Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, celebrated passage of the 54th anniversary of the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by issuing a draft report finding the California Coastal Commission unjustifiably hostile towards offshore oil and Vandenberg’s Space X.
The act, which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on October 27, 1972, required federal agencies to meet with their state counterparts to determine whether proposed coastal projects would run afoul of state coastal management plans. This applies to projects in federal waters or on federal lands along the coast. Right now, 34 states have such plans and rely upon the Coastal Zone Management Act. If Secretary of Commerce Lutnick moves ahead with his finding of “non-adherence,” California will be the first and only state to have been excommunicated.
Mentioned frequently in the draft report was that the Coastal Commission and two smaller state agencies had not given adequate weight to the commercial and national security benefits of oil and gas development, of Space X launches, and even of the recreational opportunities for trucks, cars, and motorcycles on the Oceano Dunes. Issued through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the draft report concluded that the Coastal Commission also dragged out the permitting process for offshore desalination projects necessary to offset the state’s loss of water from the Colorado River. Such delays, the report found, added exorbitantly to project costs…