Quick Take
With a federal plan updating oil and gas drilling rules on Central Coast public lands now open for public comment, attention in Santa Cruz County has turned to whether any local federal lands could be vulnerable to drilling. County officials said Cotoni-Coast Dairies is safe from development for now, but environmentalists remain on guard.
Federal land managers are weighing new rules for oil and gas development along California’s Central Coast, putting Santa Cruz County’s protected lands back in the spotlight and stirring unease among environmental groups and local officials.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) outlining potential updates to leasing policies across 680,000 acres under the jurisdiction of the Central Coast Field Office, which extends from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara. The document is open for public comment through March 6. While Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument is listed in this plan, county officials said it’s unlikely the site could be opened to drilling.
“There’s no chance of it happening” here in Santa Cruz County, said Jason Hoppin, the county’s public information officer. Aside from the unlikelihood of drilling in a national monument, the mineral rights for Cotoni-Coast Dairies — purchased by the Trust for Public Land in 1998, transferred to the BLM to be preserved as a national monument in 2014 and opened for public use last August— remain in private hands, said Hoppin.
The drafted SEIS reflects these realities, noting that this unit is “managed to conserve, protect, and restore the objects and values of the monument, including listed species and their habitats.” The county also has a ban on fracking and lacks the infrastructure necessary to support oil and gas exploration, Hoppin said.
The timing of the announcement recalls the first Trump administration’s plan, beginning in 2019, to increase domestic energy production on public lands. Aligning with “Unleashing American Energy,” the strategy moved to open up Central California land to drilling and fracking, which spurred lawsuits and strong opposition from environmental groups and state officials. Now, the same push is resurfacing.
Local officials emphasize that not all federal lands carry the same potential for drilling. Hoppin said federal planning documents like the SEIS routinely list all federal lands within a region, regardless of whether drilling is legally or practically feasible. “That’s almost certainly why Cotoni-Coast Dairies shows up in the document,” he said. “But it won’t happen here.”
The draft SEIS doesn’t greenlight drilling; instead, it updates the BLM’s framework for assessing potential leases, from strict protections to broader leasing options. While the report finds that oil and gas development would have only minor emissions and limited effect on air quality, public health, water and wildlife, any actual drilling would still require separate, site-specific review. Many lands are already protected by monument designations, conservation easements or retained mineral rights.
Environmental advocate Richard Charter, who’s helping to the opposition to the Trump administration’s push for offshore drilling, echoed Hoppin’s sentiment, but cautioned against ignoring the smaller pieces of federal land that remain scattered throughout Santa Cruz County. “You never know what this administration in Washington might do,” he said. “Any of those lands could potentially be opened to oil and gas under this administration.”
Charter called it “a sleeper issue,” noting that the community’s attention has largely been dominated by offshore drilling battles. “There’s no good reason to be complacent about onshore drilling,” he said.
Environmental organizations say public lands near Pinnacles National Park, Henry W. Coe State Park, Mount Diablo State Park and Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve could be developed for drilling and fracking.
The Surfrider Foundation is still reviewing the draft SEIS internally, and says it plans to submit public comments and organize outreach soon.
After the public comment period closes, the BLM will publish a final version of the SEIS and outline how it plans to manage oil and gas leasing across the region.
The agency is encouraging the public to register and participate in a virtual meeting this Thursday, Jan. 29, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. to discuss the Central Coast project and ask questions.
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