Established in 1972, the California Coastal Commission (CCC)...
The Commission is committed to protecting and enhancing California’s coast and ocean for present and future generations. It does so through careful planning and regulation of environmentally-sustainable development, rigorous use of science, strong public participation, education, and effective intergovernmental coordination.
...is an agency operating within the state's California Natural Resources Agency, which has somehow been anointed with the 'quasi-judicial' control of the 1100 miles of California coastline and the land immediately adjacent to it, as well as matters pertaining to public access to the same. The board that runs the commission is made up of 12 members - six who are appointed elected officials and six who are appointed from the general public.
As years have passed, and their power has grown, the commission has become infamous for wielding it in a most imperial, unyielding, and unreasonable fashion. This matters not a whit to the CCC. They have become a power unto themselves.
...Critics say that the CCC has exceeded its mission, as well as exacerbated California's housing shortage by limiting housing supply in some of the state's most affluent areas, and harmed the environment by defending parking infrastructure, blocking public transit and scuttling dense housing development, while proponents say that the Commission has protected open space, views, habitats, endangered species, and public coastal access.
...The state authority controls construction along the state's 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of shoreline.[4] One of the provisions passed under the 1976 California Coastal Act specifically prohibits State Route 1 from being widened beyond one lane in each direction within rural areas inside the Coastal Zone.[9] The Coastal Commission also had the power to block a proposed southern extension of State Route 241 to Interstate 5 at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego County.[10]
The Coastal Commission has the ability to overrule local elected representatives and has also gained the ability to fine private citizens.[11][12] The agency has sought enforcement through the courts as it originally did not have the power to issue fines on its own to alleged violators. A bill in the California legislature to grant the commission a broad power to issue fines was defeated in September 2013.[13] However legislation attached to the state budget in the summer of 2014[14] finally granted the authority to impose fines on violators of public-access which could apply to about a third of the backlog of over 2,000 unresolved enforcement cases.[15][16] The first notable fines were issued in December 2016 against Malibu property owners Dr. Warren M. Lent and his wife, for $4.2 million, and Simon and Daniel Mani, owners of the Malibu Beach Inn, who settled amicably for $925,000. The difference in severity of the fines were attributed to the "egregious" nature of the Lent case.[17]
Perhaps the clearest illustration of the disgust with the CCC was evident in Adam Carolla's scathing, epic rant video from a hotel room the night of the Palisades Fire.
After evacuating his home during the LA wildfires, @adamcarolla delivers a passionate hotel rant, predicting Hollywood’s frustration with rebuilding could shake their Democratic loyalties. pic.twitter.com/0VdY9KkiUw
— The Adam Carolla Show (@AdamCarollaShow) January 9, 2025
He was prescient to a fault. The residents involved in trying to rebuild their lives didn't need Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom to be complete bumbling, incompetent fools - the malignant overseers at the CCC would have been enough on their own to bring every last bit of recovery to a halt.
...But Newsom miscalculated the depths of depravity the CCC was willing to stoop to in order to regulate the everyday minutiae of rebuilding, or of trying to rebuild lives.
He wasn't specific enough as far as what he'd exempted from the two acts' oversight, for instance.
Your house previously had a pool and/or a deck? What a shame the CCC says you can't have one now.
At the end of April, the CCC started taking a bead on celebrating the Fourth of July in certain cities on the coast.
For the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence, Gavin Newsom‘s unelected California Coastal Commission cancels the Fourth of July fireworks celebration in Long Beach. pic.twitter.com/xCItCNbhp9
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) April 16, 2026
Not because of fire danger, mind you, but because fireworks 'pollute the ocean' in Long Beach.
The latest absurdity from the CA Coastal Commission: no fireworks on the Fourth of July. I've introduced legislation to rein in this runaway agency. https://t.co/IIjDyTAfrl
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) April 16, 2026
But there were finally cracks in the castle wall appearing. The CCC was forced to apologize to Elon Musk for denying SpaceX a permit to launch rockets from Vandenberg AFB simply because of politics, and the California State Supreme Court ruled the little Napoleons had 'overstepped their authority' when they blocked a developer from building houses for which he already had permits in hand.
Still, these were all state issues for the state to rein in the monster they'd created.
Where the CCC may have brought some unwelcome federal interest and subsequent action into the picture was when they raised their imperial fist against the Trump administration's plans to utilize three revitalized and renovated oil platforms in federal waters off the Santa Barbara coastline.
A year ago, in May, Sable Offshore out of Texas refurbished one of three offshore platforms and repaired a blown-out pipeline to get oil flowing to its Los Flores Canyon terminal, in a state desperate for oil. They had anticipated having the other platforms up and running by last summer. In true CA fashion, backed up by NGOs and environmental activists, swooped in with lawsuits and wild allegations. Sable's plan was dead in the water.
Until this past March, when President Trump, thanks to the Iranian action, invoked the Defense Production Act and issued an executive order that got the Santa Ynez oil flowing again.
The CCC issued a 'cease and desist' order against the pumping - again, this is a state agency attempting to control the actions of a federally issued order.
And a CA Superior Court Judge ruled that the state injunction against pumping overruled the federal order.
RIGHT?!
It gets worse.
A CA appeals court just upheld that decision a few days ago.
Lunacy.
A California appeals court has upheld a preliminary injunction preventing Sable Offshore Corp. from continuing certain repair work on its Las Flores pipeline system without additional coastal permitting, ruling that the California Coastal Commission acted within its authority to issue a cease-and-desist order after Santa Barbara County declined to pursue enforcement.
In a published opinion issued June 17, the California Second District Court of Appeal rejected Sable's argument that the county's determination that existing permits covered the work prevented the commission from intervening. Instead, the court concluded the California Coastal Act allows the commission to assume enforcement responsibility when a local government declines to act on an alleged violation that could significantly affect coastal resources.
The appellate court wrote that Santa Barbara County "had ample opportunity to act" but "deliberately declined to do so," allowing the Coastal Commission to exercise its authority under state law.
"Given that the County declined to act regarding the alleged violation, the Commission properly exercised its authority under the statute," the appellate court wrote.
The California Coastal Commission was the instigator of all of this madness, and the CA appeals court recognized them as the sole enforcement authority.
Enough was enough.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has sent an official letter to the Director of the President's Economic Council to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) take a long overdue deep dive into the antics and abuses of the CCC.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent a letter to Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council under President Donald Trump, directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to “evaluate” the California Coastal Commission, over their efforts to bar energy production with restarting an offshore oil project in Santa Barbara, as well as preventing Elon Musk’s SpaceX from launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The California Coastal Commission is an unelected commission of political appointees that lords over locally elected city councils in cities and counties on the California coast, acting as the department of business prevention.
The letter from the Trump administration puts the California’s Coastal Commission environmental zealots under long overdue federal scrutiny.
The letter criticizes the Coastal Commission’s management as “woefully inadequate at best” particularly during the Biden administration. It accuses California and the Coastal Commission of a “long record of obstructing technological innovation and economic development,” prioritizing “environmental extremism.”
Local PBS stations are describing this as a threat, so you know it must be a good thing.
A new federal review threatens California's power to protect its coastline from oil and gas exploration. https://t.co/ksrLPW9Eme
— KQED Science (@KQEDscience) June 29, 2026
There are many long-suffering victims and foes of the commission who are thrilled to hear this news.
...The review does not mean the California Coastal Commission has violated federal law. It is the beginning of a formal evaluation process that could ultimately result in recommendations, changes to federal funding, or other actions if California is found out of compliance with the Coastal Zone Management Act.
Jim Suty, president of Friends of Oceano Dunes, welcomed the federal review.
"We are extremely tickled by this and all of California should be," Suty said. "The California Coastal Act...from where it originated as legislation that the voters voted on in 1975 to where it is today is far, far reach."
Suty, whose organization has long advocated for continued public access and recreation at Oceano Dunes, said he believes the Coastal Commission has expanded its authority beyond its original intent.
He shares a common ground on the issue on how environmental policies impact land use and access along the central coast.
"The Coastal Commission has taken their power and authority far too far," Sutty said, pointing to issues such as desalination projects and overlapping oversight between California State Parks and the Coastal Commission.
Suty said, "We have them, you know, stopping desalination plants. Why on God's green earth should we be a drought when we live next to an ocean where we can get desalination. So, why are we stopping desalination plants? Why do we not allow dams to collect rainwater to help our farmers grow? Why do we have two parties, two legislative groups, California State Parks and California Coastal Commission, overseeing the same property?”
As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
It might even be golden.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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