Is anything outside of politics, anymore, or does every human activity fall into the sinkhole of partisan speech policing? After a year and a half of legal combat, we just got an important answer in California. Good news: The commissariat is sorry.
Sending a growing number of satellites into orbit by way of a growing number of rocket launches, the Elon Musk-run Space X asked in 2024 to increase its launch frequency at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a launchpad-heavy military post on a magnificent piece of coastline in northwestern Santa Barbara County. Space X and the Space Force required approval from a series of government agencies, including the California Coastal Commission (CCC).
The CCC was established by a ballot measure in 1972, and it enforces the state’s Coastal Act of 1976. In theory, that means that the commission protects the coastal environment from pollution and overdevelopment, ensures public access to the ocean and beaches, and a series of other preservationist mandates. But there have been many controversies over the limits of the commission’s power, and especially over the balance between state and local control of development. The CCC keeps outgrowing its statutory authority, a story you’ve maybe heard before about government agencies.
In 2024, the Department of the Air Force (which includes the Space Force) asked the CCC for permission to increase launch frequency at Vandenberg. You can watch the whole very long commission discussion here. It started with purely environmental questions about topics like pinniped reproduction and the habitat of the snowy plover.
Then things got weird.
Elon Musk stood next to Donald Trump. He was “tweeting political falsehoods.” He was normalizing MAGA. He “made it clear what his point of view is.” He holds “bigoted beliefs against California’s safeguards and protections of our transgendered community.” The California Coastal Commission, discussing a regulatory matter involving the California coast, turned away from the topic and made it quite clear that their decision would center on political speech, voting to refuse approval of more launches by a mean MAGA space CEO.
Even the New York Times managed to notice, burying this paragraph near the end of a story that pretended to focus on environmental concerns: “Commissioner Gretchen Newsom, who is not related to Gov. Gavin Newsom, criticized Mr. Musk’s recent comments on the federal government’s hurricane response and painted him as a profiteer hungry for government support while maintaining a poor record of labor and safety violations at his space company.”
How can we let you launch more rockets if you’re openly acting like some Republican?
By the way, if you’re wondering what qualified the former Commissioner Gretchen Newsom to control space launches on the California coastline as a state environmental regulator, her professional background is that she’s a labor organizer who does government affairs for the IBEW.
The CCC made its decision on October 10, 2024. Space X sued on October 15.
On Tuesday, a settlement agreement between SpaceX and the CCC was filed in federal court. You can read it here. In that agreement, the commission remarkably “affirms that its function is to protect and enhance California’s coastal zone,” agreeing that it should stick to its actual job.
“The Commission agrees that it may not consider irrelevant factors in performing its function and specifically agrees that it will not take into account the perceived political beliefs, political speech, or labor practices of SpaceX or its officers inconsidering any regulatory action concerning SpaceX,” the agreement adds. “The Commission acknowledges that Commissioners made statements, including during their October 10, 2024, hearing on the Base’s Falcon 9 launch program, that showed political bias against SpaceX and its Chief Executive Officer and were improper. The Commission apologizes for those statements, as set forth in the signed letter attached as Exhibit C.”
The commission also agreed, as a term of the settlement, that state coastal permits are no longer required for “any aspect of SpaceX’s launch program … within Federal Enclave Areas.”
Vandenberg can now launch more SpaceX rockets without asking the state. Attacking Musk for his politics, the commission permanently reduced the scope of its own power.
It’s only one victory, but California’s clown act political commissars have been forced to admit that they aren’t actually the thought police.
