ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of energy. Signal as much as obtain our greatest tales as quickly as they’re revealed.
This text is co-published with The Texas Newsroom, the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune as a part of an initiative to report on how energy is wielded in Texas.
Reporting Highlights
- Behind-the-Scenes Efforts: Rep. Wesley Hunt has spent months making an attempt to get officers to rent Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to construct a serious flood infrastructure undertaking in Houston.
- Measurement Issues: The Boring Co. has pitched constructing tunnels which can be far smaller than what most research have indicated the area would wish to handle its ongoing flooding points.
- Below Consideration: County officers not too long ago put collectively a report taking a look at the potential for smaller tunnels, although they are saying they’ve made no ultimate resolution on design or contractor.
These highlights had been written by the reporters and editors who labored on this story.
The devastating flooding in Houston attributable to Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed dozens of individuals, inundated a whole bunch of 1000’s of houses and left the neighborhood determined for an answer.
Since then, native flood consultants have extensively studied the potential for a multibillion-dollar tunnel system throughout Harris County, the place Houston is situated. Research have centered on the development of pipelines, 30 to 40 toes in diameter, that might ferry large quantities of water out to the Gulf within the occasion of a storm.
Now, after years of analysis and dialogue, Elon Musk desires a chunk of the undertaking.
An investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle has discovered that the billionaire, in partnership with Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt, has spent months aggressively pushing state and native officers to rent Musk’s Boring Co. to construct two narrower, 12-foot tunnels round one main watershed. That could possibly be a probably cheaper, however, at the least one professional mentioned, much less efficient resolution to the area’s historic flooding woes.
Hunt’s staff has mentioned the Boring undertaking would value $760 million and contain the corporate getting 15% of the fee up entrance from state and native coffers.
Inside two months of this push, the Harris County Commissioners Courtroom unanimously voted to review a pilot program that included a take a look at smaller tunnels, with specs much like what Boring had pitched. The commissioners court docket, made up of 5 elected members together with a county decide, oversees the county’s price range.
Each Musk and Hunt stand to profit ought to Boring be chosen to construct any a part of the undertaking. Hunt is reportedly contemplating a problem to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in subsequent 12 months’s Republican Senate major. And touchdown a job like this is able to even be a major win for Boring, which has not accomplished a serious public undertaking in Texas and faces criticisms for its ventures elsewhere.
The discussions in regards to the Boring pitch have occurred largely out of the general public eye. Hunt talked about the undertaking in passing at a city corridor in Houston in February. Since then, he has refused to reply the newsrooms’ questions on when Musk offered him on the thought and why he grew to become its pitchman.
Efforts to achieve Musk and representatives with Boring weren’t returned.
Specialists and a few native officers query whether or not Musk and his firm are the appropriate decide for the job. The Boring Co. has centered on transportation tunnels, not flood mitigation.
“When you construct a smaller tunnel, OK, it’ll be cheaper, however it may carry much less water,” mentioned Larry Dunbar, a veteran water assets engineer who has suggested Houston-area governmental companies on drainage points. “So what have you ever saved? Have you ever lowered the flooding upstream by an inch? And are you going to spend multimillions of {dollars} to do this? Nicely, possibly that’s not value it.”
In response to the newsrooms’ questions, state and native officers mentioned no public cash has been allotted to Boring. County officers added that they haven’t chosen a tunnel contractor and any course of to take action would observe regular procurement guidelines.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose employees met with Hunt’s staff through the legislative session to debate the proposal, stays open to the thought. As president of the Texas Senate with shut ties to President Donald Trump, he’s a robust ally.
“If Elon Musk and the Boring Firm, or another firm, can construct two large tunnels underneath the Houston bayous in just a few years to avoid wasting the town from flooding, I’m all the time going to have an interest to pay attention,” Patrick, a Republican, informed the newsrooms. “The reality is, Elon Musk is likely one of the solely folks on the planet who may accomplish this.”
Credit score:
Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle
The Pitch Course of Begins
In 2022, the Harris County Flood Management District launched findings from its yearslong tunnel examine, which has to date value almost $3 million in native and federal funds.
The thought was to construct eight tunnels, totalling round 130 miles in size, based on the report. The tunnels could be big, large sufficient for a container ship, and buried 40 to 140 toes underground, relying on the placement. Austin and San Antonio have related programs, though on a smaller scale.
The Buffalo Bayou section of the Houston undertaking — which Boring has proposed to construct — is a centerpiece of the design and would run by the town’s core and a few of its most developed neighborhoods. The county estimated it could value $4.6 billion.
The full value for the system was projected to be $30 billion, funded by a possible mixture of federal, state and native {dollars}, and the timeline was 10 to fifteen years to finish development.
Given the scope and complexity of the undertaking, the Military Corps of Engineers has been concerned in discussions in regards to the tunnels for the reason that starting. The corps additionally has jurisdiction over the 2 federal reservoirs within the space.
Eight years after Harvey, nonetheless, the tunnel undertaking has not damaged floor.
Hunt has accused the Military Corps of “dragging their toes a bit bit” as a result of its examine of the tunnel system has been delayed. In December, Congress ordered the Corps to complete the evaluation. Hunt hailed the choice, however so far the Military Corps has not accomplished the examine.
Simply two months later, nonetheless, his staffers and Musk’s staff began buying Boring’s proposal to politicians throughout the state.
Emails, textual content messages and coverage memos the newsrooms obtained by public information requests present Hunt’s chief of employees, James Kyrkanides, repeatedly tried to acquire public cash on behalf of Boring. The paperwork, which haven’t been launched beforehand to the general public, additionally lay out how Hunt labored to safe Musk entry to lawmakers and different officers forward of the formal bidding course of.
Kyrkanides declined to remark for this story.
In February, Boring pitched its proposal to elected officers in Harris County as an “progressive and cost-effective resolution.”
“We’re assured in our potential to execute this undertaking efficiently to convey peace of thoughts to residents of Harris County and the higher Houston space throughout future flood occasions,” Jim Fitzgerald, Boring’s world head of enterprise improvement, wrote in a two-page memo in regards to the proposal addressed to Kyrkanides and shared with native officers.
That very same month, Hunt spoke at a city corridor assembly about his involvement.
“I talked to him” — Musk — “about Hurricane Harvey and the way we want tunnels,” Hunt mentioned, based on Group Affect. “He informed me, ‘I can do this at a fraction of the fee the Military Corps of Engineers would do it.’”
A number of days later, the top of a neighborhood nonprofit wrote to a county commissioner saying she’d heard Hunt and Musk had been buying the proposal round and that the thought could have been mentioned on board the president’s jet.
“I hear that Congressman Hunt talked to Elon Musk about his boring firm whereas on a visit on Airforce 1,” Colleen Gilbert, govt director of the Greens Bayou Coalition, emailed.
It’s unclear if Trump was on board or took half within the discussions. The president’s spokespeople didn’t reply questions in regards to the obvious assembly.
In April, Kyrkanides made an in depth pitch in an electronic mail to Patrick’s employees. He handed alongside Boring’s proposal and instructed that $60 million be put aside within the state price range “that will probably be matched with one other $60 million” from the Harris County Flood Management District as a “down cost for the $760 million undertaking Elon pitched Wesley.”
“I consider the Lt. Gov. spoke with Elon and the Boring Firm this week,” Kyrkanides emailed in Might, a month earlier than the common legislative session wrapped up. “Wesley additionally spoke with Elon, and every little thing appears on monitor!”
Kyrkanides adopted up as soon as extra mid-month: “Something you want from us?”
Pushing for Smaller Tunnels
As they pushed the thought to state lawmakers, Hunt’s staff repeatedly lobbied Harris County officers, reaching out to at the least two commissioners, the county’s legislative liaison and flood management consultants.
Early on, Houston officers had considerations about what Boring proposed.
The 2-page letter from Boring mentioned its tunnels could be “no shallower than 15 toes to 30 toes beneath floor floor,” whereas the county’s earlier analysis proposed a a lot deeper vary for the Buffalo Bayou section.
An engineering professional in County Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s workplace warned that Boring’s shallower plan may intrude with bridge foundations, utility traces and current easements.
“It discusses that the tunnel could be a lot shallower then anticipated,” Eric Heppen, Ramsey’s director of engineering, wrote in an electronic mail to different staffers in his workplace on Feb. 17. “I might shortly affirm if it may be deeper or if that turns into a load problem for the system.”
Boring mentioned in its pitch that the tunnel depth is “versatile,” however the firm didn’t reply to the newsrooms’ query about whether or not it may construct to the requirements outlined within the county’s examine.
Quantity was one other concern. A single 40-foot-wide tunnel can transfer about 12,000 cubic toes of water each second, county research present. Two 12-foot-wide tunnels, laid aspect by aspect, as Boring proposed, would possibly battle to maintain tempo in a flood emergency, based on Dunbar, the veteran water assets engineer.
“One would wish eleven 12-foot diameter tunnels to offer the identical stream capability as one 40-foot diameter tunnel,” he informed the newsrooms. “Offering solely two 12-foot diameter tunnels doesn’t present the stream capability that Harris County or the Corps of Engineers are looking for.”
The county continued to have interaction with the corporate regardless of these considerations.
In March, Scott Elmer, who’s overseen the tunnel examine for the previous few years on the county’s flood management district, reached out to Boring executives to arrange a gathering. Within the following weeks, he and different flood management officers met with Boring engineers at the least twice to debate the specifics of Boring’s capabilities.
Throughout one of many conferences, flood management officers pressed Boring representatives on whether or not the corporate may construct tunnels which can be at the least 20 toes large, based on an agenda shared with attendees by way of electronic mail.
The corporate was reportedly learning the best way to make tunnels as large as 21 toes a number of years in the past. But it surely’s unclear if Boring ever developed that functionality or what it informed county officers about its potential to increase tunnels. On its web site, Boring notes it “maintains the identical tunnel design for all initiatives to keep away from ‘reinventing the wheel’ for each tunnel.”
An April 10 commissioners court docket assembly in Houston was a turning level.
That seems to be the primary time county officers introduced up in public the truth that Hunt had been pitching them on a smaller-scale model of the flood plan they’d studied for years. They referred to this concept as a pilot program that will give attention to only a few sections of a bigger, countywide tunnel system.
Ramsey, the panel’s solely Republican, particularly talked about the pilot program tunnels could possibly be narrower in diameter, as small as 12 toes, and shallower — specs that will match the form of tunnel Boring has usually constructed.
Commissioner Lesley Briones, a Democrat, mentioned a pilot undertaking could assist kick-start an enormous, costly undertaking that the county has struggled to get off the bottom.
Nobody talked about Boring or Musk explicitly till Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, mentioned he’d gotten wind that the tech billionaire may be concerned.
“I’ve heard the entire tales about Elon Musk having a tunneling firm,” Ellis mentioned. “I’ve received fairly good ears. I’ve received good Republican mates, too, now.”
He questioned the pitch, saying he was anxious it could take the county off monitor.
Nevertheless, Ellis and the entire commissioners unanimously voted to supply a white paper learning the thought of a scaled-down pilot undertaking. Additionally they voted to ask the state for flood mitigation funds. The vote didn’t require the county to decide to a selected undertaking.
Later that month, information present the county’s legislative liaison reached out to employees for state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, to point the county’s assist for a $60 million price range rider for “underground flood danger discount programs in Harris County.”
A two-page memo explaining the pilot undertaking included with the request didn’t point out Musk or Boring and nonetheless referenced the bigger 30- to 40-foot tunnels.
Credit score:
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle
What’s in It for Musk’s Allies
Hunt has been a number one voice on the necessity for flood mitigation throughout his brief time in Congress.
Final 12 months, he partnered with Democratic U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher to order the Military Corps of Engineers to maneuver ahead with the underground tunnel examine. The hassle was applauded as a bipartisan victory.
However Fletcher, a Democrat, mentioned she was not concerned in Hunt’s work with Musk on the Boring proposal and has “not heard from anybody advocating for it.” She mentioned she’s labored with Military Corps of Engineers and native communities “on a clear, knowledgeable, community-driven effort to handle water conveyance and flood management in our area.”
A West Level graduate and former Military captain, Hunt has formed a political model that appeals to each GOP insiders and MAGA-leaning voters. He was a daily at Trump marketing campaign occasions in and out of doors Texas and secured a prime-time talking slot on the 2024 Republican Nationwide Conference. He’s the one Black Republican within the Texas congressional delegation.
But when Hunt enters the U.S. Senate race towards Cornyn, he’ll doubtless want a high-profile political win to face out, based on Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor on the College of Houston, as incumbent senators in Texas have received almost each major over the previous few many years.
Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton can also be difficult Cornyn within the major.
Given the risky dynamic between Trump and Musk, aligning with the latter carries political danger but additionally the potential for main reward, Rottinghaus mentioned.
“Hunt actually is well-known sufficient as a member in his district, however the issue is that once you’re in Congress working for a statewide workplace, your base assist can typically be very provincial,” Rottinghaus mentioned. “To associate with Musk would supply for a form of nationwide profile that Hunt would must be profitable.”
Musk has tapped native politicians when pursuing related huge initiatives elsewhere.
In Tennessee, Republican leaders not too long ago introduced that Boring would construct a transit tunnel for vehicles from downtown Nashville to the close by airport. Town’s mayor and different Democratic leaders have raised questions on an absence of transparency, aggressive bidding and environmental planning. At a public assembly in early August, a Boring official mentioned the corporate would search public enter for the undertaking however didn’t reply reporters’ questions on why they’d not but accomplished so, based on the Nashville Banner.
In Las Vegas, the place Boring constructed a transit tunnel system, the corporate was capable of keep away from lots of the prolonged governmental evaluations typical of those sorts of initiatives as a result of it’s privately operated and receives no federal funding, ProPublica beforehand reported.
In 2022, Bloomberg reported the corporate had pitched eight initiatives to Texas officers. Two had been water drainage initiatives in Austin and Houston. Neither seems to have been constructed.
If Boring secures a part of the Houston job, it could seem like the corporate’s first public flood management undertaking. The corporate lists solely transportation-related initiatives on its web site.
Texas legislation requires county governments to open giant public initiatives to aggressive bidding and provides all potential contractors an equal shot underneath the identical situations.
Whereas the legislation doesn’t explicitly bar native officers from discussing initiatives with particular person firms forward of time, that form of early outreach — although widespread in some locations — hasn’t been expressly approved by state courts or the legal professional normal, based on authorized steering from the Texas Municipal League, which offers authorized steering to native authorities officers.
Emily Woodell, the spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Management District, mentioned the company has not shared any delicate data with Boring in regards to the Houston undertaking and solely met with the corporate to know its capabilities.
Ramsey, the county commissioner, informed the newsrooms he believes there’s nothing mistaken with officers entertaining personal pitches earlier than the formal bidding course of begins.
“All firms that may have an curiosity in it, that may perceive and provide us data, actually we’d be open to listening,” Ramsey mentioned.
What’s Subsequent
The way forward for the undertaking, and Musk’s involvement, are nonetheless up within the air.
The state by no means granted Boring the $60 million it needed for the undertaking. Huffman, the senator overseeing the finance committee, confirmed the rider was by no means positioned within the state price range and informed the newsrooms she had nothing to do with the proposal.
“The one involvement my workplace had with this proposal was when Rep. Hunt’s chief of employees reached out to my scheduler to rearrange a gathering between Rep. Hunt and me, but it surely by no means befell,” she mentioned in an announcement.
County officers additionally informed the newsrooms that they haven’t offered any public cash to Musk.
Nevertheless, in June, the Harris County Flood Management District produced the pilot undertaking report that commissioners voted for within the spring, taking a look at a scaled-back model of the unique tunnel design. This white paper proposed specializing in only some segments of the countywide tunnel system and regarded tunnels as small as 10 toes in diameter as an actual choice — effectively inside Boring’s potential to assemble.
The white paper additionally floated the thought of a public-private partnership permitting a non-public agency to design, construct and even run the system afterward, simply as Boring has accomplished elsewhere.
It doesn’t seem that this report has been launched to the general public. The flood management district offered it to the newsrooms upon request.
Carlos Gomez, appearing public affairs chief for the Military Corps of Engineers’ Galveston District, informed the newsrooms he had not heard in regards to the pilot undertaking probably involving The Boring Co. and couldn’t say if his company would have an interest.
After the newsrooms offered them with the findings of this investigation, Briones and Ramsey emphasised they don’t seem to be dedicated to at least one explicit firm and that each one options could be topic to due diligence. Ellis informed the newsrooms that Musk shouldn’t be concerned, calling him “somebody who has proven blatant disregard for democratic establishments and environmental protections.”
Harris County Choose Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia, each Democrats, declined to remark.
Woodell, with the flood management district, mentioned there have been no additional discussions with Boring in months. She mentioned the county has checked out smaller tunnels earlier than however acknowledged that engineering analyses discovered large-diameter tunnels could be the simplest choice for a countywide system. Woodell added the county would possibly nonetheless take into account smaller tunnels in “particular areas.”
“There’ll by no means be a single resolution to flooding in Harris County,” she mentioned.
If Harris County strikes ahead with a smaller-scale undertaking just like the one Hunt desires, which doesn’t depend on federal funding, the method to design and construct it may nonetheless take as much as a decade.
Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice College’s Extreme Storm Prediction, Training and Evacuation from Disasters Heart, mentioned Musk’s slimmer tunnels would possibly nonetheless show helpful. However he warned towards handing a undertaking of this magnitude to a non-public firm with out correct vetting.
“The size of the issue now we have actually calls for, I believe, all of us to be open-minded about concepts,” Blackburn informed the newsrooms. “Invite them in. Simply don’t give them the contract tomorrow.”
Lauren McGaughy is an investigative reporter and editor with The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration amongst NPR and the general public radio stations in Texas. She is predicated at KUT Information in Austin. Attain her at [email protected]. Yilun Cheng is an investigative reporter with the Houston Chronicle. Attain her at [email protected].
