Trump is attacking Californias ability to protect its coastline. The consequences are 'chilling'

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Set us as preferred For months, the Trump administration has sought to open the California coast to a radically industrialized future: large-scale desalination plants, floating nuclear reactors, more rocket launches and expanded offshore oil drilling along the state’s most iconic beaches.Holding the line against all this is a little-known but longstanding federal law, the Coastal Zone Management Act, which grants coastal states like California the right to review and object to any project in federal waters that clashes with state policy.Now, citing California’s “environmental extremism,” Trump officials are attempting to decertify the state’s power under this law.Framed as a performance review of the state’s coastal management practices, this challenge begins in earnest Monday during a public hearing in Santa Monica, where hundreds of emboldened regulators, elected officials, environmentalists, Indigenous leaders, community activists and everyday Californians are expected to speak out.The review will be conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management and comes amid federal efforts to dismantle clean air policies, endangered species protections and other landmark environmental regulations that have long drawn the ire of industry and fossil fuel producers.

In California, efforts to override environmental protections have been most apparent along the Santa Barbara coast, where a Houston-based oil company has sought President Trump’s influence to bypass state oversight and restart a once-dormant offshore operation.California The California attorney general has again sued the Trump administration over continued approvals that have allowed an offshore oil operation to restart along Santa Barbara County’s coast.Experts say the outcome of the review seems preordained...