Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday with the largest initial public offering in stock market history for his rocket and AI company SpaceX. The company is based in South Texas in a city controlled by Musk known as Starbase, which SpaceX has operated from since 2014. Environmental and conservation groups recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a land swap approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge in South Texas.
With Starbase, “SpaceX has already burned down dozens of acres of wildlife habitat, is dumping polluted water on our beach, has sent rocket debris into our communities, into communities in Mexico,” says Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, which is part of the lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Elon Musk is using our impoverished community as his laboratory to blow up dangerous experimental SpaceX rockets.”
While groups like the South Texas Environmental Justice Network are organizing opposition to Musk’s operations in South Texas, local officials are ignoring constituents’ complaints that SpaceX is degrading the environment and their quality of life, says Hinojosa. “We’ve seen elected officials take money from SpaceX here and lobby in favor of more bills that benefit SpaceX.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Juan González is in Chicago.
On Friday, Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire as his space flight, internet, satellite, social media and AI conglomerate SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in stock market history. Musk formed SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of colonizing Mars. The company is based in South Texas in a city controlled by Elon Musk known as Starbase, which SpaceX has used for rocket launches since 2014. Environmental and conservation groups recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a land swap that would give SpaceX more than 700 acres of a national wildlife refuge in South Texas.
We go now to Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, part of the lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved the land swap.
Bekah, thanks so much for joining us from South Texas. Explain what this lawsuit is all about.
BEKAH HINOJOSA: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on Democracy Now!
Last week, we were a part of a coalition that filed a lawsuit to block the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from giving SpaceX and Elon Musk more than 700 acres of public land to expand the dangerous rocket facility and to continue their unnecessary rocket launches. The lawsuit was filed by Center for Biological Diversity.
And let me make it clear: SpaceX built its massive facility and company town called Starbase on top of wetlands and in the middle of a major wildlife corridor. This was a pristine beach that’s next to thousands of acres of protected wildlife habitat for threatened and endangered species like the ocelot, the aplomado falcon, sea turtles and migratory birds. There should never be a SpaceX rocket facility or any kind of industrial facility in this area. SpaceX has already burned down dozens of acres of wildlife habitat, is dumping polluted water on our beach, has sent rocket debris into our communities, into communities in Mexico, and these rocket launches have disrupted numerous airplane flights over the years. We’ve been outspoken about the dangers and risks of SpaceX in our community for over 10 years now, and we will continue to do so.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bekah, if you could talk a little bit more about these — especially these rocket explosions? We’re talking about an area of the United States, the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, that’s overwhelmingly Latino and Mexican American. It includes some of the poorest counties in the country. And then, yet they’re being subjected to these environmental impacts?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: That’s correct. My community is majority Latine, Brown, Indigenous, mostly an immigrant community. Right now Musk is testing his Starship Super Heavy rocket, the largest rocket in human history, in our community. Elon Musk is using our impoverished community as his laboratory to blow up dangerous, experimental SpaceX rockets. And truthfully, his rocket testing sounds like a bomb going off. I can hear the sonic booms. I can feel the earthquakes in my apartment, about 20 miles away from the launch pad. What it feels like is this SpaceX rocket testing is like Elon Musk bombing us.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk a little more about this city he’s created, Starbase, basically for his employees?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: Yeah. So, last year, Elon Musk established his own company town on our beach called Starbase, where those in charge of Starbase have direct ties to SpaceX. It’s clear that Starbase is acting only in the interests of SpaceX. For example, SpaceX will buy land, and Starbase will annex it. And Starbase, Elon Musk’s company town, has essentially militarized our pristine beach. They have a lot of surveillance. They have a lot of police activity. They’ve made our beach feel very unwelcome. They actively deter people away, and they closed the highway to the beach.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to Elon Musk speaking on Friday.
ELON MUSK: I gave — I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all, to be clear. In fact, I told people this. I said, “Look, we’re probably going to fail, but, you know, we should give it a try, because if we don’t, if there’s not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-bearing civilization.” … And that’s what SpaceX is all about, is to take the fiction out of science fiction and create an exciting, inspiring future for everyone.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Elon Musk. If you can respond to that, Bekah Hinojosa, and also simply to Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, making its debut on Wall Street, SpaceX, in the largest IPO in history, from your vantage point there on the border in Texas?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: No one should invest in Musk’s corporations, because it would mean expanding his toxic data center, his SpaceX operations, thereby making Musk’s sacrifice zone of Black and Brown communities even bigger. We’re urging everyone to stop Elon Musk’s sacrifice zone and to defund Elon Musk.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And this idea of one man having a net worth now, as the first trillionaire, of nearly half of the people on the planet, the 46% of the poorest inhabitants of planet Earth?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: You know, it’s absolutely disgusting. And that’s why our community has been protesting, resisting SpaceX’s colonization of our community for over 10 years now. But we can’t be the only community speaking out. We’re urging everyone to take action and mobilize to stop, you know, Elon Musk’s obscene wealth.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go through some of the proposals. Last month, SpaceX filed a proposal seeking to build a six-mile-long 16-inch pipeline to bring in massive quantities of natural gas from the Port of Brownsville to Starbase to fuel its massive new rocket Starship. The underground pipeline would cross protected wetlands and wild refuge. And SpaceX is discussing the potential purchase of 136,000 acres of land owned by ExxonMobil on an undeveloped stretch of Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. That project’s environmental footprint would dwarf the already significant Starbase operation. Bekah Hinojosa, if you could comment?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: Yes. Communities all across the country are reaching out to us, asking, you know, “How do we resist Elon Musk’s colonization?” That’s what we need to do, is we need to work together, all of these communities, to resist. Elon Musk is also pushing forth with a massive land grab in our region. Right now they’re trying to, you know, obtain the 700 acres of wildlife habitat, but they’re also trying to take over another 7,000 acres of our Boca Chica Beach. You know, what we need to do is work together to stop this.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Bekah, what’s been the response of your elected officials, your local — especially your local elected officials? I can understand while the governor, Abbott, and the top state officials would be supportive of Musk, but what about the local officials?
BEKAH HINOJOSA: All of our local officials are ignoring community concerns. They’re ignoring community members speaking up about their homes shaking, about their windows cracking, their home foundations cracking because of SpaceX rocket launches. We’ve seen elected officials take money from SpaceX here and lobby in favor of more bills that benefit SpaceX, you know, which is why we need to mobilize together, because our elected officials are selling us out to Elon Musk.
AMY GOODMAN: Bekah Hinojosa co-founded the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, the group part of a coalition that just sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for giving 700 acres of public land to SpaceX. Bekah is an environmental community advocate with the grassroots collaborative Another Gulf Is Possible.
Coming up, President Trump’s name has been removed from the exterior of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts following a judge’s order, but the battle over the Kennedy Center goes on. We’ll speak to two former Kennedy Center programmers who were fired by the Trump administration, including the renowned artist and playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Stay with us.
COMMENTS