Elon Musk's Texas city project, Starbase, put to a vote
Starbase, a 4-square-kilometer coastal plot of land located on the border with Mexico, could become a city in its own right. Just under 300 voters are expected to vote.
Texas voters are expected to vote Saturday on billionaire Elon Musk's plan to create a city around his space company SpaceX's industrial complex in the southern United States. Just under 300 people, mostly SpaceX employees, will be able to vote until 7 p.m. local time to transform the Starbase complex , a 4-square-kilometer coastal site on the border with Mexico, into a full-fledged city. The majority of them have already cast their ballots in advance.
The creation of this city would be a success for Elon Musk, who has been involved in the commission tasked by Donald Trump to cut public spending, but has failed to meet its objectives, and is facing difficulties with his Tesla car company.
SpaceX established its industrial complex in this coastal wetland, bordered by the Rio Grande River and natural areas, to conduct rocket tests and launches . The site has been operational since 2019.
Elon Musk's plan to turn it into a city "will only cause more environmental destruction in the area," said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of a local environmental organization. "There will be more illegal dumps, they will increase their dangerous rocket operations, and they will cause more seismic activity that will shake our homes and destroy more natural habitats," she predicted.
It was Elon Musk himself, the richest man in the world according to the reference magazine Forbes, who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post following a visit to the site four years ago. The official application to make it a full-fledged city was submitted to local authorities in December 2024.
SpaceX has argued that it already manages infrastructure there, including roads, healthcare, and education services. The company has also promised that the city's creation would not undermine its efforts to reduce its environmental impact.
In 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined SpaceX for illegal dumping into Texas waterways. The company was also accused of damaging wild bird nests with its rockets. "To compensate for this heinous crime, I will abstain from eating omelets for a week," Elon Musk quipped in response on social media.
lefigaro
