Texas Legislature gives new city of Starbase authority to shut down local beach for SpaceX launches

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Texas lawmakers agreed to give the new city of Starbase the authority to periodically close down a South Texas beach, giving more power to municipal officials with close ties to SpaceX over the objections of local activists trying to preserve access to the beach.

After previous versions of the measure died earlier during the legislative session, a last-minute addition to a bill related to the Texas Space Commission successfully granted Starbase officials the authority to temporarily close down Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX launches.

House Bill 5246 revises the power and duties of the Texas Space Commission and the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium.

A conference committee report of the bill added a section that allows the Space Commission to coordinate with a city to temporarily close a highway or venue for public safety purposes.

In South Texas, that will give the Starbase city commissioners the authority to approve those closures which would affect State Highway 4, a road that runs through Starbase and leads to the beach, as well as the beach itself.

Rep. Greg Bonnen, a Republican from Friendswood who chaired the conference committee on the bill, said the bill would ensure Texas remained the gateway for the future in space exploration.

"The future is being shaped right here in Texas,” Bonnen said.

Defending the addition to the bill, Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, a Democrat from Laredo, argued that the city of Starbase would have a better idea of whether it is safe for people to be out on the beach in a similar way the Laredo manages their international bridges.

However, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, along with other Democrats, pushed back against the bill, noting that previous attempts to give Starbase this authority never made it to the House floor.

Martinez Fischer also argued that the county commissioners were responsible for the beach and should get to make the call on when to shut it down.

“The question is who gets to make the call and who is in the best position to have the public interest in mind in closing a public beach?” Martinez Fischer said on the floor Sunday. “I submit to you it’s not the people in the company town that’s effectively a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX, and it’s not the Space Commission.”

Local organizations strongly opposed the measure, hosting phone banking events to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Their objections to the measure stemmed from concerns that the public would increasingly be shut off from Boca Chica Beach, which is affectionately known as the people's beach. It was once the most accessible beach before the Queen Isabella Causeway was built to connect Port Isabel to South Padre Island in 1954.

Today, Boca Chica is beloved because it lacks the heavy commercialization of the beaches of South Padre Island.

Additionally, the Esto’k Gna Tribal Nation, commonly known as the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, view the beach as part of their ancestral land.

The tribal and environmental groups have also opposed the increasing space flight activity that SpaceX is conducting on the beach over fears that the company's rocket launches are damaging nearby wildlife and polluting the gulf waters.

Despite their efforts, the Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX the green light to increase the number rocket launches from Boca Chica Beach from five to 25 times per year.

This authorization came after the FAA found through an environmental assessment that there would be no significant environmental impacts. The FAA released a draft of the environmental assessment last year for public review and held public meetings in January.

Critics from the environmental and indigenous groups argued that the FAA's review was not thorough and that the agency did not consult with the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe.

The move to allow Starbase to close the beach shifts that authority away from Cameron County, a power that the county inherited in 2013 just as SpaceX was about to begin their spaceflight activities there.

Now that authority lies with Starbase, a new city whose residents and elected officials are either SpaceX employees or have ties to the company.

The mayor and city commissioners held their first public meetings this week, appointing key staff, adopting city codes, and approving a financial plan to seek a loan from SpaceX to help fund the city through the end of the fiscal year.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

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