Is this true. I thought Musk was against fossil fuels

[ThomasD]

• Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to drill for natural gas in Texas, according to Bloomberg.
  
  
• SpaceX is looking to drill wells close to the company's Boca Chica launchpad.
  
  
• Musk, who recently moved to Texas, launches some of his rockets and is also building a battery factory in the state.
  
  
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  

Elon Musk, who recently relocated to Texas, now reportedly has plans to to drill for natural gas there, too.

SpaceX, Musk's space company, is looking to drill wells close to the company's Boca Chica, Texas, launchpad, according to Bloomberg. The site in Boca Chica previously hosted prototype launches for the company.

The billionaire's plan was revealed during a recent hearing before the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state's energy regulator, Bloomberg reported.

Read more: Tesla has accused an engineer of downloading about 26,000 sensitive files in his first week


Production plans are on hold due to a legal dispute between the SpaceX subsidiary Lone Star Mineral Development and Dallas Petroleum Group, which claims ownership of some inactive wells sitting on the same land.

Dallas Petroleum Group claims it has ownership of both the wells, as well as surrounding acres, according to Bloomberg.

Although it's unclear what exactly the gas would be used for, Tim George, an attorney representing Lone Star, said at the hearing that SpaceX plans to use the methane it extracts from the ground "in connection with their rocket facility operations," Bloomberg reported.

Insider previously reported that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had moved from California to Texas, a common path for tech CEOs looking to save on state income taxes. He has also said he would relocate Tesla to Nevada and the Lone Star State.

In December, Musk, said the reason behind his move to Texas was so that he could focus on SpaceX's Starship vehicle and Tesla's new Gigafactory.

Musk tweeted on Thursday that he will give $100 million to whoever creates the best carbon-capture technology. Carbon capture could play a major role in President Joe Biden's plans to address climate change, and Musk's comments have suggested that he wants to produce synthetic carbon-neutral rocket fuel to power SpaceX rockets.

Read more: Elon Musk says he will give $100 million to whoever creates the best carbon-capture technology

The surrounding SpaceX land has had little oil and gas development, and nearby there are almost a dozen wells classified as either abandoned or dry holes, Railroad Commission Records show.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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[MXLRplus]

SpaceX runs on kerosene as a propellent right now.
H2 is also a widely used propellent which is from natural gas.
You can make kerosene from natural gas just like you can make diesel and jet fuel. It's labelled as "synthetic diesel" and has a mildly sweet smell, and IIRC has red dye added. I used to pay about 50% more per barrel for syn diesel than conventional diesel. I saw higher HP readings on the syn diesel when used for competition engines.

If you are "EV-Religious" instead of an EV enthusiast, then SpaceX is your enemy, not your friend. It causes quite a paradox on this site.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Elon Musk has (at least) two primary missions:

Tesla: To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy
SpaceX: Making humanity multiplanetary

That doesn't make him "against fossil fuels" even though those two missions might be somewhat in conflict.

Either way, they're both good for humanity.

 

[1965Falcon]

The new raptor engines run on methane (starship) so having access to it on-site means less transportation costs, fuel usage, probably much cheaper also.

In the grand scheme of things, spaceflight uses very little fossil fuel. Like mentioned above, Elon has several goals.

 

[glide]

Lolz @ believing in mission statements that aren’t “we are trying to make as much money as possible”.

No fossil fuels sounds great for Tesla. Not so much for SpaceX. Oh well.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Not to mention, the production and delivery of the raw materials to produce every Tesla car relies on fossil fuels. As well as the trucking and rail transport of those finished cars across the country and the ocean freighters across world (except for the select few units that have been shipped with the Tesla Semi).

Have you ever seen the drone flyovers of the Fremont factory and the hundreds of 18wheeler trailers parked outside with raw materials? They all got there by fossil fuels. How about the electricity that runs the Fremont plant? How much of that is solar/renewable vs. fossil fuels?

Elon has a long way to go to be "against fossil fuels."

 

[Electroman]

I don't have much respect for any author that uses the implied derogatory adjective 'billionaire' to refer to Musk, a term that has no relevance to the concerned subject that is being written. You can stop reading right there, because you know the author is biased.

 

[Electroman]

Not to mention, the production and delivery of the raw materials to produce every Tesla car relies on fossil fuels. As well as the trucking and rail transport of those finished cars across the country and the ocean freighters across world (except for the select few units that have been shipped with the Tesla Semi).

Have you ever seen the drone flyovers of the Fremont factory and the hundreds of 18wheeler trailers parked outside with raw materials? They all got there by fossil fuels. How about the electricity that runs the Fremont plant? How much of that is solar/renewable vs. fossil fuels?

Elon has a long way to go to be "against fossil fuels."

'Against fossil fuels' does not mean you stop using fossil fuels completely immediately . Currently the main source energy for transportation is gasoline and it is necessary evil that will play a part in getting rid of itself.

 

[Electroman]

Tesla has accused an engineer of downloading about 26,000 sensitive files in his first week

Khatilov gave company investigators access to his Dropbox, saying he'd only transferred "a couple personal administrative documents," according to Tesla.

There is zero reason to transfer any files - sensitive or not - to personal accounts. Where I work there is zero tolerance policy on this, and would be fired immediately irrespective of the type of documents or how many were transferred.

 

[jabloomf1230]

A few points. Who knows what tax breaks one gets in TX for gas wells? Second, one can produce hydrogen from natural gas for fuel cells (or just direct NG fuel cells).

 

[HankLloydRight]

'Against fossil fuels' does not mean you stop using fossil fuels completely immediately .

And I didn't say that.

I was simply pointing out that thread title as being not accurate in the least w/r/t Elon Musk. If he really was "against fossil fuels" he would probably try to do everything possible to minimize their use. Clearly he's not.

 

[Electroman]

And I didn't say that.

I was simply pointing out that thread title as being not accurate in the least w/r/t Elon Musk. If he really was "against fossil fuels" he would probably try to do everything possible to minimize their use. Clearly he's not.

He needs Methane (Methalox) to run his rockets. How does it matter if he gets it from some existing well or a new well right next to his launch site. In fact right next to launch site is less carbon intensive. So there is nothing Musk can do to avoid extraction of fossil fuels, unless he stops launching rockets.

You could make the same argument on him flying on his own private flight, when he can take commercial. But for someone like Musk who runs multi corporations across the world, that is not practical.

So I believe he is doing everything meaningfully possible to avoid using fossil fuels.

 

[HankLloydRight]

He needs Methane (Methalox) to run his rockets. How does it matter if he gets it from some existing well or a new well right next to his launch site. In fact right next to launch site is less carbon intensive. So there is nothing Musk can do to avoid extraction of fossil fuels, unless he stops launching rockets.

You could make the same argument on him flying on his own private flight, when he can take commercial. But for someone like Musk who runs multi corporations across the world, that is not practical.

So I believe he is doing everything meaningfully possible to avoid using fossil fuels.

I think glide got it right the first time:

Lolz @ believing in mission statements that aren’t “we are trying to make as much money as possible”.

My final point is that to believe that Musk is "against fossil fuels" is a rather simpleton way to describe his objectives.

 

[GreenT]

I don't have much respect for any author that uses the implied derogatory adjective 'billionaire' to refer to Musk, a term that has no relevance to the concerned subject that is being written. You can stop reading right there, because you know the author is biased.

Which author? The OP here or the BI author?

 

[Electroman]

Which author? The OP here or the BI author?

Obviously the BI author.

 

[not-Martin]

In future, space flight may be severely curtailed as fossil fuel usage becomes borderline criminal, in a more morally advanced society’s eyes. Moon & Mars travel may well be banned

 

[glide]

In future, space flight may be severely curtailed as fossil fuel usage becomes borderline criminal, in a more morally advanced society’s eyes. Moon & Mars travel may well be banned

Does that mean we cannot morally heat our houses as well?

 

[not-Martin]

Does that mean we cannot morally heat our houses as well?

No. That would, by & large, require the absence of a nuclear fusion reactor