Republican critics were furious after the Federal Communications Commission rejected nearly $900 million in subsidies for Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service, calling it a revenge move by the Biden administration. did.
Musk’s SpaceX was appealing a 2022 FCC move that denied the company access to about $886 million in subsidies as part of a government program to boost rural internet service. .
The five-member FCC, led by Democratic-appointed Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, affirmed the decision on Tuesday, finding that Starlink “has failed to demonstrate that it can deliver its promised services.”
republican party FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr objects. In the decision, Musk claimed that “President Biden has given the green light to federal agencies” after the billionaire bought Twitter for $44 billion last year.
In August, the Department of Justice sued SpaceX, accusing it of discriminating against refugees and asylees in its hiring practices. SpaceX fired back, arguing that the federal government’s lawsuit is unconstitutional.
Kerr said the FCC’s denial of the subsidy “certainly falls within the Biden administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment.”
Another Republican, Nathan Symington, agreed with Kerr and argued that his colleagues at the FCC improperly set SpaceX’s 2025 performance standards three years early.
“What’s the point in having an agreement to build service by 2025 if the FCC can keep it there until 2022 on a whim?” Symington said.
When the FCC initially denied SpaceX’s grant application, Musk’s company had already won approval to provide satellite-based, high-speed broadband Internet service to about 642,000 rural locations in 35 U.S. states. Was. At the time, Rosenworcel expressed concern that Starlink’s internet was not reaching the “promised speeds.”
The agency this week cited some of its concerns over the recent failure of SpaceX’s Starship, which exploded shortly after liftoff last month.
“After a careful legal, technical and policy review, the FCC has determined that this applicant will be eligible for approximately $900 million in Universal Service Funds over approximately 10 years,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. We judged that the burden was not fulfilled.”
Musk personally slammed the FCC’s decision, writing to X that Starlink is “the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale!”
“What actually happened was that the companies that lobbied for this large allocation (not us) thought they were going to win, but instead they lost to Starlink. So now they’re changing the rules so that SpaceX can’t compete,” Musk said.
Musk has frequently clashed with the Biden administration since President Biden took office in 2020. The billionaire called Biden a “wet-sock puppet” and accused the president of disrespecting Tesla despite the company’s leading role in the development of electric cars. The government will support you.
Meanwhile, Musk’s business faces multiple federal investigations, including an ongoing investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into the company’s Autopilot self-driving assist technology.
Tesla on Wednesday announced a major recall of 2 million vehicles over concerns that the vehicles lacked adequate safety features to “prevent driver misuse.”
Source: nypost.com
