SpaceX executive Elon Musk took aim at the Federal Communications Commission by claiming that it could have “saved lives” in Hurricane Helene if it had not rejected an $886 million award to Starlink last year.

“Had the FCC not illegally revoked the SpaceX Starlink award, it would probably have saved lives in North Carolina,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X on Wednesday.

He added, “Lawfare costs lives.”

Communications infrastructure were severely impacted by the hurricane’s damage. On Monday, Biden Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was pressed with criticism.

Mayorkas said they were deploying communications resources “as quickly as possible” and then claimed that climate change was causing the “severity and frequency of extreme weather.”

The communications resources were announced by Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall on Monday, noting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would “install 30 Starlink receivers in western North Carolina to provide immediate connectivity for those in greatest need.”

On Tuesday, SpaceX began offering residents impacted by the hurricane one month of free access to their Starlink satellite internet service. Rescuers, including Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), began delivering Starlink systems and supplies to hurricane victims.

Musk was openly critical this week about the FCC denying millions last year in a vote that could have helped enable Starlink to have already been active prior to the devastating storm in providing communications to impacted rural areas.

FCC denied Starlink the funding last year over doubts in the company supplying fast enough speeds.

One of the FCC commissioners called out the 2023 vote as “political” in his dissent of their decision.

“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,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote at the time.

FCC reportedly rejected the claims that their Starlink vote was “politically motivated.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“The FCC is an independent agency. Any notion that its decisions are politically motivated and not fact-based is false. In this instance, the agency denied public funds to more than a dozen companies—not just Starlink—who did not meet the program requirements,” an agency spokesperson said to PCMag.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the FCC for comment about Musk’s statements.