California has released its battle plan in a brewing war between the White House and coastal states opposed to the Trump administration's expansive offshore drilling ambitions.
The state's powerful land commission said on Wednesday it will refuse to issue permits for infrastructure that drillers need to bring oil and gas from offshore fields to land. Meanwhile, the California Coastal Commission, which has authority to review oil and gas activity off the state's shores, also formally opposed Trump's plan to allow new drilling in Pacific waters.
The strategy could serve as a blueprint for the governors and congressional delegations of coastal states, who are overwhelmingly united in bipartisan opposition to Trump's plan to open nearly all of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas development.
California's three-member State Lands Commission is vowing to block construction of pipelines or to permit oil and gas from new offshore developments to flow through existing lines.
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who chairs the commission, said the state will use "every tool available" to resist President Donald Trump's "cynical, regressive agenda."
"I am resolved that not a single drop from Trump's new oil plan ever makes landfall in California, where our leadership in reducing emissions and curbing pollution has enabled exceptional economic growth," Newsom said in a statement.