{"id":506463,"date":"2026-10-24T10:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T10:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506463\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T10:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T10:52:11","slug":"trump-administration-will-strip-california-of-coastal-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506463\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration will strip California of coastal protections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In what one environmental law expert described as \u201ca dangerous ultimatum,\u201d the Trump administration said it would strip California of its authority to protect its coastline unless state regulators agreed to more than a dozen \u201ccorrective actions\u201d that would benefit close allies of the White House, according to the draft findings of a controversial federal review. <\/a><\/p>\n

Citing \u201ca pattern of jurisdictional and regulatory overreach,\u201d the 92-page review said California coastal authorities have demonstrated \u201cunjustified hostility and political bias against offshore drilling opportunities, oil and gas projects broadly, and SpaceX\u2019s launch activities.\u201d <\/p>\n

The document, which The Times obtained through a public records request, said future federal funding for the state\u2019s coastal management program has been suspended \u201cunless and until the identified deficiencies are satisfactorily addressed.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the top of the list of corrective actions are demands that the California Coastal Commission meet with SpaceX and \u201cdiscuss any outstanding concerns about political bias and … productive next steps moving forward.\u201d It also directed coastal authorities to discuss \u201cany outstanding concerns about regulatory burden and overreach\u201d with Sable Offshore Corp., a Texas-based oil company that has sought President Trump\u2019s influence<\/a> to bypass state oversight and restart a once-dormant offshore operation off the Santa Barbara coast.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s leading coastal agency must also issue an official statement by January pledging that California \u201cwill not categorically oppose initiatives led by certain entities, or relating to certain industries, such as oil and gas, or involving certain activities, such as offshore drilling,\u201d according to the preliminary findings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Office for Coastal Management.<\/p>\n

Legal experts who reviewed the draft document said they were troubled by the Trump administration\u2019s politicized use of a longstanding federal law known as the Coastal Zone Management Act<\/a>, or CZMA. <\/p>\n

Never before, they said, has the federal government attempted to strip a coastal state of its rights in this way, and the consequences could be far-reaching if the draft findings become final. The action also comes as the president has sought to dismantle clean air policies<\/a>, endangered species protections<\/a> and other landmark environmental regulations that have long drawn the ire of industry and fossil fuel producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis audit is an attack on states\u2019 rights\u2026. What is cloaked as a serious review is a dangerous ultimatum that strikes at the heart of California\u2019s democracy,\u201d said Meg Caldwell, who directed Stanford\u2019s Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program for more than two decades. \u201cThe audit contains a lot of puffery and grievance, but the real goal is to commandeer California\u2019s ocean and coastal governmental system for the Trump administration\u2019s agenda. …The conspicuous questions now are: Where does this stop? Which state is next?\u201d<\/p>\n

The three California agencies charged with implementing the CZMA \u2014 the Coastal Commission, the California State Coastal Conservancy and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission \u2014 have until Nov. 16 to respond to the preliminary findings and corrective actions.<\/p>\n

The Coastal Commission \u2014 which has been inundated in recent weeks with media questions and emergency permit requests amid record-breaking<\/a> flooding from El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> and tropical storms<\/a> \u2014 is reviewing the draft findings. Spokesperson Joshua Smith declined to say at this time whether the commission would accept the list of corrective actions laid out by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission was disappointed to receive this draft evaluation given our long history of stellar reviews from the federal government and a 50-year track record of a successful federal partnership, where 96% of the time the commission either approves projects as submitted or negotiates improvements so they can move forward,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Smith added that the commission had requested a 15-day extension beyond the Nov. 16 deadline, \u201cas allowed for in the CZMA regulations, to respond as thoroughly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government will then issue its final determinations, and what happens next will be unexplored legal territory. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a five-alarm warning to every job and industry that relies on our sandy beaches and beautiful bluffs for its livelihood,\u201d said U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has condemned<\/a> the Trump administration\u2019s use of the CZMA as \u201cblatantly illegal\u201d and politically motivated. \u201cSoon, you too could see your environment for sale to Big Oil, Elon Musk, and any other high bidder that buys its way into the White House ballroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the last five decades, the CZMA has been celebrated as a bipartisan co-management framework that gave coastal and Great Lakes states the power to review and object to federal projects that affect their shorelines. Under the law, each state can create its own guiding principles on how to oversee its coast, and federal officials must honor this state coastal management plan once it\u2019s certified.<\/p>\n

Performance reviews under the CZMA are not uncommon \u2014 most states are subject to a routine review every five to 10 years \u2014 but what\u2019s unusual in this case is that California had just undergone a review during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

A draft of that review, which was completed in 2024 but not finalized, gave top marks to the state.<\/p>\n

Tensions escalated earlier this year when U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced<\/a> that he was ordering a fresh evaluation<\/a> of California\u2019s CZMA compliance using a \u201cnew approach\u201d that would take offshore oil production, pipeline maintenance, spaceport infrastructure, desalination projects and undersea cables into consideration, citing national priorities and economic interests.<\/p>\n

More than 23,000 written comments were submitted during the 45-day public comment period this summer, and hundreds of Californians rallied at an August hearing<\/a> in Santa Monica. Surfers, fishers, business owners, real estate brokers, Indigenous leaders, marine scientists and everyday residents lined up for hours to express their support for the state and urged federal officials to set politics aside in their review.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, the decision seems already made,\u201d Maureen Ellenberger, a Santa Barbara resident, said in August to the federal officials conducting the hearing<\/a>. \u201cBut I\u2019m speaking today anyway, so there\u2019s a record. So years from now \u2026 everyone will know we fought, that we did not consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 95% of the public comments supported California\u2019s track record of coastal protection, and a memo attached to the draft findings acknowledged \u201ccertain areas where the performance of the [California Coastal Management Program] is excellent and where California is a national leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of the 23,071 written comments, federal officials considered only 22 to be \u201ccomplex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf those complex comments, approximately 12 expressed concern and\/or disapproval\u201d of California\u2019s coastal management, according to the draft review, which referred to these comments in its recommendations for corrective actions. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome commenters claim that the California Agencies are flatly opposed to offshore oil and gas development and thus do not faithfully consider and weigh the relevant interests as required by the CZMA,\u201d the draft review noted. \u201cSome commenters contend that the California Agencies\u2019 approach to oil and gas activities and spaceport infrastructure projects is a threat to national security.\u201d <\/p>\n

The review also went to notable lengths to call out the Coastal Commission\u2019s handling of whether people can drive ATVs on the beach at Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. But the federal government has little jurisdiction over the issue, which has been a longstanding fight<\/a> between two state agencies over the use of a state beach.<\/p>\n

In a footnote, federal officials listed whom they considered to be \u201cknown interested parties,\u201d and whom they notified directly about this year\u2019s review: \u201cAmerican Petroleum Institute; Chevron Corporation; Torridon Law PLLC; Salt Point Strategies LLC; Meta Platforms, Inc.; Amazon.com, Inc.; Davis Wright Tremaine LLP; Dredging Contractors of America; Covenant Government Affairs; Mesa Water District; Holland & Hart LLP; the United States Bureau of Reclamation; the United States Department of the Interior; the Council on Environmental Quality; the United States Air Force; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade Crowfoot, California\u2019s secretary for natural resources, said the review process was a failure of the public process and called it \u201ca preordained political attack\u201d by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aim of their rigged review is obvious \u2014 to strong-arm California on behalf of oil companies and clear the path for massive new oil drilling off our coast,\u201d Crowfoot said. \u201cThey are already preparing to sell new leases to drill even as they go through the motions of this sham review.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile federal agencies ignore thousands who made their voices heard against this ludicrous attack,\u201d he said, \u201cwe\u2019re standing with Californians to defend our coastal communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what one environmental law expert described as \u201ca dangerous ultimatum,\u201d the Trump administration said it would strip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,1802,152559,8142,195744,169904,152407,132220,5131,17807,48,52,51,47,50,49,8390,15060,225,1695,72],"class_list":["post-506463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-california-coastal-commission","tag-coastal-management-program","tag-comment","tag-corrective-action","tag-czma","tag-development-commission","tag-draft-finding","tag-federal-government","tag-federal-official","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-oil","tag-review","tag-state","tag-trump-administration","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}