My thoughts on the Subject
Some time ago Elon Musk said that the permitting process for his projects was very difficult. I can relate. Government is in the business of saying NO, that's what they do. Jumping thru all the hoops and overcoming all the obstacles that government puts in your path is more difficult that doing the job. That was my experience as a heavy haul trucker. The easy part was doing the job...the hard part was keeping all of the infinite government bureaucrats happy.
In fact I once had a police officer tell me that us heavy haul truckers were getting TOO good at following the rules. He said they'd have to change them so that we'd break some laws. Oddly enough that's exactly what happened.
But I digress.
It occurs to me that 'offshore'...oh...a few miles...maybe ten or twenty...perhaps further...there are quite a few LESS zoneing laws. It seems to me that outside of the jurisdiction of a city, a county, perhaps even the state...there are a whole lot LESS hoops to jump thru.
Not only that..but there's all that water...just sitting there....and sunlight.
The world’s largest floating solar farm is producing energy
The chinese are already producing energy from floating solar panels. What's to stop Elon musk from providing solar power to his semi-ballistic launch/landing barges. I bet Elon knows just the guy to provide him with Solar Panels...
One of his many companies makes them
Imagine that.
There's an odd thing about water. It's not called H2O for nothing. Water is the ash of the combustion of Hydrogen and Oxygen.
All it takes is a little bit of electricity to electrolyze water
then you have Hydrogen and Oxygen... (and some other stuff...who know how valuable THAT might be?)
All that water...all that sunlight...doesn't cost him anything to make his rocket fuel....outside of the jurisdiction of those pesky government officials..
So MANY wins!