Trump administration targets California Coastal Commission Play

The Trump Administration is going after the California Coastal Commission.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has directed federal bureaucrats to open a probe into whether the State of California is improperly restricting development of federal lands and resources on the coast. The targets: crippling offshore wind projects and assisting the offshore oil drilling industry.

Dating back to the Nixon presidency, California and the federal government have operated under a coastal zone management program. California has been given wide latitude by the federal government — U.S. permission to regulate the federal oceans more than 3 miles out from the shoreline. The state owns the seabed out three miles, but the federal government beyond that.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has ordered NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, to overturn the 53-year-old California Coastal Management Program.

At issue: developing wind farms in the ocean, and oil. What may be at issue: the current ban on offshore oil drilling platforms in Santa Monica Bay.

In his letter, Lutnick says California has a long record of obstructing technological innovation, economic development and related federal efforts in the name of environmental extremism. As an example, he points to the Coastal Commission's objections to SpaceX launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

SpaceX is owned by Elon Musk, one of the oligarchs calling the shots at the White House.

The commerce secretary is demanding that his bureaucrats review how California has interfered, not just with spaceport development, but offshore oil production, maintenance of pipelines, and desalinization.

This story was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.