Environmental Concerns over Executive Order 14335

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In August 2025, President Trump supported a proposed rule change under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would expedite the environmental review process for rocket launches by signing the executive order “Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry” and waiving 13 federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act, parts of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.

Photo by Chandan Khanna on Getty Images, CNBC

Even though the FAA administrator Bryan Bedford, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Jess Bezo’s Blue Origin have applauded this recent move since it removed the previous regulatory red tape, Brett Hardl from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has criticized it, citing that there has already been real environmental damage “from the exploding rocket toys of the super-rich” in Texas’ protected natural areas. Even more alarming are SpaceX and FAA’s plans to significantly expand their rocket activities to about 10,000 rocket launches annually within the next 5 years to make America more competitive against China.

Despite the CBD and NAACP’s unsuccessful lawsuits against Musk and the FAA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is still accepting formal comments from the general public here regarding whether or not passing the Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry executive order justifies significantly poorer water and air quality and the possible extinction of certain endangered species until August 31, 2026.