Inside Elon Musk's Stellar Year at the Texas Capitol
hubie writes:
Musk is now not only one of the richest people in the world, who, until recently, was a key member of President Donald Trump's second administration, but he's also become one of the most powerful business and political figures in the state.
During this year's legislative session, Musk's lobbyists and representatives publicly advocated for almost a dozen bills that would benefit his companies. The Texas Newsroom identified these priorities by searching legislative records for committee testimony and other evidence of his public stances.
Musk wanted legislators to pass new laws that would make it faster and easier for homeowners to install backup power generators, like the kind Tesla makes, on their properties. He wanted them to create new crimes so people who fly drones or interfere with operations at his rocket company SpaceX can be arrested. And he wanted to change who controlled the highway and public beach near SpaceX's South Texas site so he can launch his rockets according to his timeline.
Musk got them all.
In a Capitol where the vast majority of bills fail to pass, all but three of Musk's public priorities will become law. The two bills his lobbyists openly opposed are dead, including a measure that would have regulated autonomous vehicles.
[...] Critics said these new laws will hand Musk's companies more cash, more power and more protection from scrutiny as his business footprint continues to expand across Texas.
"The real harm is the influence of a private company on the decisions made by government," Cyrus Reed, the conservation director for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter, told The Texas Newsroom. The Sierra Club is part of a group suing the state over SpaceX's activities in South Texas.
[...] Texas politics, with its long history of outsize characters, has never seen the likes of Musk, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.
"Even in the heyday of the [George W.] Bush era, you couldn't find somebody who had such dramatic wealth as Musk, who also had the same level of access and business interests here in Texas," Jones told The Texas Newsroom. "Today, Elon Musk is arguably the most powerful and influential private citizen in the country."
[...] Legislators also passed two more new laws that will shield companies like SpaceX from public scrutiny and legal challenges.
One will exempt certain military and aerospace issues from public meetings laws, allowing elected officials in some cases to discuss these topics behind closed doors. The proposal was so concerning to residents who live close to SpaceX's facility near Waco, where locals say the company's rocket testing has spooked livestock and damaged homes, that they submitted a dozen comments against it.
This law went into effect on May 15.
Another new law will make it harder for crew members and certain other employees to sue space flight companies. This, like most new legislation approved this session, will become law on Sept. 1.
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