President-elect Donald Trump’s expected appearance Tuesday at a SpaceX rocket launch event in Texas underscores the political pull now enjoyed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, whose lofty ambitions have sometimes collided with the same environment-related agencies he could soon be judging.
As founder of SpaceX, Musk has led a venture that has launched more than 400 rockets and also been fined for Clean Water Act violations. The spacecraft innovations anticipate an eventual 140-million-mile trip to Mars, while environmentalists have accused the company of tainting wildlife refuges located right next door.
Now, as an influential Trump adviser who’s set to co-lead a new commission on government efficiency, Musk will be in a position to judge federal agencies that could well include those that have penalized or frustrated his own ventures.
That prospect alarms environmental advocates who claim SpaceX skirts environmental requirements — and have urged agencies to require the company to reduce alleged damage to wildlife and waters.
“These laws are in place to protect the public interest,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Giving [Musk] a free pass shows we’re putting billionaires — or people who are friends with Trump or whoever — is above the law.”
The assessments by federal agencies of Space X’s operations have at times been positive for the company. The Fish and Wildlife Service, for instance, issued a biological opinion in 2022 that found the SpaceX Boca Chica launch facility located about 2 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border “is not likely to jeopardize” species including ocelots, piping plovers and sea turtles.
But when the FWS subsequently said it would need upward of a year for additional review of potential endangered species impacts, Musk took aim at the government agency on his X social media site.
“That is unacceptable,” Musk wrote on Sept. 21, 2023, in an X posting that attracted 1.5 million views and 9,400 likes. “It is absurd that SpaceX can build a rocket faster than they can shuffle paperwork!”
EPA has likewise come into Musk’s commercial orbit as a result of his SpaceX work. EPA this year fined SpaceX $148,378 for releasing liquid oxygen and tens of thousands of gallons of water into wetlands bordering the launch site on several occasions without a permit.
SpaceX, which did not respond to questions for this story, has since applied for the necessary permits. The company states on its website that it was previously operating “in good faith” under a general permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and that the deluge system uses “potable” water.
Scheduled for Tuesday at around 4 p.m. CST, the launch will be the sixth flight test of Starship, which SpaceX says is the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. SpaceX aims to eventually use Starship to launch people to the moon, Mars and Earth’s orbit. The Trump transition team did not respond to questions about the president-elect’s attendance at the launch event, and Musk did not respond to an email.
The reusable rocket will cause sonic booms during the approximately 65-minute flight, although an Federal Aviation Administration environmental assessment concluded that “significant impacts to wildlife due to sonic booms are not anticipated.”
But in a 2023 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, environmentalists alleged the FAA issued SpaceX launch permits without conducting a required in-depth environmental study.
“As the nation carries out the modern era of spaceflight, we must decide whether we will protect the wildlife and frontline communities that can be adversely affected by our desire to reach the stars,” attorneys for CBD and other environmental groups wrote.
To make their point, the environmentalists recited a litany of alleged incidents at the company’s Boca Chica launch site, starting with the ill-fated first launch of the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy rocket on April 20, 2023.
“Just minutes into the launch, the rocket exploded,” the lawsuit recounted, adding that “the launch pad was destroyed, scattering debris and ash over a large area, including adjacent lands that provide habitat for endangered species.”
The SpaceX facility is surrounded by the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge as well as several state-owned preserves. Environmentalists say there have been “at least eight other” rocket explosions at the facility, as well as several fires that have burned dozens of acres of refuge land.
The lawsuit is still ongoing.
SpaceX, in a motion to intervene in the case, noted that the company has spent more than $3 billion developing the Texas facility and its Starship/Super Heavy launch system.
“SpaceX expects to generate a return on these investments through various revenue streams, including through Starship-related commercial and government contracts,” Bret Johnsen, the company’s chief financial officer, stated in an April 2023 court filing.
Another Interior Department policy that can affect SpaceX comes with an interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Biden administration interprets the law as covering both intentional and unintentional actions that kill or disturb protected birds.
The first Trump administration, though, said the law only extended to intentional acts, a more lenient application for industry. In a court filing, SpaceX likewise held to this narrower interpretation of the law.
“The MBTA applies only to intentional, hunting-related activities that harm migratory birds,” SpaceX attorneys stated in a filing last September, adding that “any effects launches have on migratory birds are purely accidental, rendering the MBTA inapplicable.”
It’s unclear if Musk could have a hand helping shape this policy from his inside perch as one of the leaders of what the Trump transition has dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency.” Musk and investor Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leader of the effort, have called for drastically slashing government operations.
Located at the southern tip of Texas’ Gulf Coast, the SpaceX launch site dubbed Starbase is adjacent to land owned by the FWS and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Representatives for both agencies have expressed concerns about how the company’s operations could affect wildlife and the general ecology of South Bay, an estuary rich in tidal mudflats, mangroves and other unique natural features.
To help prevent explosions and other problems during launches, SpaceX began operating a water deluge system in 2023. EPA has stated that the discharges were not authorized, resulting in the $148,000 federal fine.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also concluded in July that the company was not authorized to release what TCEQ described as “industrial wastewater” and directed SpaceX to apply for an applicable permit.
SpaceX’s now-pending permit application indicates that the water would be discharged in mudflats “on or adjacent to public lands,” eventually reaching the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge and the Rio Grande River, Marty Kelly of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wrote to TCEQ last month.
Kelly, a water resources program manager, stated that SpaceX has proposed 25 launches per year, along with preflight operations such as status fire tests, where deluge water will be used.
“Regular discharge of fresh water through the proposed outfalls has the potential to damage or permanently change the nature of the tidal flats,” Kelly wrote.
A local advocacy group, Save RGV, has sued SpaceX over the discharges. Testing of the water has shown that it contains high levels of heavy metals like mercury and arsenic, the group wrote in its lawsuit.
SpaceX has disputed those claims, writing in its response to the lawsuit that the discharges have been authorized and stating that all alleged past violations have been resolved.
In addition to the deluge system, the company has applied for a wastewater treatment plant permit. That facility would discharge up to 200,000 gallons of treated domestic wastewater into South Bay, according to the company’s application.
Stormwater released from the site has already “potentially” converted some of the tidal flats in South Bay into vegetated areas, Catherine Yeargan of the FWS advised TCEQ in September. The proposed wastewater treatment plant could further threaten habitat for the piping plover, Yeargan wrote.
Many of the complaints about the Starbase site stem from the fact that the property is too small for launching rockets and located precipitously close to public lands and residences, said Eric Roesch, a Texas-based hedge fund environmental engineer who has been blogging about SpaceX on his Substack, “ESG Hound.”
“The cascading impacts of the launches will take a toll,” Roesch said.
