Elon Musk vows to sue California panel that cited his political statements when denying SpaceX more rocket launches
Elon Musk threatened to take legal action against Democrat-led California after a state commission cited the Republican-backing mogul’s politics in its decision to reject a request for more frequent SpaceX launches.The billionaire founder of SpaceX, which made history over the weekend when it conducted a successful test flight of its Starship Super Heavy booster rocket, slammed comments made by members of the California Coastal Commission after it denied an annual increase to 50 from 36 of Falcon 9 rocket blast-offs.In a video of Thursday’s meeting, commissioner Gretchen Newsom – no relation to Musk’s nemesis and Democratic Calif.Gov.
Gavin Newsom – expressed concerns over Musk’s political posts on his social media platform X before the committee voted down the request 6-4.“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Gretchen Newsom said.“It appears that rather than prioritizing the welfare of SpaceX employees and the environment, the focus has been on profit maximization.”Commission chair Caryl Hart followed Newsom’s statement by saying: “You could argue that it’s bringing in politics, but this is a political matter to some extent because it involves the US government, it involves the Coastal Commission.” A fuming Musk said the commissioners’ comments were “Incredibly inappropriate.” “What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a ‘coastal commission’ in California!,” he posted on X on Sunday.“Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment.”Musk- who endorsed Donald Trump and attended the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania two weeks ago- remained mum on Monday.The Post has sought comment from the commission.The panel — whose members are appointed jointly by the governor and the legislator — is in charge of protecting the ...