Our Voices for California’s Coast

Protecting our coasts isn’t a singular action; it’s something that happens every day, in every decision and process. Nearly 40 percent of Californians reside within the coastal zone, and the choices made there significantly impact how we live, work, and play.

“The coast is never saved; It’s always being saved.”

— Peter Douglas, past Executive Director, California Coastal Commission

Our coast depends on those who speak for clean water, public access, and preservation of natural resources. That means protecting beaches and dunes, wetlands, bluffs, and harbors. Each wetland restored and path maintained keeps beaches open and healthy.

The California Coastal Commission: An Opportunity to Participate

Created by voters in 1972 through Proposition 20, the California Coastal Commission (CCC) is the state agency responsible for protecting over 1,100 miles of California’s coastline. It makes sure development along the coast protects public access, wildlife, and community well-being. Each decision represents the balance between human use and natural preservation.

 

How it Works

The commission oversees all land and water use within the state’s Coastal Zone, reviewing projects to ensure they comply with the California Coastal Act. Local governments develop Local Coastal Programs. These plans determine how land in the coastal zone is used. This structure is incredibly unique, allowing a state-wide agency to be accessed locally.

When local development proposals threaten beach access, habitat, or community character, the Commission has the authority to review or appeal these projects. The CCC also reviews long-range plans for coastal universities or major ports, and it sometimes works closely with federal agencies on projects.

This means that projects involving shoreline protection, such as seawalls, bluff stabilization, dune restoration, and living shoreline projects, often come before the Commission. These efforts aim to protect both communities and natural systems.

Commission meetings are open to the public, and anyone can attend, comment, and participate in the appeal process.

“It’s a very unique animal… a state interest in 1,100-plus miles of coast, implemented on the local level.”

— Mark Stone, former Coastal Commissioner (2009–2012)

How You Can Get Involved

You don’t have to be an expert to have a say in what happens along our coasts. The Coastal Commission offers several ways for the public to participate in these decisions. Anyone can attend meetings, either in person or online, and speak during public comment. We can also submit written remarks about projects that affect your community, beaches, and access points.

Staying informed makes a difference. The Commission’s monthly agenda is publicly available, featuring highly detailed discussions on development projects, infrastructure, and long-term shoreline management. Sharing that information with your friends, family, and peers helps others understand what’s at stake and how they can participate.

Why Now

California is facing the challenges of our time: rising seas, large-scale development, funding

challenges, and political efforts to weaken environmental protections. The Coastal Commission provides us with a means to push back. This system is a rarity of shared responsibility between state and local governments; it only works when people stay engaged and informed. Rising seas are already changing our shoreline. Communities like Pacifica, Del Mar, and Ventura are exploring living shorelines, where natural buffers, such as dunes, wetlands, and reefs, are used

instead of hard seawalls. These nature-based protections help maintain access, reduce erosion, and protect habitats. These plans exemplify the importance of adaptability and our public feedback.

What Can I Look Out For?

These meetings offer an opportunity for us to engage with our civic processes. It’s our chance to maintain coastal access, protect our precious public spaces, and enact change.

Each month, new agenda items are brought forward. The agenda is split into regions. You’d be surprised by the number of items in your own backyard. No public comment is restricted by region; a Californian can spark a conversation anywhere.

This month in Santa Cruz:

SCZ-NOID-0002-25 (Younger Lagoon Beach Access Management Plan): A five-year beach access and management plan for Younger Lagoon Reserve at UCSC. The goal is to create a plan that balances public access and ecological/research protection.

If these matters resonate with you, get involved, follow along, comment, and take part in the discussion.

 

Keep Our Coasts Alive

The beaches, bluffs, and wetlands along our coasts remind us what’s at stake and what’s possible when we protect them. By taking part in the decisions that shape them, you help protect what makes our coast special. Each voice helps keep the promise that our coastlines will remain open, accessible, and alive for generations to come.

What We’re Protecting:

• Clean water and thriving marine habitats
• Open beaches and accessible coastal trails
• Wetlands and natural floodplains
• Working waterfronts and coastal economies
• Healthy coastal highways
• Resilient shorelines that adapt to climate change

 

Learn more and get involved: CA Coastal Commission Site

Each monthly meeting is streamed and open to public comment: Upcoming Meetings and Agenda Access

 

Sawyer Patten- CERF Intern

Utility UPDATE 

Recent Wins in Utility Costs Amid Our Critical Need for Reform 

 

Late last month, Gavin Newsom signed a five-bill utility package into law. The bills aim to address ever-growing utility costs, enhance reliability, and advance climate goals. This is all coming in a time of increasing mistrust in Investor-Owned Utility Companies and decades of rate-payer-harming decisions.  

The package includes AB 825, along with others. This is the same bill addressed in our last post. It establishes a new Public Transmission Financing Fund that doesn’t saddle ratepayers with critical grid updates. It has the potential to save Californians millions of dollars on their utility bills. After decades of utility companies finance projects on the backs of their customers, this is a step toward public control, accountability, and a system that fosters human flourishing.  

Unfortunately, SB 332 didn’t make this round of bills. It would have banned shutoffs for vulnerable groups and explored utilities entering the nonprofit, community-led models. Even though it didn’t pass this year, it opened a door and got people talking. It is expected to return in 2026.  

Looking at what did pass: four more energy and climate-related bills.  First, SB 254 focuses on much-needed wildfire safety. It strengthens the Wildfire Fund by creating a Continuation Account to extend the fund beyond its original expiration, allowing it to continue paying for damages and prevention. Additionally, it bars utilities from earning returns on the first $6 billion of fire-risk mitigation spending and demands greater transparency in prevention efforts. This kind of oversight is overdue.  

Both AB 1207 and SB 840 handle California’s cap-and-trade program. They extend the program through 2045 and restructure the credits so that they are applied during high-bill months, providing more relief. They’ll generate revenue that can be allocated to statewide affordable housing, public transit, wildfire prevention, clean drinking water, and clean energy projects. This takes money out of corporations’ hands and puts it into the publics.   

SB 237 ventures into gasoline prices and fuel supply. It aims to reduce price spikes by diversifying California’s fuel sources (supporting domestic production over imports) and implementing stricter regulations for idle oil pipelines. It also addresses the need for protection in communities living near petroleum wells. This signals recognition of environmental injustices though the need for mitigation remains.  

And just this past weekend, Governor Newsom signed an additional bill that will ban the use of ratepayer dollars for political lobbying and marketing. AB 1167 will also strengthen enforcement against unlawful use of ratepayer funds. The measure followed reporting from The Sacramento Bee, which showed that SoCalGas was using ratepayer dollars to undermine policies meant to combat climate change. Companion bill SB 24 would have gone further, prohibiting utilities from using ratepayer funds to oppose publicly-owned utilities, but it was vetoed. 

So, in the grand scheme of things, where does this package put us? It’s a start. It’s not overly optimistic to say that this could mark the beginning of a shift away from unchecked corporate control of our energy systems. The Bills’ passing is just the beginning; actual implementation and enforcement are the greater challenge. These are wins; our progress is reliant on everyone’s attention and prioritization to ensure these bills aren’t watered down or ignored.  

As we celebrate, California’s utility challenges are far from over. 

The fight for fair, affordable utilities will continue on all fronts, along with our efforts to combat climate change. 

 

Sawyer Patten- CERF Intern

The Elephant in the (Utility) Room

Living in California, we’ve seen decades of steadily increasing utility bills. California’s largest investor-owned companies (IOUs), including PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, and SoCalGas, have leveraged their monopolies to exploit and abuse ratepayers. The utilities subject consumers to skyrocketing bills, while the companies experience ever-growing profits and still fail to upgrade infrastructure to reduce fire risk. This has resulted in widespread distrust, financial hardship, and an unreliable, unsafe grid. Two new state bills, SB 332 and AB 825, aim to protect ratepayers and rightfully place responsibility back on these companies. SB 332 bans shutoffs for vulnerable groups and requires independent audits. And links executive pay to safety outcomes, while AB 825 focuses on grid improvements and wildfire safety using public financing instead of ratepayer dollars. Together, they create opportunities to hold utility companies accountable and invest in a future of safer and cleaner utility structure that prioritizes the interests of Californians.  

California utility customers have faced steadily rising bills with little accountability from the corporations behind them. Since 2021, electric rates have increased over 50% for PG&E and SCE customers without any changes in usage. PG&E, our state’s largest utility company, filed for bankruptcy in 2019 following escalating liability payments for wildfires. Since then, California residents have borne the burden of outdated infrastructure, wildfire risks, and frequent shut-offs, all while companies continue to earn guaranteed profits.  These IOUs executives’ pay packages have only increased.  In 2023, PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe’s $14 million salary increased by $3 million amid statewide ratepayer increases. These payouts coincided with the disconnection of 180,000 Californians’ homes due to non-payment. This reflects a system that prioritizes investor and company returns over responsibility to consumers.

The harms committed by these IOUs are not equal across the state. Unsafe infrastructure disproportionately impacts under-resourced and tribal communities due to systemic underinvestment and environmental racism. Communities of concern face more frequent outages, higher costs, and health risks. Projects that are more likely to induce ecological and public health harms are planned in these communities.

Two recent bills aimed to address this crisis: SB 332 and AB 825. While SB 332 ultimately failed to move forward at this time, it introduced conversations about utility accountability and could return in 2026. AB 825, however, is still pushing and represents an opportunity for change.

 The proposed new bills would have banned shutoffs across the state and included members of impacted communities and tribal communities in research and decision-making.

IOUs function independently as monopolies, but these bills propose modes of finance through public funds rather than utility bills. This allows public entities to finance utility projects, which creates an alternative to relying on IOUs.

SB 332, the Investor-Owned Utilities Accountability Act, responded directly to utility abuse. It called for an investigation of a new alternative utility model that’s non-profit and aligned with the needs and wants of Californians. The research centrally includes wildfire survivors, tribal communities, workers, and environmentalists. The bill also targeted some of the IOUs’ worst offences. It would ban shutoffs for low-income households, pregnant people, and families with small children. It would also prohibit executives from receiving those large payouts while rate hikes continue, require utilities to upgrade dangerous infrastructure, and enforce independent audits. It also invests millions of dollars into climate resilience projects that mitigate the harms these IOUs have committed.

AB 825 focuses on how we plan, fund, and build safer energy systems for California. It establishes a Public Transmission Financing Fund that directs public funds towards safety, modernization, and clean energy development. It streamlines the process, such as permitting, which eliminates excuses and delays. It also demands that IOUs include the voices of communities most harmed by their operations in this new planning process.

Despite prior attempted reforms, many requirements go unenforced, so communities still face shutoffs and massive delays in infrastructure improvements. IOUs hide behind permitting delays and slow-moving decisions, evidenced by the sluggish pace of utility line undergrounding. New bills like SB 332 and AB 825 immediately ban shut-offs for vulnerable groups and require IOU participation in independent, outside audits, directly linking safety outcomes to incentive payouts. 

California voters are ready for change. A new David Binder Research report finds that 85% of Californians believe it’s vital for their legislative representatives to take all possible steps to lower electricity bills for consumers this year.

At CERF, we believe that energy is a human right that needs to be protected. These two bills address the most significant battles regarding utilities: unfair rates, reckless corporate behavior, and a grid that isn’t prepared for climate change.  While they don’t claim to solve these problems, these bills illuminate a path forward.  

And the work doesn’t stop with the bills’ passage. We need to ensure that their protections are enforced, companies fulfill their promises to consumers, and impacted communities are at the center of decision-making. If you’re frustrated, like we are, about where your money goes every month, it’s time to get involved. Learn and join companies striving to make a change. Join Reclaim Our Power, learn more about public power opportunities like Golden State Energy, and help us push for an energy system for Californians, not Corporations. 

 

 

Sawyer Patten- CERF Intern

Vista Unified Goes All-Electric

 

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On July 17, I attended the Vista Unified School District (“Vista”) board meeting, where the district voted unanimously to adopt its Electrification Resolution. Through my involvement with CERF and local climate advocacy, I’ve seen how climate change shows up in everyday life. It’s in the air we breathe, the weather we experience, and the systems we rely on. Watching the board take this step was a reminder that even when progress feels slow or uphill, it is happening, and everyone can be a part of it. This is a meaningful step for students, for public health, and for the kind of future we’re working toward. 

The resolution lays out a clear plan. All new school buildings will be constructed with all-electric systems, and as existing gas appliances and equipment reach the end of their life, from stoves to HVAC to lawn mowers, they’ll be replaced with electric alternatives. School vehicles will also transition to electric. These aren’t just technical upgrades. When schools adopt clean energy infrastructure, they help make healthier, climate-conscious choices the new norm for entire communities. 

 Importantly, Vista hasn’t arrived at this moment overnight. These transitions take time, and they’re powered by the choices of individuals who decide to do things differently. Every new habit adopted, and clean energy solution we embrace, adds up. Vista has been laying the groundwork for years, gradually integrating clean energy as opportunities arise. Solar panels already line the district office parking lot, and the board just approved the purchase of new EV charging stations. At Bobier Elementary, renovations are underway to build a campus powered 90% by solar, with battery backup. The school will be fully electric, including its HVAC and kitchen systems. Each of these steps reflects a broader truth: the path to climate resilience is built by the decisions people make, one by one, and the commitment to keep moving forward. 

The physical infrastructure is only part of the story. Equally important is the investment in education. The resolution calls for green career pathways that prepare students to step into the clean energy workforce. At Vista High School, for example, students are already beginning Electric Vehicle training in auto shop classes. These programs help students connect the dots between climate action, job opportunities, and their futures. When climate-resilient alternatives are present in the classroom, they become a main part of how the next generation perceives the world and their role in contributing to it. 

Electrifying schools creates immediate health benefits. Burning fossil fuels indoors releases pollutants linked to asthma, cancer, and other illnesses, especially for children. Replacing gas with electric systems makes school buildings cleaner, safer, and more resilient. At the same time, these shifts align with San Diego’s broader climate goals. The climate crisis is already here in San Diego felt through different weather trends, wildfires, and worsening air quality. But this moment isn’t just about reducing harm. It’s about building better systems for everyone. 

Vista’s resolution reminds us that anyone can participate and that there are growing ways to get involved. Climate action doesn’t have to mean big changes; it often starts with everyday choices. That might look like walking or biking instead of driving, carpooling to events, or showing up to a local meeting like the one I attended. The new home I just moved into is fully electric. Our landlord recognized the need for this shift and made electrification part of his new normal, for the health of both his renters and his community. This home is one of tens of millions beginning to phase out harmful fossil fuels. There are countless ways to take climate resilience into our own hands, starting right where we are.

And when people come together on these issues, the impact grows. Before the board meeting, I joined students, environmental groups, and community leaders, including representatives of the Climate Action Campaign, North County Climate Alliance, and the San Diego Sierra Club, to show support for the resolution. Some of us were meeting for the first time, others were catching up. Not everyone gave public comment, but everyone showed up. The students who spoke brought the room back to what mattered, their health and futures. 

This energy is contagious. The sincerity of the community presence in the room clearly resonated with the board. After hearing from ten speakers and asking sharp questions during discussion, they passed the resolution with full support. Vista Unified is now the fourth district in San Diego County to adopt an all-electric policy. They’re part of a growing movement of schools not just reacting to climate change, but actively shaping a healthier, more resilient future. The decision is also proof that everyone can contribute to climate-resilience. 

In the end, this resolution is a clear sign of what’s possible on every level, and it’s a step worth celebrating. When local leaders take bold, practical action like this, it permits others to do the same. For me, being part of a community that’s actively creating change feels like a beacon of light. Whether you’re a student, a parent, or simply someone who cares, there’s space for everyone in this shift. 

 

Sawyer Patten- CERF Intern