Musk slams FCC for ‘illegally’ pulling Starlink award in light of Hurricane

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Wednesday said that the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to not move forward with an award for SpaceX’s Starlink to provide rural broadband may have cost lives in North Carolina when it was hit by Hurricane Helene.

Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, responded to a post on X from a user who noted that “North Carolina would have 19,522 working Starlink kits available today after Hurricane Helene had the FCC not revoked in bad faith the grant that was awarded to SpaceX as the winning bidder.”

“Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina,” Musk wrote in his response. “Lawfare costs lives.”

The western part of North Carolina was hit particularly hard by Hurricane Helene, which also brought devastation to other parts of the Southeast after it made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category 4 hurricane. At least 170 people have been confirmed dead in six states — Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee — in what is now the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland.

HELENE DEATH TOLL RISES TO 170 AS BIDEN DEPLOYS 1,000 TROOPS TO ASSIST WITH RESPONSE, RECOVERY EFFORTS

SpaceX’s Starlink, which provides high-speed internet via satellite connections, was awarded $885 million by the FCC in 2020 to help expand high-speed internet access around the country in rural areas. 

The FCC rescinded that initial award in 2022, arguing Starlink wouldn’t be reasonably capable of meeting the program’s requirements, and reaffirmed that decision in December 2023. 

An FCC spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement, “Chairwoman [Jessica] Rosenworcel stands by the FCC’s thorough review of a program meant to provide long-term access to reliable and affordable broadband in rural communities.” 

“In this instance, the agency denied public funds to more than a dozen companies — not just Starlink — who did not meet the program requirements. As an independent agency, the FCC takes seriously its obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to entities that fully comply with the rules and the law,” the FCC statement continued.

‘PARTISAN POLITICS’ IS WHY FCC REVOKED STARLINK’S RURAL INTERNET AWARD SAYS BRENDAN CARR

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has criticized the agency’s decision not to award rural broadband funds to SpaceX, told FOX Business: “There is no question that communities across the country would be in a materially better position today, in terms of connectivity, if the…