My plan, just back from a trip to the East Coast, was to give California a well-deserved pat on the back for its unwavering commitment to coastal protection and public access.My travels had taken me to coastal areas in Connecticut and New York that are so privatized, you’d need a kayak or a parachute to make it onto a beach. One trick they use to keep you off the sand and out of the water is to limit parking to local residents, and typically, there is nowhere else to park within easy or safe walking distance.So here I was, eager to remind everyone that in 2026, Californians should all be lighting candles on the cake celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Coastal Act, which established guidelines regarding public access, conservation and development.But then Gov. Gavin Newsom, while nobody was watching, gave a swift kick to the cake.I’d barely unpacked my bags when a gaggle of sources and news reports grabbed my attention on what Newsom was up to. I’d say the CalMatters headline and story neatly summed things up:“Newsom pushes environmental carve-out for campaign donor’s Santa Monica project.”That’s right, folks. As the legislative session comes to a close over the next few days, Newsom is in the kitchen, stirring a foul chowder that stinks along the state’s entire 1,200-mile coast. He’s pushing a bill that would exempt one particular project from normal regulatory review by the Coastal Commission.Keep Reading
Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for an eleventh-hour legislative proposal that would give an environmental carve-out to a Santa Monica developer who is a Newsom appointee to state commissions and longtime donor.The draft proposal, obtained by CalMatters, would effectively exempt a mixed-use project on Santa Monica’s oceanfront, designed by the late architect Frank Gehry, from the state’s environmental regulations of coastal developments, unless the city adopts its own land use policies by Jan. 1, 2028.The project belongs to Jeff Worthe, who, along with his wife Kristin Worthe, has donated more than $274,000 to Newsom’s campaigns and inaugural fund between 2018 and 2022, according to state campaign finance records. Newsom appointed Worthe to the California Privacy Protection Agency Board in 2023, and then to the California High-Speed Rail Authority last year.The Santa Monica City Council and the California Coastal Commission both approved the $350 million project a few years ago after Worthe agreed to pay millions of dollars toward low-cost housing and city infrastructure. But the approvals lapsed, and the project never broke ground despite Worth’s promise to start building in early 2025.The new last-minute proposal shocked and angered a coalition of environmental advocates, who for months have urged state leaders to reject any backdoor deal to exempt any project from the California Coastal Act, a 50-year-old law that set the environmental standard for coastal development.Keep Reading
An unprecedented federal assault threatens the future of California's beautiful and environmentally fragile coastlineFrom rocket ships to oil rigs—how twisted does a tale have to be to connect the two? In this exploration, it will all come together, like a hospital gown.SpaceX, proposed oil rigs and the Commerce Department’s review of California’s coastal-management program are all pieces in the fight over who controls the California coast. Washington and California fundamentally disagree about what the coast is for. One would think it would be for California.The story picks up where Elon Musk decides to go to Mars. Musk poured money into SpaceX, and by 2024 Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County had launched 46 SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Musk aimed to push launches to 100 per year to speed deployment of the Starlink satellite internet constellation.The California Coastal Commission (CCC) was alarmed by this and began reviewing the proposed increases. California voters created the California Coastal Commission in 1972 to give the state a strong voice in protecting its coast.Alarmed, the commission began reviewing the proposed increase in space launches. SpaceX said it didn’t need the commission’s permission. A clash over who gets to greenlight a rocket turned into a struggle over who approves new oil rigs.The commission’s objections cited increased sonic booms, wildlife disruptions and public coastal closures. After reviewing the proposed increase and repeatedly seeking information that SpaceX and the Air Force did not provide, the commission objected to the additional launches, E&E News reported.Enter President Trump, no fan of California“I hate the way California is being run,” Trump said in January 2026. “Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay … because they don’t listen to us,” he said in October 2020.Connected to Musk in the good-old-billionaire-boy network, Trump signed an executive order in August 2025 directing federal agencies to accelerate commercial space development. Two months later, the Air Force authorized the increase. But the order did something else. On May 20, 2026, the Commerce Department ordered a full formal review of California’s Coastal Management Program, the legal machinery that gives the state a voice when federal activities affect its coast.Emma Haydocy, senior manager of coasts and climate initiative at the Surfrider Foundation, says attempts followed in Congress to restrict the commission and weaken provisions of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, but those legislative efforts went nowhere.Keep Reading
Scientists catalogued the highest number of dead marine mammals in over a decade on the North Coast’s beaches last month — almost triple the typical monthly average.Twenty-eight marine mammals were found dead last month. Researchers usually find 10 in July, Dawn Goley, the director of Cal Poly Humboldt’s Marine Mammal Stranding Program, told the Outpost. Most of them were seals and sea lions, but at least two dead humpback whales were included too. The program has tracked dead marine mammals over a 140-mile stretch of coastline from northern Mendocino County up into Del Norte since 2012, checking out the same spots at the same times to ensure consistency.It’s too soon to tell what’s causing the inflation, Goley said, and many of the animals are too decomposed to examine anyway. This year’s El Niño hasn’t gathered enough strength yet to heat coastal waters close to shore, but it’s getting warmer further out to sea. The ocean also sometimes suffers through heat waves, which have become more common over the last five-ten years, Goley said. Boat strikes may have killed some of them. Some may have starved. Researchers don’t have exact data on the amount of living creatures here either; an increased sea lion and seal population, as well as increased boat traffic, might be driving the rate up as well. “But,” Goley said, “Given the magnitude of it, something else, something unique, is going on this year, and I’m sure it has to do with environmental changes.”Keep Reading
California’s coastline is one of the nation’s greatest conservation success stories. From recovering sea otters and nesting snowy plovers to migrating gray whales and the vibrant national marine sanctuaries that many species call home, generations of Californians have fought to protect the wildlife and places that make this coastline extraordinary.Few may realize these conservation successes are made possible, in part, by a little-known but critically important federal law: the Coastal Zone Management Act.For more than 50 years, the act has given California and other coastal states a meaningful voice in federal decisions affecting their shorelines. Through the law’s federal consistency program, California works with federal agencies and project proponents to ensure that offshore drilling proposals, pipelines, ports and other federally authorized activities are consistent with the state’s coastal policies.Contrary to the perception that California simply says “no” to any coastal development, the overwhelming majority of projects reviewed under the program ultimately move forward. Critical work happens behind the scenes when California state agencies negotiate changes that reduce harm to wildlife, protect coastal communities and improve projects before they are approved.The partnership has restored more than 100,000 acres of habitat, from kelp forests and estuaries to coastal dunes. It has removed over 26 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways and given Californians a voice in decisions affecting their shoreline.Now, that partnership faces its greatest threat.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is conducting a premature, out-of-cycle review years before its typical 10-year schedule and before the previous review has even concluded. On paper, it may look routine. It is anything but. If a review results in decertification of California’s coastal management program, it could mean the state loses its strongest tool to resist federal actions over harmful decisions affecting the coastline’s prosperity.So why is the federal agency pursuing a review now?The timing is difficult to ignore. It follows the California Coastal Commission’s rejection of Elon Musk and SpaceX’s 2025 proposal to expand rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base and comes as the Trump administration plans to advance a draft leasing program that could reopen California’s federal waters to oil and gas drilling for the first time in more than four decades. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the review is meant to ensure California gives “proper weight” to federal priorities and to prevent what he called “obstructionist policies that delay critical national infrastructure.”What does this mean for Californians and residents of other coastal states? It means that our voices could be silenced.Now is the time to speak up for our wildlife, communities and coastal economies that depend on it as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is accepting public comments through Aug. 22.Keep Reading
