On Wednesday, environmental groups and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas filed a federal lawsuit to halt a land swap deal between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and SpaceX.
The approved exchange gives Elon Musk’s rocket company 715 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in return for 477 acres of private land. Plaintiffs argue the deal threatens the habitat of endangered species like the ocelot and violates indigenous cultural heritage by allowing industrial expansion on sacred coastal lands. Federal officials defend the swap as a net gain for conservation, claiming the acquired private land is of higher ecological value than the parcels given to SpaceX.
The lawsuit seeks to void the transfer just as Musk is reportedly preparing for a historic trillion-dollar IPO for the aerospace giant.
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