Save the Bay event targets Trump plan for offshore oil drilling

The California coast has long been a target for oil drilling. It’s also been the catalyst for environmental groups to oppose drilling, to varying degrees of success over the decades. 

Now, anti-drilling activists say they’re seeing a renewed, and dire, threat to the coast – the Trump administration’s accelerated efforts to reopen offshore drilling and seabed mining.

A Save the Bay town hall and concert at the Santa Cruz Veterans Memorial Building on Sunday, April 26, featuring local politicians, environmental activists and music, will explore the issue. 

The event takes place four days after Earth Day and features a panel of activists and policy-makers, including County Supervisor Justin Cummings, Santa Cruz City Councilmember Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, Save Our Shores Executive Director Katie Thompson and Brady Bradshaw of the Center for Biological Diversity. 

Guest speakers include Sara Nelson, the executive director and co-founder of the Romero Institute, a nonprofit law and public policy center, which is hosting the event. 

Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, who once lived in the top of a redwood tree for 738 days to stop it from being cut down, will also attend. 

Nelson will discuss the petrodollar and its influence on the U.S. and global economies. 

“People don’t jump off of a sinking boat unless they can get onto another one,” Nelson said. “We are dedicated to working with every single person who wants to explore the truth of our problems and wants new solutions for the positive future of humanity.” 

The event will be followed by live music from Oakland-based, North African-inspired hip-hop funk band The Dogon Lights, along with Los Angeles musician Vir McCoy and local musician Heather Christie, featuring Feral Fauna. 

Hill told Lookout she’s always interested in community-building.

“When people feel like one person can’t make a difference I remind them [that] no choice happens in a vacuum,” she said. “It’s literally scientifically impossible to make no difference and have no impact. We have to let go of this idea that one person can’t make a difference, because that’s what the powers that be want.” 

The new plan for more drilling was highlighted in October 2025 when the Houston Chronicle published a report about leaked documents detailing the federal government’s plans to reopen 1.2 billion acres of water off the coasts of California, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling. The plan includes previously protected areas off California that have been closed to drilling since the 1980s. 

If the plan goes through, the California section will be opened to drilling leases in three sections over four years. The first will be 2027, 2029 and 2030 from San Diego to Big Sur. The second will be in 2027 and 2029 from Big Sur to the Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District. The third section will be in 2029 from Mendocino north to Oregon. 

For event organizer Daniel Paul Nelson – Sara’s son – the call for offshore drilling is as concerning as it is archaic. The region is well on its way toward a green future, he said.

“[The Romero Institute] has spent much of the last 10 years doing environmental organizing in this region,” he said.

Nelson and the Romero Institute were integral in establishing Central Coast Community Energy. It provides renewable energy for customers and, according to the company, is one of the reasons why the Central Coast is on a trajectory to have a zero carbon footprint by 2030, 15 years before the state mandate of 2045. 

“Our efforts doubled the size of the program,” he said. “All of our energy is sourced from hydro and other green sources.” 

Cummings warned that time is of the essence. 

“What we’ve seen with this administration is, if you don’t stand up to them they’ll do whatever they want, even if it’s illegal,” the District 3 county supervisor said. “It’s critical we take the threat seriously.” 

For Thompson of Save Our Shores, the speed at which the current administration and oil companies are trying to get the proposal approved is shocking. 

“It’s clear our worst nightmares are coming true,” she said. “They’re doing the minimum public comment periods [required by law] and getting this out as fast as they can.” 

The Trump administration’s plan also calls for seabed mining. 

Until 2025, deep-sea mining wasn’t allowed outside of the exploratory phase. In April 2025, however, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to expedite permits for companies to mine in U.S. and international waters.  

Seabed mining is the process of extracting minerals — such as cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper — from the ocean floor. It involves using machines to dredge the ocean floor, sending the material up to ships. 

Cummings – who has a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from UC Santa Cruz – says the impact on ocean animals is unknown. 

“Mining can have impacts like sound, which could affect whales and other mammals and fisheries along with commercial fishing zones,” he said. “Plumes of sediment will also have impacts on the species that live in those areas. There’s a lot unknown of what’s living down there.” 

The Save the Bay town hall and concert begins at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Vets Hall, 846 Front St. in downtown Santa Cruz. General-admission tickets are $26.95 and are available here.

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