Florida's Sneaky Business Tactics
Kennedy: Florida snipes at Virginia’s launch market competition, Richmond Times DIspatch
“Virginia would never use an environmental study to seek to undermine the recently announced $38 billion American taxpayer-funded civil space rocket booster to launch from Florida’s coast. The Space Florida effort is an abuse of federal environmental law process. Worse still, by seeking to deprive Virginia of space business investment and jobs, Space Florida makes clear its desire to establish a monopolistic space launch practice, thereby increasing costs. America needs business competition — now more than ever. … It is wrong for Space Florida to gain billions of dollars in federal civil space contracts while begrudging Virginia’s right to secure commercial space launch jobs for the Eastern Shore facilities. It is wrong for Florida to seek hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance its space launch facilities while seeking to deny Virginia any small measure of opportunity.”
Letter From Space Florida To NASA Regarding WFF Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
“Enhancing the capabilities of WFF to allow NASA greater collaboration with other federal agencies is commendable and is to be encouraged. However, the potential development by NASA of not only duplicative, but also competing, launch infrastructure for orbital human spaceflight, funded in part by our tax dollars, gives the State of Florida standing in this federal process.”
Letter From Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast To NASA Regarding WFF Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
“The most pressing issue for the Florida workforce is the sense of betrayal that their tax dollars might be used in establishing a competing orbital human spaceflight launch capability in another state when they have so well and ably done the job here in Florida. It is recognized that commercial human spaceflight launch capabilities will arise throughout the country and elsewhere over time, but it makes no sense for NASA to be making such an investment.”
Keith’s note: It is blatantly obvious that Florida’s space community is hijacking the intent of an Environmental Impact Statement to inject local and national politics and complaints that have nothing to do with environmental impact. Do these Florida-based organizations issue press releases about these letters? No. Do they post them on their own websites? No. Why? Becuase they know that this is a sneaky, somewhat slimy way to do things.
– NASA Assessing Environmental Impacts for Wallops Flight Facility’s Potential Future Operations
– Site-wide Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for expanding operations at Wallops’s Flight Facility (WFF)
