Elon Musk Wants To Drill For Texas Natural Gas To Power SpaceX Starship

Elon Musk is aiming to drill gas wells in South Texas to make its own fuel and electricity to power its Starship spacecraft, Bloomberg has reported. 

What Happened: According to Bloomberg, Musk's space company SpaceX is looking to drill wells close to the company's Boca Chica, Texas, launchpad that previously hosted prototype launches for the company. The Texas SpaceX site will be supplied by at least five nearby gas wells, along with two gas-fired power plants.

However, these plans are on hold due to a legal dispute between the SpaceX subsidiary Lone Star Mineral Development and Dallas Petroleum Group, which claims ownership of some inactive wells sitting on the same land.

Why It Matters: Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Musk has long advocated renewable energy and electric vehicles as the keys to staving off a climate crisis. Musk said he ultimately aims to extract carbon from the atmosphere to produce fuel, but no such technology exists yet.

But producing his own natural gas also fits with another Musk theme, that of vertical integration and control. Doing it this way would allow him to bypass third parties, Bloomberg noted.

Image courtesy SpaceX.