An oil company wants to restart fracking off the California coast. The state's top coastal officials say no way

SANTA CRUZ — Just days after the Trump administration launched proceedings that could limit California’s ability to protect its iconic shoreline, the state’s top coastal officials reasserted their authority by voting unanimously against an oil company’s controversial bid to restart underwater fracking operations.

This is the first time the California Coastal Commission has officially reviewed the issue of offshore fracking. Until now, the practice had been quietly rubber-stamped by the federal government without the state’s knowledge.

The proposed fracking plan would quadruple production on an aging offshore platform in the Santa Barbara Channel. The process of hydraulic fracturing ekes out oil from older wells, and involves cracking the bedrock several thousand feet below the seafloor by injecting chemical fluids with intense pressure.

“This is just simply one of those cases where the juice isn’t worth the squeeze,” said Coastal Commissioner Ray Jackson at a meeting Thursday in Santa Cruz County. “This creates far too many opportunities for something to go wrong, and when something does go wrong, it’s our oceans, beaches, wildlife and coastal economy that pay the price.”

The rejection of the plan comes at a time when Trump officials have sought to open the California coast to more offshore oil drilling , more rocket launches and possibly even floating nuclear reactors . The administration’s latest attempt to wrest local control from California officials has homed in on stripping authority granted to the state by the Coastal Zone Management Act, or CZMA. The federal law gives coastal states the right to review and object to any project in federal waters that clashes with state policy.

Citing “environmental extremism,” Trump officials want to end California’s ability to challenge offshore oil, floating nuclear reactors and rocket launches.

Citing California’s “ environmental extremism ,” Trump officials earlier this week ramped up an investigation that has been framed as a performance review of the state’s compliance under the CZMA. More than 17,800 people have submitted written comments during the public review period , and hundreds of environmentalists, elected officials, Indigenous leaders, business coalitions, community activists and everyday Californians flooded this week’s in-person hearing to question the political motives of the review and to voice support of the state.

Many of those speakers gathered again at Thursday’s Coastal Commission meeting to see the CZMA in action. Commissioners listened carefully to dozens of public comments and weighed the technical responses provided by the Oxnard-based oil company, DCOR LLC, against the detailed analysis from the commission’s staff and lawyers.

“This offshore fracking proposal really illustrates the importance of having the state have a say in projects that affect its coastal resources,” said Maggie Hall, deputy chief counsel at the Environmental Defense Center.