As I celebrated my 70th birthday, I realized that 50 years is not a long time. And yet, it’s certainly long enough to see the effects of important legislation.
This month California marks the 50th anniversary of the Coastal Act, the strongest land-use legislation in the country. While the act has not totally prohibited development in the narrow coastal zone, it has nonetheless protected the 1,100-mile California coast from over-development, ensuring access, views, near-shore water quality and habitats.
Through enforcement by the California Coastal Commission, the highly popular act has been an effective deterrent to would-be developers of private coastal enclaves, high-rise hotels and utilities proposing major industrial use on the coast. And consequently, despite its popularity, the commission has had to battle numerous attempts to cut it off at the knees.
Now President Trump has asked NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to review California’s adherence to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, a law that requires environmental protection to be balanced by continued economic growth in the nation’s coastal zones.
The administration is probing whether the Coastal Commission’s environmental enforcement has interfered with economic development. California’s compliance was reviewed as recently as 2024 during the Biden Administration — and it passed. So California is challenging NOAA’s right to pursue another review so soon, and will take the matter to court. There it will play out, becoming a precedent-setting case for all 34 affected states.
Still, one has to wonder at the timing for what is happening now. If the administration’s reason is to increase offshore oil production, it is a largely symbolic move because the California coast does not produce “sweet light crude.” It produces asphalt-grade oil which, while useful for paving roads, requires so much refining that it could hardly be expected to reduce the cost of gasoline.
In reviewing California again, does Washington figure that no one remembers the 1969 Santa Barbara oil blowout? To this day, the images of oil-soaked birds and blackened beaches are still spread by major media whenever there’s an oil spill off the California coast.
Those images were seared into the brains of California’s still-numerous baby boomers. They’re again ready to fight, as shown by the turnout at a recent hearing in Santa Monica.
Though Trump cannot extract revenge on the leadership that created the Coastal Act, he would perversely extract it from their grandchildren. This is the generation that has inherited the right to access the beach and who will now have to do battle to preserve it. Trump’s actions challenge the identity of all who call themselves Californians.
And so, it’s time again for Californians to assert their rights to the coast. The California coast, up to the “mean high tide line,” belongs to the people of California, despite the ownership of the beach property above that line. It is guaranteed by the California Constitution.
To understand the political miracles that resulted in the passage of the Coastal Act, my organization Earth Alert encourages coastal residents to watch our 52-minute documentary, Heroes of the Coast, available online.
And remember, in the words of the late Peter Douglas, the Coastal Commission’s legendary long-time executive director, “The coast is never saved. It’s always being saved.”
Janet Bridgers is co-rounder and president of Earth Alert.
