Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings is organizing California coastal communities in response to the prospect of offshore oil drilling and potential seabed mining -- as his predecessor Gary Patton once did -- to hire longtime activist Richard Charter and work as a unified front.
The recruitment is working. "So far Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Sonoma, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and San Diego counties and the city of Santa Cruz are on board with this effort, and we expect the others to follow soon." Cummings said. "I'm excited that we'll be defending our coastline by speaking with one united voice. With our spectacular and fragile environment and our economy, which is largely based upon it, there is too much at risk to allow offshore oil and gas development, and potential seabed mining."
Previous efforts to promote new offshore oil drilling were defeated due to impacts on tourism, agriculture, and commercial and recreational fishing, the acceleration of climate change, and effects on the diverse wildlife and habitats. The current plan has proposed Central California for-lease sales in 2027 and 2029 even though three contiguous national marine sanctuaries -- Monterey Bay, Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank -- cover much of it. A presidential executive order for seabed mining in federal waters is getting a test off American Samoa and the mainland can be next.
A little history is in order. In 1980, after studying the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Third District County Supervisor Gary Patton convinced colleagues in other communities to influence the outcome of proposed offshore drilling Lease Sale 53.
Richard Charter was a graphic designer living on the Sonoma Coast who'd founded Friends of the Coast. Patton hired him to run the OCS Local Government Coordination Program, now referred to as Save My Coast, as expanded drilling was being proposed by President Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary James Watt. He got to work.
"Once it became apparent that we might be able to intervene in the annual congressional appropriations process to cut off necessary funding to preclude any lease sale during the subsequent year, I found myself commuting from Bodega Bay to Washington, D.C., four months each year to serve as a lobbyist representing California counties and cities in Congress," said Charter, referring to an effort lead by then-Rep. Leon Panetta to freeze federal funding for offshore oil leasing. "I maintained a student apartment and office furnished primarily with found curbside items a short walk from the Capitol."
With the 1992 designation of the largest possible boundary of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to preclude drilling from Año Nuevo north to San Francisco, by 1994 the program wound down. Charter continued his environmental work until Supervisor Justin Cummings approached him in the spring of 2025 to coordinate local governments in response to new plans for offshore drilling and potential seabed mining.
Patton believes the annual funding moratorium imposed by Congress was a major accomplishment, as was the establishment of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. "It's my recollection that the House Appropriations Committee built up an annual record of prohibiting new OCS development everywhere along the coast -- including the East Coast, not just the West Coast, with a prohibition that got placed in the federal budget over 20 years," he said. "I specifically remember a great graphic that Richard developed which I delivered a member of Congress, 'Save The Kansas Coast,' with a wonderful picture of the coast at Big Sur."
"I'm delighted that (Cummings) is picking up the Santa Cruz County leadership role that I do think was a key reason that we ended up stopping oil development along the California coast," Patton said. Cummings' effort will work in parallel with Save Our Shores' work to fortify the Blue Wall of 27 local ordinances in coastal communities that prohibit or require voter approval for onshore facilities for offshore oil, led by Executive Director Katie Thompson.
Cummings encourages everyone to get involved. "A united front of local governments is important, but I also encourage everyone to submit their comments on the Trump administration's Five-Year Plan on offshore oil drilling by the deadline of Jan. 23, 9 p.m. PST. It's easy to do." Comments can be made by going to regulations.gov and searching for Docket ID BOEM-2025-0483. Once there, click on "Comment," due by Jan. 23.
Learn more at SaveMyCoast.org, and saveourshores.org.
In my next column, I'll discuss the retirement of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation's longtime leader, Mark Silberstein.