Author Topic: NIMBY Laws Are Blocking Humanity's Future Among the Stars  (Read 266 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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NIMBY Laws Are Blocking Humanity's Future Among the Stars
« on: November 16, 2022, 01:29:50 am »
Reason by  Christian Britschgi | From the December 2022 issue

The regulations that increase building costs on Earth will have the same effect in space.

This summer, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a 183-page report describing more than 75 actions that SpaceX has to take before launching Starship spacecraft from its launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas. That document is brief compared to the nearly 400-page environmental impact statement that the FAA issued regarding the same launchpad when SpaceX first acquired the site in 2012. Both reports were mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

That 1970 law requires that government agencies study the environmental impact of their actions, whether they are allowing construction of a new highway, permitting a new coal mine, or greenlighting a rocket launch. Over the years, the law has morphed into a progress-blocking behemoth. The average environmental impact statement—the most stringent level of review mandated by NEPA—takes 4.5 years to complete and runs around 661 pages. That's up from 2.2 years and 150 pages in the 1970s.

In SpaceX's case, many of the steps mandated for its Boca Chica site seem tenuously related to protecting the environment. For example, the company must prepare reports on the Mexican-American War and the Civil War, describing events that took place within the area potentially affected by its space launches. It will have to install five signs, in English and Spanish, outlining that history for the public.

More: https://reason.com/2022/11/15/t-minus-183-pages-until-liftoff/

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: NIMBY Laws Are Blocking Humanity's Future Among the Stars
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2022, 03:43:58 am »
Time for an Island somewhere...

If Jeff Ep's old digs were available, the backblast from the launches could be used to eliminate biohazards left over from the previous owner's activities. WIn-win.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis