those jobs and billions would vanish, leaving the area as depressed and as poor as it has been now for decades.)
These groups also wish to destroy Elon Musk, because he has recently made it clear that he no longer is a knee-jerk supporter of all leftist causes.
Nor will their effort cease should they lose this case in court. They will do what environmental groups have done now for decades, find another minor legal issue and sue again, and again, and again, and again.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I wonder if this is just an old fashion shakedown for money or trace back recent contributions to said environmental organizations.
Sadly, “environmentalists sue” is one of the most common phrases in society today.
No, Jay, this is not a shakedown attempt by the environment hustlers. As Robert observes, “if their effort [to shut down SpaceX] succeeded, they would not save RGV, but destroy it. All those jobs and billions would vanish, leaving the area as depressed and as poor as it has been now for decades.”
Indeed, leaving the region “depressed and poor” is the very same agenda that the Biden-Ho Administration has for the country at large, and the ongoing effort in Texas is just a small preview of the Great, made in Davos Reset that everyone on the left is incessantly clamoring for.
Judging from the response of the Texas government, we may be seeing a repetition of the Thirty Meter Telescope debacle in Hawaii*, with the Boca Chica facility not explicitly closed but never permitted to launch Starship because of all of the legal challenges and protests.
* https://news.yahoo.com/construction-thirty-meter-telescope-delayed-160700381.html
Fine, don’t close the beach, just have the Texas legislature pass a law indemnifying SpaceX from any liability if they should ignore the warnings and have something bad happen..
NASA used to close Playa Linda beach near KSC for several days prior to a Shuttle launch
The enviro orgs should be careful. Musk is assembling a strike team of rabid lawyers who will not settle. The enviros may end up bankrupt.
Environmental NGOs have been given very special treatment in most USG Environment Laws…..They have Standing before the Court to sue, where if you owned beach property that is affected you do not have standing.
Most Laws going back to the founding of the EPA actually give the NGOs the costs of their legal expenses when they file suit whether they win or lose. In some cases, they file against a Private co.oany AND the Feds so they can get refunded after the suit is settled no matter the outcome……..
Nice ? Work for the Allies of a Certain Party ?.
The environmentalists do not even realize that they are being used by some big companies to stop other big companies.
Looks like Musk is the second coming of the Pinball Wizard.
Alton,
Thank you for that information. I did not know that these environmental NGOs have this special treatment. It is like they are amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the lawsuit, but they can be adversarial as well (forgive my Latin- hostis atrii, enemy of the court?). I bet when they lose against a only a private company they never have to pay the other side’s legal fees anyway.
Pawn
One of my favorite songs
https://youtu.be/H_r_dWenKhk
From the movie with Elton John and Roger Daltrey
This is a new angle being tried.
The environment review has been dragged out as long as possible. FWS portion is long over, has no teeth.
They will try this as an attempt to have a judge order a halt to testing while the case proceeds. There will be no interest in trying to get a speedy resolution.