The Founders Show
SpaceX Starbase Plans Land In Louisiana
Christopher broadcasts live from Juneau, Alaska on this week’s edition of The Founders Show. He and Hy talk melting glaciers, and how that could raise flood waters in South Louisiana, and the urgent needs to build flood protection to deal with a possible increase of four feet in ocean levels. That alone would make Mandeville, Tangipahoa, Slidell, and most of the South Shore outside of the ‘sliver by the river’ go underwater. We talk about Trump‘s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake American. Prime Minister Mark Carney fired back, “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontario, which, appropriately, means "the lake is beautiful, the lake is big". The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their.hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario- then, now and always.” However, most of our conversation is about the new potential 10 pad “Starbase Louisiana” announced earlier this week— and a bit of negative local reaction. It’s Rocketmen v. Cajuns. Since SpaceX’s announcement on Tuesday, August 25 that the company plans to construct a rocket launch facility at Pecan Island, critics have fired back with multiple impact environmental concerns. However, these objections pale in comparison to the anxieties of some local residents of Vermillion Parish wondering whether the new “multicultural” high income transplants who might move into their communities could upset the “balance”—as it was referred to in (at least) one public forum last week. “Multicultural invaders”, they have been so labeled, a curious moniker for the potential influx of hundreds of high-tech workers to build and operate the $100 billion ‘Starbase Louisiana’ project. “Outsiders” overtaking their small Cajun communities, some locals have gushed, hiding behind concerns that highly paid SpaceX employees could boost housing costs in the greater Abbeyville and that new schools may need to be built to handle the influx of children. More than a few area-locals even have uttered that their community will not “look” the same. Ironically, much of the Vermillion Parish region has lingered in an economic depression for decades, effectively since the oil boom of the 1970s. Small towns thoughout have watched their young people depart, year after year, not just for major cities in this state, but economic opportunities elsewhere across the US. Until recently, the local school board members worried about closing schools due to lack of potential pupils— a frequent challenge their colleagues have faced across Louisiana. It almost seems farce, then, to read social media posts complaining that highly paid potential employees of SpaceX might displace local school children and swallow up housing in the South Louisiana Parish. Opponents of the proposed launch facility actually view in-migration as a bigger problem than many other legitimate questions— including the potential environmental impact of pillars of fire. The Acadian majority of Vermillion Parish might wish to remember that 260 years ago, they themselves formed the massive influx of new settlers displacing the millennias-old cultures populating the wetlands, and these Cajun pioneers entered Louisiana with a five-year guaranteed subsidy paid by the Spanish crown as a means to displace and tame those native tribes. In fairness, Cajuns themselves were the original victims of ethnic cleansing, and they rebuilt their once-Nova Scotian society into a key thread the cultural fabric of Louisiana. Other newcomers can bring their own thread enriching the cultural tapestry as well. For Cajuns to imply otherwise displays an extreme degree of historical hypocrisy— as such cultural chauvinism would for most Americans. Nearly everyone was a newcomer to this continent, after all. The current ones are not just all white. How igniting rocket launches could affect wetlands does constitute a reasonable concern, though. SpaceX’s sonic booms so bothered communities in Cameron County, Texas, that locals there actually filed a lawsuit against the company. That could not happen here, thanks to Louisiana Act 874. Effective June 8, 2026 and passed at Governor Jeff Landry’s behest, the new law shields aerospace companies from liability, stating, “If an aerospace company owns and occupies at least 20,000 contiguous acres in Louisiana, it generally cannot be held liable for claims based on disturbances from aerospace activities.” The legislation’s stated categories include Noise & Sonic Booms, Vibration, Light, Heat, Exhaust & Smoke, Odors, Visual intrusion, as well as Temporary access restrictions or "any other disturbance" resulting from aerospace activities. It suffices to say, Act 874 defines "aerospace activities" very broadly. Nonetheless, that does not automatically mean that the environmental impact of rocket launches constitute more of a negative impact than the existing oil platforms which dot the marshes across Vermilion Parish. Similar fiery takeoffs at the NASA facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida over the last 70 years (which contains a comparable open amount of marshland, soil, and habitat very similar to Pecan Island) has done little to stop the (unintended) creation of one of the largest bird sanctuaries in the United States. Legal mandates which prevent construction near to launch platforms, cording off more than 10,000 acres of undeveloped marshlands, has actually positively impacted the numbers of many native Florida species. Similar development restrictions in the Pelican State could achieve the same. Interestingly, in whatever other ways Elon Musk’s MAGA politics might disagree with some, dollars and cents do create strange environmental allies. One of the first comments out of Musk's mouth as Starbase Louisiana was announced was that his first priority was to shore up the disappearing coastline. “Because of course it is,” the trillionaire exclaimed. “Building Starbase along the Vermilion Parish coast means there is now a $100 billion asset which needs to be protected. I mention this because there is a contingent out there - I wouldn't call them large by any means, but they're loud - of people who style themselves as environmentalists and stewards of the marshland in Vermilion Parish absolutely bawling and caterwauling about SpaceX locating at this site. And these people need to be answered as loudly as they're screaming." Of course, Musk forgot to mention that his Starbase launch facility near Boca Chica, Texas engaged in a Clean Water Act battle with its neighbors. One part of Starship operations involves a water-deluge system beneath the launch pad. The system releases large amounts of water to help manage the tremendous heat and energy generated during launches. Federal Aviation Administration documents state that the EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality determined that SpaceX's deluge-water discharges into the surrounding wetlands required an individual Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. SpaceX had previously operated under a different system, and while a subsequent agreement was reached, and the runoff mostly controlled, environmentalists continue to worry about the negative water intrusion into South Texas marshlands. Still, the economic impact of a ‘Starbase’ on Pecan Island, could revolutionize the economy of that area, especially if “new people” move to Vermilion Parish. The"spaceport" is more than just a launch pad, after all. The proposed "Chopsticks" Tower would stand 470-foot high, a massive steel structure designed to catch returning boosters mid-air. The nearby Starfactory would occupy a million-square-foot manufacturing facility creating permanent, high-wage jobs for technicians, welders, and engineers. In the end, this state’s geography, aka the ‘boot’ of Louisiana, attracted Elon Musk’s company to invest. He needed our land jutting out into the Gulf. Pecan Island offers proximity to the equator as well as clear flight paths over the water, allowing Louisiana to position itself as a global player in the new space economy, with high paying jobs not involving petroleum, fracking, or pipelines. Louisiana must vigilantly protect the environment, but slamming the door on new residents amidst prosperity runs against every tradition – Cajun and American.
