Thousands of jobs will bring Space X skeptics around, higher ed leader says

The head of Louisiana’s network of workforce training institutions said the thousands of jobs accompanying the new Space X launch facility in Southwest Louisiana will win over critics who have expressed concerns about the project’s impact on the environment and the immediate community. 

The aerospace company owned by Elon Musk announced plans Tuesday for its $100 billion self-sustaining spaceport in Vermilion Parish near the Pecan Island community, about 50 miles southwest of Lafayette. State officials say it is the largest capital investment in Louisiana history, with estimates for 3,000 permanent jobs at the facility itself — with Musk saying the number could reach 10,000 for the region. 

Richard Nelson, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System, told the state Board of Regents he understood that some people might be hesitant to embrace the space industry because of its perceived impacts. 

“The same people that may be resistant to something new probably support something that’s maybe a lot worse for the area, a lot worse for the environment … But it’s fine because it’s been there forever, and their brother-in-law works there or their son works there. So it’s fine,” Nelson said Wednesday at the Regents’ monthly meeting in Baton Rouge. 

“I think once you start seeing that employment actually go to the people that are there, that’s when it changes their life, and they’re going to get on board with it,” he said. 

SpaceX’s plans to launch thousands of rockets a year from what will be called Starbase Louisiana, which wildlife groups say could place native habitat and hurricane protection at risk.

Locals and environmental advocates are concerned about the development’s environmental impact to an already fragile region. Residents of Pecan Island fear noise, air and water pollution will bring to an end to the culture and livelihoods they have known for generations 

Musk’s company has promised to fund coastal restoration and habitat protection in the Acadiana region, along with an annual $25 million combined payment to Vermilion Parish’s school board, sheriff and police jury for the next quarter-century in the place of property taxes.

Space X is the latest in a series of major projects coming to Louisiana touting numerous high-paying jobs that require specialized training. Nelson’s campus network is expected to provide much of that instruction. 

But the workforce demands have also strained the state’s technical and community colleges to educate enough students to ensure the new jobs go to Louisianians. Many of the companies investing in the state have made donations to the schools that will train their local hires, but most of the cost of these new programs still falls on the institutions themselves. 

“We’re being called upon more and more to be responsive in an immediate time frame,” Kristine Strickland, chancellor of Fletcher Technical Community College, said Tuesday at legislative task force meeting on higher education funding. “We do know that standing up new programs is a more expensive venture than maintaining current programs, and then taking those to scale is even more expensive.”