Texas Lawmakers Want to Hand SpaceX Power to Close Beaches

The Texas Legislature revived a much-debated proposal that would provide Elon Musk’s SpaceX with greater control of the beach around the South Texas SpaceX launch site, after voting against it earlier this week.

Senate Bill 2188 was referred for a vote on Wednesday, just two days after the Texas House State Affairs Committee voted it down, MySA reported.

The drama around the legislation comes as residents of Boca Chica are set to vote on whether to incorporate the area around SpaceX facilities into the city of Starbase. The election is Saturday.

The area that could be incorporated is the village of Boca Chica, a 1.45-square-mile town of about 500 people, the Texas Tribune reported. Boca Chica about 23 miles east of Brownsville.

The bill, which was introduced by state Sen. Adam Hinojosa, a Republican from Corpus Christi, would give the local mayor and commissioners the authority to close the beach for weekday flight activities. If the incorporation vote passes as expected, the authority would be in the hands of the company.

The Texas Tribune identified the three people poised to assume public office should the incorporation vote pass. Twelve-year SpaceX veteran Bobby Peden would be mayor. Senior director of Environmental Health and Safety for SpaceX Jordan Buss would become a commissioner; Jenna Petrzelka, who worked at SpaceX between 2012 and 2024, would be the other.

The state senate approved the bill on Monday, and it landed in a Texas House of Representatives committee, where it was approved Wednesday mostly on party lines with Republicans voting in favor of the legislation, except for former House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont, who voted against it, and Democrat Rep. Richard Pena Raymond of Laredo voting in favor.

The bill has drawn the ire of locals who fear it will set a precedent for undermining public beach access.

“While this bill is just aimed at the municipality that will become Starbase, this could open the door to the same thing happening along the entire Texas coast,” said Stuart Diamond, chair of the South Texas chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

—Jess Hardin