California’s Democrat-dominated state government has apologized to billionaire businessman and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk for allowing members of the state’s Coastal Commission to attempt to use their regulatory powers to potentially hamper SpaceX launch activities in the state and punish Musk and his company over Musk’s political speech.
Musk and the California Coastal Commission filed a settlement agreement in Los Angeles federal court to resolve a legal action dating back to 2024. The case was dismissed April 17.
In 2024, Musk and his company, SpaceX, filed suit against the CCC, saying the Commission was illegally allowing politics to dictate how they were applying the law and regulations governing SpaceX rocket launches and other activity out of Vandenberg Space Force Base along the Pacific Coast in Santa Barbara County.
As part of the settlement, the Commission specifically issued a written apology to Musk and SpaceX, saying, in part:
“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 in considering any regulatory action concerning SpaceX. 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 CEO and were improper. The Commission apologizes for those statements…”
The lawsuit centered on comments made by several Coastal Commission members, disparaging Musk over his support for Republican causes and President Donald Trump during an official Commission meeting. At that meeting, the Commission voted 6-4 to reject requests from SpaceX to increase the number of rocket launches from Vandenberg.
While the U.S. Air Force later overrode the Commission on the matter, Musk and SpaceX filed suit over the Commission’s “shocking” decision to at least appear to take the political beliefs of an applicant into consideration when debating a regulatory request.
According to published reports, some of the comments, which were captured on video at the 2024 meeting, came from CCC Commissioner and Humboldt County Supervisor Mike Wilson, who said: “This company is owned by the richest person in the world with direct control over what could be the most extensive global communication system on the planet.
“And just last week, that person was speaking about political retribution on a national stage. And it was very glib and but yet he was standing next to a person [Donald Trump], a candidate that openly promotes and is working to normalize that language, right?”
Other commissioners also expressed political bias against Musk.
CCC Chair Caryl Hart, for instance, noted Musk had “aggressively injected himself into the presidential race.”
And Commissioner Gretchen Newsom criticized Musk for “hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods,” while calling out Musk’s political social media posts critical of the Biden administration.
The members of the Coastal Commission have been appointed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s legislative leaders.
According to published reports, despite the apology and declaration that commissioners violated Musk’s rights to fair consideration devoid of bias based on political beliefs and speech, a spokesperson for the Commission asserted the Commission would still oppose any new rocket launch activity by SpaceX at Vandenberg, citing concerns of environmental risk and harm.
