The 477 acres near Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge – Bahia Grande Unit, shown in purple, could be given to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In return, TPWD would give 43 acres in Boca Chica, shown in red, to SpaceX so it could expand its footprint.
A large sheet of metal is pictured in a mudflat nearly three-quarters of a mile northwest of the SpaceX launch pad in Boca Chica on April 22, 2023.
A person looks at a SpaceX launch facility two days after the inaugural flight test of the combined Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft on April 22, 2023, in Boca Chica.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A on Jan. 18 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Elon Musk and the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in 2018.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station lifts off from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 26, 2023.
Billionaires tend to look out for one another, so it’s no surprise Houston’s richest man is helping Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest Texan, acquire sensitive state parkland to expand SpaceX.
Oil and gas billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand wants to trade 43 acres of Boca Chica State Park to Musk’s SpaceX in return for 477 acres of privately owned land connected to the nearby Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Sounds like a good deal, right?
No, because the 477 acres of land were already slated for conservation, my colleague Andrea Leinfelder uncovered. If Hildebrand pushes through the deal, as he’s pledged, Texans will see no net gain of conserved acres.
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How did an oil billionaire obtain the authority to make a sweetheart deal with a tech billionaire to decimate a state park? Campaign donations to Gov. Greg Abbott, of course.
Hildebrand is the co-founder of Hilcorp Energy Co. and the 51st richest person in the United States with $13.7 billion, according to Forbes. Hilcorp is one of the nation’s largest privately owned oil and gas companies.
For more than 20 years, Republican politicians have relied on Hildebrand for hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Governors have rewarded him with official appointments. After giving to Rick Perry’s gubernatorial campaign, the governor appointed him to the University of Texas Board of Regents in 2013.
In 2022, Hildebrand was the seventh-largest political donor in Texas, giving $1.97 million almost entirely to Republican candidates and committees, the Austin American-Statesman reported. He and his wife Mindy gave Gov. Greg Abbott $750,000 for his 2022 re-election campaign.
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Abbott appointed Hildebrand to chair the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in August 2023, presumably because fossil fuel executives have such a great environmental track record.
Musk chose the hamlet of Boca Chica, at the tip of Texas, to become his Starbase in 2014. SpaceX built a launch pad near the beach where Texas Parks and Wildlife opened a park in 1994. The state park land is part of the federally-managed Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Now that SpaceX is expanding Starbase to launch the world’s most powerful rocket, Musk wants to acquire 43 acres of parkland from the state. But with local opposition to Starbase growing, the company needed to make a sweet offer.
SpaceX identified 477 acres northwest of the launchpad sandwiched between the villages of Laguna Heights and Laguna Vista along East Ocean Boulevard The land extends south to the shore of Laguna Larga. (A confusing cluster of lagunas down there.)
Texas Parks and Wildlife staff recommended the trade, saying: “This acquisition will provide increased public recreational opportunities including hiking, camping, water recreation and wildlife viewing, and allow for greater conservation of sensitive habitats for wintering and migratory birds.”
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Not so fast, said Cameron County officials and the Sierra Club. Landowner Conservation Equity Management was already preserving the land to sell environmental credits to companies needing to offset their destruction of wetlands, streams or endangered species’ habitats elsewhere.
County officials and the Conservation Fund’s Texas office were in advanced talks with CEM to buy the parcel when SpaceX apparently swept in, Commissioner David Garza told Leinfelder.
“They didn’t have the courtesy to let us know what they were trying to do,” he said. “Neither SpaceX, who is our corporate responsible partner in Cameron County, nor Texas Parks and Wildlife.”
Musk’s companies do not respond to requests for comment.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, which Hildebrand chairs, was supposed to vote on Jan. 25. But after 1,039 people posted comments opposing the swap, with only 263 in support, the commission took the item off the meeting agenda.
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Hildebrand said he expects the commission to approve the deal ultimately. The next meeting is March 27.
“The land exchange is an extremely valuable opportunity to the department and the state of Texas to provide more recreational opportunities to the public,” he said. “I am committed to moving this process forward and completing the transaction.”
Hildebrand claims the deal is a gain for Texas conservation, though simple math suggests otherwise. The state’s higher priority appears to be moving out of Musk’s way.
Abbott once bragged about talking to Musk once a week. The tech billionaire moved Tesla’s headquarters to Austin, and the governor hopes he’ll move SpaceX and Twitter, now called X, too. After a Delaware judge threw out his $55 billion pay package, Musk hinted he would reincorporate Tesla in Texas.
Because with friends like Abbott and Hildebrand, who needs to worry about the public interest or the rule of law?
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Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonhchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.
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