Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa told reporters Thursday that she had requested a postponement of any action on the potential sale of Boca Chica State Park to Elon Musk’s SpaceX until after she takes office in January.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission was slated to discuss the possible sale of the state park to SpaceX on Thursday. Texas Monthly first reported on the proposed deal last month. However, the agenda item was removed at Hinojosa’s request, she said.
“It’s such an important resource,” Hinojosa said of the state park. “The Valley is so important to me as the place I am from, and I will never forget it.”
According to Texas Monthly, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is considering selling about 1,300 acres of Boca Chica State Park in Cameron County to SpaceX so Musk can expand his adjacent Starbase rocket facility.
Word of the possible sale sparked outrage among environmentalists. With Hinojosa now poised to take power in January, many of Musk’s plans for the Lone Star State appear to hang in the balance.
Musk moved the headquarters of several of his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, X and The Boring Company, to Texas, in part to escape Democratic policies in California. Even so, Hinojosa said she’s still open to doing business with Musk, but only on terms acceptable to her administration and Texans.
“We can have a strong working relationship with Elon Musk and his companies, but it has to be on our terms,” she said during a CNN appearance with Jake Tapper on Thursday. “It cannot be just running over the people of Texas, and that’s what changes now that I will be governor.”
Hinojosa’s rebuke of Musk comes after the billionaire dumped nearly $200 million into a right-wing political action committee to prop up U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton and other Republicans down the ballot.
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