Environmentalist to get their day in court as SpaceX works to expand their Starbase facility

A group of environmentalist won an appeal to sue the Texas government over access to Boca Chica Beach near SpaceX‘s Starbase facility. Something that could make launching Starship out of there even harder than it already is as the company moves to continue expanding its presence.

Environmentalist want to stop the beach closures

A group of environmentalist have won an appeal in the Texas courts to make its case against road closures to Boca Chia Beach for SpaceX’s Starship rocket activities. The groups believe the law that was passed allowing these sort of closures is unconstitutional.

If you didn’t know, the State of Texas owns all of the state’s beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. By law these beaches must be kept open to the public, this is called the Open Beaches Act which was signed into law in 1959 and then amended in 1991 to allow cities and counties to make their own beach access laws.

The protest by he Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter and Save RGV is not against the Open Beaches Act but against a statute that allows spaceflight operations to justify beach access closure. This is what allows SpaceX’s safe operations when testing and launching its Starship rocket.

In 2022, the suit was dismissed in the 445th District Court with the judge stating there wasn’t enough evidence to legally sue. However, last week the Thirteenth Court of Appeals approved the appeal to sue and unless there’s another appeal, the activist will have their day in court.

SaveRGV expects an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. Even if they get to argue their case in court, it still doesn’t guarantee a change to the law. It would be hard to imagine this sort of law to be changed without a hard fight, especially since Texas is very proud of its growing spaceflight industry.

This lawsuit is different than one being brought against the FAA for Starship’s environmental review. That suit is still moving slowly in the federal court system and wishes the FAA to do a full environmental impact statement on Starship’s launches, which could delay Starship for years.

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SpaceX working land swap deal as Starbase expands

For the locals around Starbase, the facility has been both a great asset and intrusion on the area. It is true that SpaceX’s arrival in the area has mad Brownsville a much more desirable location to live. It has also increased tourism that before was mostly only been focused around surfers and spring break.

However, the large number of new employees with higher standards of living means the cost of living in the area has also increased. Of course there are also the obvious concerns about the environmental impacts of building a spaceport in the middle of a state park and if it will be worth the cost of having SpaceX in the area.

With that said, the company is looking to expand its operations vastly around its current facilities. SpaceX recently expanded to an old gun range down the road, this is where a lot of the testing that use to take place on the suborbital pads is done now. However, SpaceX is working a deal with the State of Texas to gain land from Boca Chica State Park in a land swap deal.

In exchange for 43 acres of the state park that surrounds Starbase, SpaceX would purchase 477 acres near the Laguna Atascoca National Wildlife Refuge Bahia Grande Unit and give it to the state. A pretty slick deal for Texas.

However, the county is also interested in purchasing that 477 acres and has federal grant money on the way to help pay for it. Both the state and county want to expand wildlife conservation and outdoor recreational with the new land, however, if Texas Parks and Wildlife gets the land, the extra money any of it would bring in wouldn’t be seen by the county.

Also, construction has supposedly began on a large six story parking structure near the main production area of Starbase. Land has also been cleared and work beginning on what we believe is a new shopping center Elon Musk has mentioned he wanted to develop.

I have a feeling next time I head down to checkout Starbase it will love very different than when I was there last time. Nothing moves slowly down there.