President Donald Trump’s administration is eyeing California’s coastal watchdog as it establishes conditions California must meet to receive federal support for Los Angeles wildfire recovery.

Richard Grenell, a Republican aide to Trump who’s considering a gubernatorial bid in California, told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference last Friday that the California Coastal Commission “needs to absolutely be defunded.”

Grenell has echoed Trump in calls for “conditions” for wildfire recovery aid, including voter ID laws and water storage. Now, they are explicitly calling for the dismantling of the Commission.

“We are going to have strings on the money that we give to California,” said Grenell, who currently serves as Trump’s presidential envoy for special missions.

“I don’t want to commit too much, but I will say this: Everyone who’s involved knows that the California Coastal Commission is a disaster, and it needs to absolutely be defunded,” he said.

“And from just a way to think about government, we already have local government making these decisions. It’s an unelected group of people who are crazy woke left,” he said at the Washington, D.C., conference.

“One person can stop progress. And they’ve made California less safe. I think squeezing their federal funds, making sure they don’t get funds, putting strings on them to get rid of the California Coastal Commission is going to make California better.”

The commission and its supporters were eager to push back against Grenell’s comments.

“The California coast is a national treasure, the protection of which is enshrined in the California Constitution through the passage of the Coastal Act and is the responsibility of the California Coastal Commission,” Commissioner Justin Cummings said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee.

“It is our constitutional obligation to protect and manage the California Coast,” he said, “and we are committed to protecting and maintaining coastal access for all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, and visitors from around the world.”

“Without the Coastal Act and the Coastal Commission to enforce it, many of California’s beaches would become essentially privatized,” said Jennifer Savage, California policy associate director at the Surfrider Foundation, in a response to Grenell.

“People escaping inland heatwaves would have no recourse when confronted with gates and other blockades developers would build without obligation to ensure access and safety. Defunding and dismantling the Coastal Commission would eliminate rights enshrined in California’s constitution. Those who’ve lost homes in the recent fires have lost too much already — neither they nor any of us should have our rights to the coast stolen, too.”

But can the federal government "defund" the commission?

“They can do harm to the program for sure,” said Jana Zimmer, a former commissioner and author of the legal text, Navigating the California Coastal Act.

“At best, it’s ignorant,” Zimmer said. “It’s completely ignorant of how the commission functions. It’s really hard to respond with reference to actual law or policy because the conversation that’s ongoing is literally happening on Mars.”

The commission was founded through California’s Coastal Act of 1976, which established a commission of appointed representatives to protect California’s 840 miles of coastline from overdevelopment and environmental harm, and ensure public access to the state’s beaches.

The Coastal Commission — which functions largely as a legal entity, and whose 12 commissioners are responsible for working with coastal counties to establish Local Coastal Programs, review coastal development projects and ensure that access to the beach is never obstructed — is mostly funded through the California General Fund.

In the 2021-22 budget, the commission was awarded a $41 million budget augmentation, which at the time was the “single largest budget increase in the commission’s history,” according to Coastal Commission documents. Those funds went toward Local Coastal Programs and Whale Tail grants, which provide funding for educational and experiential programs on the coast.

While it is not without critics on both sides of the aisle, including some who have called for exemptions or reforms to the Coastal Act, the commission has rarely been threatened with defunding.

“I think it’s just an extension of Trump and (Elon) Musk’s vendetta tour,” Zimmer said. Last year, Musk sued the Coastal Commission after it rejected his planned expansion of SpaceX rocket launches at the Central Coast Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The commission does receive federal funding through the Coastal Zone Management Act, which is administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the commission received just over $3 million from CZMA funds — a far smaller amount than it receives from the state. Those funds went toward evaluating sea level rise, wildfire resilience research, and maintaining public access to beaches.

Musk, who is now the head of the Department of Government Efficiency and whose aggressive cuts and access to private data has spurred protests across the country, may certainly want to halt funding for the commission that burned his SpaceX ambition — plus, he’s already targeting NOAA.

But changing CZMA funds would require congressional approval. Congressman Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., has already sought to amend the CZMA to strip the Coastal Commission of certain regulatory authority.

Despite criticism from the Republican Party, Zimmer said the commission is running as it was meant to when it was established.

“I had a lot of criticisms about the commission’s functioning when I was on it,” she said. “But it’s been applying the law as it was written.”

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