As Mayor of California’s Largest Coastal City, Mayor Bass Demands NOAA Uphold California’s Authority to Protect Its Coastline from Offshore Drilling

LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass is demanding that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA uphold California’s federally approved authority to protect its coastline and weigh in on activities that could threaten its coastal resources, including offshore oil and gas development. 

Mayor Bass submitted a letter to NOAA opposing any effort to revoke California’s program approval, emphasizing that the state’s authority to review and manage activities affecting its coastline – including offshore drilling – has been a critical part of state-federal cooperation for decades. The mayor’s letter comes as California lawmakers have also raised concerns that revoking California’s program approval would undermine this longstanding partnership.

Read the full letter below:

RE: Evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program

Docket No. 260623-0150

As Mayor of the largest coastal city in California, I write to comment on NOAA’s performance evaluation of the California Coastal Management Program. I demand that the protections and principles of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) are upheld to preserve California’s authority to weigh in on federal projects affecting our coastlines through the California Coastal Management Program.

Los Angeles’ beaches and coastal communities support billions of dollars in economic activity, sustain local businesses and jobs, and provide essential public spaces for residents and visitors alike. The Pacific coastline is both a defining civic asset and a critical measure of Los Angeles’s environmental and economic vitality. Protecting these resources is fundamental to the long-term prosperity of our city. The drastic industrialization of California’s coastline would hurt not only Los Angeles and California, but the entire country that our resources serve.

As climate change accelerates extreme weather, sea-level rise, and the degradation of marine ecosystems across California, the urgent protection of our coastline is not only a matter of economic security, but a public health, climate resilience, and environmental justice issue as well.

It is imperative that the State of California retain the right to review projects that might impact these core resources, including the installation of offshore oil and gas infrastructure, undersea cables, pipelines, and large-scale desalination plants. Given that the Coastal Commission has aligned with 96% of the more than 3,700 federal actions reviewed since the 1970s, this is not, as the Administration has claimed, a demonstration of California’s “environmental extremism.” Rather, it is an act of collective self-preservation to maintain the precious economic and environmental national asset that is the California coast.

For decades, the California Coastal Commission and Los Angeles have brought extensive expertise and institutional knowledge to the stewardship of California’s coast. Together we have consistently demonstrated commitment to responsible coastal management. Any effort to disregard these partnerships, expertise, and collaboration in protecting California’s coast is deeply concerning and unacceptable.

Decertification of California’s authority under the CZMA would disregard decades of successful partnership, undermine our residents’ voices, and toss aside the efforts of businesses and community advocates who have worked for many years to protect our shared coastal resources. An unnecessary politicization of the review process would weaken the collaborative framework necessary to address the complex environmental challenges facing our coastline and jeopardize progress already made. This would not only change the status of California, but of every coastal state in the nation.

We stand ready to work with our federal and state partners to advance meaningful solutions that will preserve California’s extraordinary coastline, delivering economic prosperity while ensuring that our resources remain protected and accessible for generations to come. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter and for your commitment to protecting the future of California’s coast.