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URGENT: Please Join Us Wednesday Morning

Save Our Shores is holding a critical press event at 10:00 AM this Wednesday, October 29, at the stage area on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf. We urgently need your presence and support as we address imminent federal plans for offshore oil development and longer-term seabed mining proposals off California’s coast (3–200 miles offshore).

Local governments are on the front line of this fight. The discussion will focus on how cities and counties can coordinate local ordinances and policies to form a unified defense against the environmental and economic risks posed by these projects.

Free parking will be available on the Wharf from 9:00–11:30 AM.

Your attendance will send a powerful message of community unity and resolve.
Please make every effort to join us — the time to act is now.

FORTIFYING THE BLUE WALL – PROTECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA COAST

The Houston Chronicle obtained leaked documents (PDF attached) that the Trump Administration plans new offshore oil drilling off California’s coast, possibly with no environmental review and diminished public input. Presidential executive orders and legislation have also authorized seabed mining for rare earths and precious minerals, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) regulating it in US federal waters.

Save Our Shores and Santa Cruz County elected leaders are fighting back:

1) The OCS Local Government Coordination Program, to engage California local governments in opposition to proposed offshore oil development and seabed mining, has been re-invigorated by Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings.

2) Save Our Shores (SOS) will update and strengthen the ordinances for the four jurisdictions in Santa Cruz County that prohibit (City of Capitola), or require a vote of the people to approve (Santa Cruz City and County, City of Watsonville) zoning changes to allow the development of onshore facilities that support offshore oil and gas development and add language relative to onshore facilities for seabed mining. Save Our Shores will work with other local governments to update existing ordinances (see map below), and to add new ones, to fortify the blue wall.

This work builds on the 1985-1992 SOS campaign that resulted in the adoption of 26 (a 27th, Marin County, was added in 2020) ordinances starting with the City of Santa Cruz’s Measure A in March, 1985 that received 82% of the vote, which directed the city to use its resources to fight offshore oil. Thirteen communities were sued by the Western Oil and Gas Association to overturn those ordinances, but local governments prevailed. In David vs. Goliath fashion, the City of Santa Cruz has continued this tradition, with the recent passage of the Sugary Drinks Tax, and with Measure C on the November 4, 2025 ballot to raise funds to help provide affordable housing in the city.