Acting Against Rio Grande Valley Community’s Vocal Opposition, Federal Aviation Administration Approves SpaceX Expansion

Brownsville, TX - Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the license for SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy Vehicle, which would result in a large expansion of the launch facility’s operations in South Texas’ Boca Chica Beach, despite the Rio Grande Valley community and environmental advocates' consistent and vocal opposition to the destructive rocket project. 

The FAA issued SpaceX a “Finding of No Significant Impact'' on the license and the proposed expansion based on a draft programmatic environmental assessment (DPEA), stating that SpaceX’s current and future operations do not significantly impact the surrounding community or environment, despite community concerns and pleas regarding the full scope of environmental impacts plaguing the Rio Grande Valley from SpaceX operations.   

Local groups and community members advocated for the FAA to conduct a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the SpaceX expansion and to include proper community input, including input from Spanish speakers. An EIS would have included a more comprehensive discussion and analysis as well as analyze the cumulative impacts of SpaceX operations in conjunction with existing and proposed oil and gas projects in the region such as LNG plants, the Jupiter oil export terminal, the Rio Bravo Pipeline, and the Valley Crossing Pipeline at the Port of Brownsville. These oil and gas facilities will pollute the air and water, and come with their own high risk of explosions from day-to-day operations.

The FAA issued this finding  despite the ample evidence that SpaceX has already drastically and negatively impacted the Rio Grande Valley. The expansion to launch the biggest rocket in human history, the Starship/Super Heavy, will cause significantly more harm and  destruction to nearby wildlife refuges and communities from rocket explosions. Additionally, the FAA should not have issued a license for the project because the administration failed to include meaningful outreach to impacted communities while reviewing SpaceX’s license, such as adequate Spanish language access, which violates the FAA’s own environmental justice order. 

Last year, the Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club and other groups submitted a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and FAA’s Environmental Justice Order to the FAA’s Office of Civil Rights. The FAA denied the complaint last week, stating that the agency felt they complied with Title VI and the Environmental Justice Order by providing only executive summaries of the DPEA translated into Spanish and providing subpar Spanish interpretation at public hearings. Moreover, SpaceX operations have restricted beach access for locals by closing off HWY 4 to Boca Chica several times per month, and SpaceX plans to shut down the beach up to 800 hours or more per year. Sierra Club and Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas joined local environmental group SaveRGV in suing the Texas General Land Office, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and Cameron County for closing Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX operations as restricting access to a public beach violates the Texas Constitution.

Emma Guevara, Brownsville organizer with the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, said: “It is incredibly disappointing and frustrating that the FAA has chosen to ignore the myriad examples of SpaceX's negative impact on Boca Chica and act against the best interest of Rio Grande Valley communities by approving the SpaceX expansion. We need our elected officials, government leaders, and the public to understand that this project is incredibly threatening to our community and our way of life.”

Juan Mancias, Chairman of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, said: “We have always resisted and continue to resist colonization and the erasure of our people and our culture, and we will make no exception for SpaceX. This land, this beach, does not belong to Elon Musk and is not a commodity for his delusions of intergalactic grandeur. We will not be sacrificed to fracked gas exports nor to a billionaire’s space ventures who is actively stealing our land and attempting to strip us of our identity. The FAA should, at the very least, have requested a full Environmental Impact Study. SpaceX is causing major damage to our sacred sites and the surrounding land and wildlife. SpaceX as a whole needs to be shut down.”

Michelle Serrano, communications strategist with Voces Unidas said: “We need elected and federal officials to listen to our community and stop the destruction of Boca Chica Beach. Boca Chica Beach is known as "The People's Beach" which is known for its historical ease of access, the invaluable quality of life it offers local families, regardless of income, and its pristine quality in comparison to all other Texas beaches. Our community is already starting to feel the negative impacts of its infringement which will only become more severe if SpaceX is allowed to continue its revised operations on Boca Chica Beach.”

Dave Cortez, Director, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, said: “The FAA has failed the people of the Rio Grande Valley and the People of Texas. Sierra Club members from across Texas who have rallied around concerned residents of the Rio Grande Valley, and proclaimed in one voice that the ecological damage, the increasing displacement driven by rising costs of housing, and the threats to wildlife and sacred sites from industrialization by LNG and SpaceX are not compatible with a sustainable and healthy economy for the region. The Sierra Club strongly condemns this decision and reiterates that the agency should have requested a full environmental impact statement. We call on all elected officials, political candidates, and community leaders to take a harder look at not just the glamor of space travel, but the very real negative impacts SpaceX has caused and will continue to cause if allowed to expand.”