At Least 7 US Agencies Have Investigated Elon Musk, What’s Going On?

As background to this story, the FCC awarded Elon Musk’s Starlink $885 million to provide high-speed Internet service to over 640,000 rural homes and businesses across 35 states. The FCC now rescinds the offer.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Car Blasts the FCC, Sides With Musk

Please consider FCC commissioner Brendan Car’s Dissent.

Last year, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and used it to voice his own political and ideological views without a filter, President Biden gave federal agencies a greenlight to go after him. During a press conference at the White House, President Biden stood at a podium adorned with the official seal of the President of the United States, and expressed his view that Elon Musk “is worth being looked at.”

When pressed by a reporter to explain how the government would look into Elon Musk, President Biden remarked: “There’s a lot of ways.” There certainly are. The Department of Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have all initiated investigations into Elon Musk or his businesses. Today, the Federal Communications Commission adds itself to the growing list of administrative agencies that are taking action against Elon Musk’s businesses.

The Commission’s decision today to revoke a 2020 award of $885 million to Elon Musk’s Starlink—an award that Starlink secured after agreeing to provide high-speed Internet service to over 640,000 rural homes and businesses across 35 states—is a decision that cannot be explained by any objective application of law, facts, or policy.

First, the FCC revokes Starlink’s $885 million award by making up an entirely new standard of review that no entity could ever pass and then applying that novel standard to only one entity: Starlink. In particular, FCC law provides that a winning bidder like Starlink must demonstrate that it is “reasonably capable” of fulfilling its end of the bargain that it struck with the FCC back in 2020.

In this case, that means Starlink needed to show that it was more likely than not that Starlink could provide high-speed Internet service (specifically, low-latency, 100/20 Mbps service) to at least 40% of those roughly 640,000 rural premises by December 31, 2025. Starlink did exactly that in a voluminous series of submissions that it filed with the FCC throughout 2021 and 2022. Indeed, the record leaves no doubt that Starlink is reasonably capable of providing qualifying high-speed Internet service to the required number of locations by the end of 2025. The Commission’s decision does not even grapple with that evidence—it simply ignores it.

Second, the FCC’s decision leaves rural communities stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide. As noted above, in exchange for awarding Starlink $885 million back in 2020, the FCC secured a commitment for the delivery of high-speed Internet service to over 642,000 unserved rural homes and businesses across 35 states. By reversing course, the FCC has chosen to vaporize that commitment and replace it with . . . nothing. That’s a decision to leave families waiting on the wrong side of the digital divide when we have the technology to get them high-speed service today.

Third, the FCC’s decision hits Americans in their pocketbooks. To the extent the federal government ever makes another commitment to serve these rural communities, it will cost us orders of magnitude more money to do so. Indeed, while the Commission’s 2020 award secured a deal to bring high-speed service to all of these areas for $885 million in federal support, extending high-speed fiber lines to these same areas will likely cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion based on past bidding patterns and analysis—more once you start accounting for inflation. That is not a good deal for U.S. taxpayers. The problems only compound from there. After all, there is a limited pot of federal infrastructure dollars, and we are now far more likely to exhaust those resources before getting every American connected.

I think it’s obvious to everyone that the Biden Administration itself does not believe that Elon Musk’s Starlink is a risky technology. If it did, you would not have seen the Pentagon ink a multi-million-dollar agreement with SpaceX just weeks ago for a military adaptation of Starlink, known as Starshield, that leverages LEO satellites for a more secure communication network.

But the government continues to take regulatory action against his businesses, nonetheless. In the end, today’s decision mirrors many of the same missteps that the Biden Administration is making in its implementation of other, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure initiatives. The Biden Administration is choosing to prioritize its political and ideological goals at the expense of connecting Americans. We can and should reverse course. Accordingly, I dissent.

How Much Will It Cost Now?

On June 26, the White House released this Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet

Today, the Department of Commerce announced funding for each state, territory and the District of Columbia for high-speed internet infrastructure deployment through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program—a $42.45 billion grant program created in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by the Department of Commerce.

Today’s announcement of BEAD funds is just one component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to ensure that everyone in America has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. In recent weeks, the Administration has announced over $700 million in USDA ReConnect awards, over $900 million in NTIA Middle Mile awards and launched the Online for All campaign to increase ACP enrollment and visibility. Beyond BEAD, billions have already been announced or distributed to all states and territories to build out high-speed internet infrastructure by the Biden-Harris Administration.

The Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF) provides $10 billion to states, territories, and Tribes for which high-speed internet is an eligible use. Today, over $7 billion has already been dedicated to high-speed internet deployment and connectivity across 45 states;

The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) delivered funding across the country to support the response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. About $8 billion is being used by states, territories, Tribes, and local governments for high-speed internet deployment and connectivity; and,
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) $7 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund program helped schools and libraries close the “homework gap,” providing schools and libraries with 10.5 million connected devices and over 5 million internet connections.

Musk agreed to provide high speed interment to 640,000 people for $885 million in federal support. No replacement provider is on deck.

I do not think that covers all rural customers lacking high-speed service, so double or triple that cost if you like.

This brings up the key question: Hey, why spend $885 million to a few billion to provide high speed access by 2025 when you can spend $42.45 billion instead, delivering access by nobody knows when.

$42.45 billion is such a great deal that it will only cost double or triple that by the time the project finishes.

But What about Reparations?

Excellent question, I almost forgot that angle.

High-speed internet is clearly a fundamental right. Those denied their rights deserve reparations to make thing equitable.

I think $5 million each would cover the pain, agony, and unfair suffering. Such reparations would only cost $3.2 trillion.

Why not, given that’s the inflationary path we are on?

Speaking of inflation, please note a A Bipartisan Zeal for Nonsensical Tariffs that Raise Prices and Slow EV Progress.