California Says It Approves 96% of Federal Coastal Projects. Washington Is Reviewing Its Veto Anyway

NOAA hearings this week could lead to decertifying the state's rights under the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act. Public comment closes Aug. 22.

Hearings held this week in Santa Monica and online could determine whether California keeps its say over what happens in federal waters off its coast, LAist reported from a Monday hearing and the news conference that preceded it.

The mechanism at issue is the Coastal Zone Management Act, the 1972 law that gives coastal states the right to review and veto federal projects that conflict with state policies and economies. President Richard Nixon signed it after an oil spill off Santa Barbara, and the law is routinely named as the start of modern environmentalism. Now Washington wants a detailed accounting of how the state has followed it.

The Trump administration made its case on social media in May. California is holding back economic progress, the post said, and the state's coastal management is "obstructionist" and "environmental extremism." State officials dispute the characterization, saying California approves federal initiatives 96% of the time.

What the review is actually asking about

The scope is specific. According to a notice in the Federal Register, the review "seeks any new input from relevant stakeholders regarding spaceport infrastructure, offshore oil production, pipeline maintenance, desalination projects, and undersea cables." Those five categories are the practical stakes: rocket launches, drilling, and desalination plants along the coast are the industrial activities the administration is moving to accelerate, per LAist's account.

NOAA runs the hearings. The federal government could come out of them decertifying the state's authority under the act. Experts told LAist that such a decision would almost certainly be challenged in court.

State Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot framed the review as unprecedented at Monday's news conference.

"Never before in the five-decade history of this federal act has this sudden baseless review taken place on any state's coastal management program, and never before in the history of this act has a coastal management program ever been revoked," Crowfoot said, in remarks reported by LAist. "This federal administration is bent on industrializing our coast."

There is a prior data point. A draft NOAA review in 2024 concluded that California's coastal agencies were administering the law correctly. That review was never finalized, because of the change in administration. The current one comes after the Trump administration cut NOAA staff and funding.

The economic argument from the coalition

Opponents are not only environmental groups. Horvath has signed on with a bloc that spans city and state officials, tribal leaders, lawyers, environmentalists and business owners, and that calls the review a "takeover" of state and local rights. Grant Bixby, an Orange County resident who started the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast, told the news conference that offshore drilling is a sliver of a coastal economy NOAA figures put at $44 billion to $50 billion a year.

"Should we put 99% of the other employment at risk for the benefit of one dirty industry?" Bixby said, recalling how the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill turned beaches into a "ghost town."

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who also spoke, pointed to the administration paying offshore wind companies to abandon projects. "L.A. County will soon achieve 100% renewable and reliable electricity. This is the change that we want to see," she said.

Tina Calderon, a Gabrielino Tongva and Chumash culture bearer, put it differently: "These are sacred waters, and it's up to us to be the voice."

How to comment

NOAA accepts public comment until midnight Aug. 22, by email to czma.california-evaluation@noaa.gov with "Comments on Performance Evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program" in the subject line. Virtual hearings run Aug. 11 and 12 from 2 to 5 p.m., with attendance capped at 1,000 people and advance registration required. Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged Californians to weigh in: "Give the Trump administration an earful," he said in a statement.

Desk note: the public record so far does not identify which specific pending Southern California permits — in Venice, San Pedro, Malibu or elsewhere — would be affected if decertification landed. That question remains open.