Quick Take
Santa Cruz County elected officials and activists are trying to reopen a playbook that helped safeguard Monterey Bay from offshore drilling in the 1980s. The county, backed by state and federal allies, is working to revive a statewide coalition to stop the Trump administration’s plans to restart oil and gas leases off the California coast by as early as 2027.
Santa Cruz County officials are taking a stand against the Trump administration’s efforts to allow gas and oil drilling off the California coast by pushing to bring back a local government coalition to stop the attempts to lease protected marine sanctuaries to oil companies.
The county has started reaching out to representatives from every coastal town in the state to help reestablish the Outer Continental Shelf Local Government Coordination program — a coalition of cities and counties that collaborated to streamline communication with the federal government on offshore oil and gas development. Humboldt County officials have moved to join Santa Cruz County in the coalition after passing a resolution in opposition to offshore drilling earlier this month.
“We, the citizens of the California coast, will be singing a strong message that we will fight back,” County Supervisor Justin Cummings told a gathering of about 50 community members and elected officials on Wednesday at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. The group included U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, state Sen. John Laird, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and County Supervisor Manu Koenig.
The coalition was first established in 1980 by former county supervisor Gary Patton to fight offshore oil development and continued until 1994, said Cummings. The program at the time was successful in halting offshore drilling and helped establish the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, he said. It also gave local governments across California cost-effective legal, technical and political support to oppose offshore drilling efforts, including lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and launching public awareness campaigns about the issue.
The board of supervisors reaffirmed its commitment to opposing offshore drilling earlier this year, and has since allocated $29,000 to rehire environmentalist Richard Charter to help lead efforts to protect the coast, said Cummings. Charter worked for the county when it first established the program in 1980 and is now a senior fellow with the nonprofit Ocean Foundation.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is proposing to offer gas and oil drilling leases in federal waters under its Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
If that plan is approved, federal officials will open waters to leases in three stages: An area from San Diego to Big Sur will open in 2027 and 2029; from Big Sur to the Sonoma-Mendocino county border (including the Bay Area) in 2027 and 2029; and from Mendocino north to the Oregon border will open in 2029, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Leases for oil or gas drilling along the California coast have not been granted since 1984. In 2018, the Trump administration tried to open most of the nation’s coastline for gas and oil leases, but was met with strong opposition from coastal states. At that time, there were at least 47 proposed leases on nearly every coastline and three executive orders to override protections on marine sanctuaries, said Panetta.
“Fortunately, back then, millions of people got involved in our state … leaders like John Laird got involved and put up legal, logistical and political hurdles,” Panetta said. “Which stalled those proposals, and we protected our treasures.”
Panetta told the crowd that the second Trump administration is “a different beast” and added that it is not “playing by the rules,” as federal officials will try to remove requirements for environmental review and public input.
Laird encouraged community members to organize against these federal plans. This issue never dies, he told the crowd, it just resurfaces in different ways.
Many of the identified areas along the California coast, including Santa Cruz County, are protected by local ordinances that prohibit onshore infrastructure for oil or gas drilling, such as docks, pipes and other structures used for storage and processing. The county already has a law that prohibits drilling and pipelines in unincorporated areas, and a separate ordinance from 1986 requires voters to approve any onshore facility of over 20,000 square feet that supports offshore operations.
The City of Santa Cruz has a long history of opposing offshore drilling along the coast. Nearly 40 years ago, the city voted to prohibit oil rigs off the coast, said Laird. In June, the city council unanimously reaffirmed its prohibition of offshore drilling, and authored a letter of opposition to federal officials, according to Keeley.
“The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary did not get established so a few decades later, what we could do is gut it with oil rigs,” said Keeley. “This is an intergenerational fight, because all environmental victories are temporary and all environmental losses are permanent.”
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.