In 2022, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) rejected the Poseidon desalination plant that would have provided Orange County with 50 million gallons of fresh water a day. The CCC has now rejected a plan by the Space Force to boost the number of launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. This was allegedly based on environmental concerns, but the real reason recently came to light.
In August, the commission asked the Space Force to monitor more closely how sonic booms affect southern sea otters, California red-legged frogs, the western snowy plover and the California least tern. Commissioner Kristina Kunkel worried that the CCC could be “bullied into ignoring environmental protections” but by October it was apparent that the real problem was SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk.
“Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods,” claimed Commissioner Gretchen Newsom, political director for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and not related to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor did appoint commissioner Mike Wilson, who is on the same page as commissioner Newsom.
“This company [SpaceX] is owned by the richest person in the world with direct control of what could be the most expansive communications system in the planet,” Wilson proclaimed, and “just last week that person was talking about political retribution.” Commissioner Caryl Hart also targeted Musk, who builds Tesla electric cars.
“We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” proclaimed Hart, an attorney and author of a dissertation on “California State Parks and Climate Change.” Hart wants SpaceX to apply for a coastal development permit issued by the Commission.
Commissioner Susan Lowenberg is “beyond pissed” and proclaims “I don’t understand why our own government is thumbing their nose at another branch of our government.” Perhaps this is because the California Coastal Commission was not elected by the people of California.
A 1972 ballot initiative created a temporary commission aimed at preventing environmental disasters, like the 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara. The California Coastal Act of 1976, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, made the commission permanent. Since then the CCC has run roughshod over property rights, and ramped up corruption.
As Californians might recall, when Hollywood celebrities sought permits for swimming pools and such, commissioner Mark Nathanson, appointed by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, hit them up for bribes. In 1993, Nathanson drew a prison sentence of nearly five years for extortion.
Under the command of regulatory zealots like longtime director Peter Douglas, the commission blocked development and made coastal residency practically impossible for working people. The unelected CCC also projected its regulatory reach into theme parks such as Sea World and dictated the rules of surfing tournaments.
The Poseidon Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach was in progress for 20 years and supported by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including Gov. Newsom. The CCC turned it down with commissioner Dayna Bochco explaining that “the ocean is under attack from climate change already.” Bochco is the wife of the late Steven Bochco and served as president of Steven Bochco Productions, producers of “Doogie Howser MD,” “Cop Rock” and other television shows.
The CCC did approve the Doheny Ocean Desalination Plant, which will produce five million gallons of water a day, much less than the plant that got rejected. An unelected, unaccountable body thus prevents California from deriving maximum benefit from the Pacific Ocean, the state’s greatest natural resource.
The commission now seeks to block Space Force launches because a majority of commissioners dislike Elon Musk. By now the lessons should be clear.
The elected officials of California’s coastal cities and counties are fully capable of handling their own affairs and dealing with the Space Force. It is long past time to eliminate the Coastal Commission, a partisan political body that exists only to preserve its own power.
Meanwhile, more than 50 years after the Santa Barbara oil spill, the greatest source of oil in the ocean is natural seepage from the ocean floor. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) natural seeps in Southern California add five million gallons to the ocean annually. In the Coal Oil Point area near Santa Barbara, 4,200 to 25,000 gallons of oil seep into the ocean per day.
According to NOAA, the seeps have been leaking for “thousands of years” and an oil seep is the possible cause of an oil sheen off Huntington Beach last March.
Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif.