Is offshore oil drilling really a risk right now? We don’t have any oil rigs off our coast and there hasn’t been any pressure to drill for oil off our coast in over forty years.  How worried should Santa Cruz residents be?

 

Yes, the federal government has released a new 5-year plan to sell leases off the California coast (and other regions of the US) to expand offshore oil drilling. Four leases are being proposed for southern California, 2 are proposed for the central coast, and 1 is proposed for northern California. Should the fossil fuel industry show interest in one or more of these leases, this could start the process of establishing oil rigs in federal waters (beyond the 3 mile state limit). 

 

The last time a significant threat of oil drilling off the California coast was during the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. The Trump Administration is now aggressively trying to expand oil drilling under the auspices of national energy security. Recently, a federal judge allowed Sable Offshore to re-start offshore production via its Santa Barbara-area pipeline under the guise of the Defense Production Act. While this isn’t in Santa Cruz, it shows that the conflict between federal and California energy policy is not just a hypothetical issue.

 

Santa Cruz residents must take the threat of new offshore oil drilling to our coast and coastal economy seriously.  

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What is deep seabed mining (DSM)? What effects could a new DSM industry have on our local ocean, coastal economy, and public health?

 

Deep seabed mining is a proposed new industry that would remove mineral-rich deposits from the ocean floor for metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and other critical minerals that are important for battery technology, electronics, weapons systems,, and other technologies. While no commercial-scale deep seabed mining exists anywhere in the world, private companies and the Trump Administration are moving aggressively to establish mining in both international waters as well as ocean areas under US control.

 

Scientists warn that large-scale mining could destroy seafloor habitat, create sediment plumes, release metals and other toxic substances into the water column, and introduce noise and light into deep-ocean ecosystems. Many potential effects, including impacts on fish and fisheries and the possibility that contaminants could enter marine food webs, are highly uncertain because the industry has never operated at scale. That is why many experts are calling for more basic research to be done before mining is allowed to proceed.

 

For Santa Cruz County, a key concern is whether our coast could be used to support this new industrial use of the ocean. A new extractive mining industry would likely require ports, processing and storage facilities, transportation networks, and other onshore infrastructure that would permit mined materials to be brought to shore. Like infrastructure for offshore oil drilling, this could negatively impact our beaches, our coastal ocean, local marine life, and our many ocean-dependent businesses that rely on a clean and healthy ocean.

 

I have heard that deep sea mining doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. Do we really need to worry about it here?

 

Commercial-scale deep seabed mining has not yet occurred anywhere in the world. But that could soon change. The federal government has made the development of seabed minerals a national priority - especially as a counter to China - and is pushing to sell leases in several US territories and off the coasts of Virginia and Alaska. Through this accelerated permitting process, the Trump Administration is now actively reviewing the first-ever U.S. application for a commercial deep seabed mining permit in the Clarion Clipperton Zone and beginning processes to open U.S. waters in American Samoa and the Northern Marianas Islands to seabed-mineral leasing.

 

California has already prohibited seabed mining in state waters, but that law does not prevent mining in federal or international waters. What types of minerals – and in what quantities – exist off the California coast is still scientifically uncertain, but our coast could be a target of this new extractive industry in the future. Measure D would allow Santa Cruz County to decide whether it wants its coastline and onshore facilities to be used to support this emerging industry.

 

Gas prices have never been higher. Don’t we need to drill for oil in our ocean so it doesn’t cost so much to fill up my tank? 

 

High gas prices are a very real concern for many Santa Cruz families, but new offshore drilling off the California coast would not provide quick relief at the pump. It would do little to increase the supply of US gas and oil. And oil prices are set largely by the global market, with California’s gasoline prices heavily affected by our local refinery capacity, CA-specific taxes and fees, and the state’s specialized gasoline blend designed to reduce air pollution.

 

Any new offshore oil field would also take years to lease, permit, develop, and begin producing, meaning any impact on prices would be years in the making. And once oil and gas are produced, those products would enter the broader oil market and not be reserved for our local drivers. 

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California is a leader in green energy, including battery storage for solar energy and electric vehicles which rely on batteries.  Don’t we need to find the metals needed for these batteries in the ocean so we can accelerate the renewable energy transition and address the climate crisis?

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The transition to clean energy will require more critical minerals, but deep seabed mining is not the only – or even the best - way to obtain them. Minerals found in the ocean such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese are primarily coming from existing land-based sources now and there is ample supply to address future needs. It is also easier to address the environmental and social impacts of mining on land (where we can readily see them) than in the ocean, 1000’s of meters below the surface where impacts are “out of sight and out of mind”. 

 

Importantly, expanded recycling of existing minerals, combined with new technologies that reduce or even eliminate the need for some of these metals, can help reduce the need for ocean-derived minerals in the future. Battery technology is changing rapidly. Lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which use neither nickel nor cobalt, now account for more than half of the global electric-vehicle battery market and more than 90% of stationary battery storage installations. New technologies such as sodium-ion batteries could further reduce demand for some critical minerals. 

 

In short, we don’t need to sacrifice the deep ocean to support the clean energy transition.  

 

Santa Cruz is in the midst of a fiscal emergency due to cutbacks from the federal government. Would a Yes on Measure D raise my taxes?

No, Measure D will  not raise taxes or fees, require new County spending, create a new government program, or require additional County staff. That is the conclusion of the official fiscal analysis prepared by the Santa Cruz County Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector, which states that Measure D is “not expected to have a significant fiscal impact” on the County.

 

Measure D simply updates a voter-approved ordinance that has been in place since 1986. It strengthens existing protections governing onshore facilities that could support offshore oil and gas development and extends those protections to address deep-sea mining.

 

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Santa Cruz has an ordinance on the books from the 1980’s that already requires a vote of the people to allow onshore infrastructure that would support offshore oil drilling.  Why do we need to update this ordinance now?  

 

The 1986 ordinance was forward-thinking and has served Santa Cruz County well for 40 years. But the language and approach need to be modernized, strengthened, and expanded to improve its legal defensibility and address emerging threats like deep-sea mining that were not relevant decades ago. 

 

Measure D modernizes these earlier protections by incorporating the latest scientific information on climate change, public health, and ocean ecosystems; removing outdated language and provisions;  and extending the same principle of local voter control of onshore support facilities to the emerging deep-seabed mining industry.

 

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What happens if voters do not approve Measure D? 

 

If Measure D does not pass, Santa Cruz County’s existing 1986 ordinance will remain in effect, but its protections will not be updated. The current law requires voter approval only for oil and gas support facilities of 20,000 square feet or larger, leaving smaller facilities outside that voter-approval requirement.

 

The existing ordinance also does not address deep seabed mining at all. A No vote would therefore leave the County with no mechanism to address this new industry should it seek to establish operations in federally controlled waters off our coast. 

 

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What percentage of the vote is needed to approve Measure D?

Measure D requires a simple majority (more than 50% of the votes cast on the measure) to pass. It does not require a two-thirds or other supermajority vote.

 

If more Santa Cruz County voters vote Yes than No, Measure D will be approved.

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Didn’t Santa Cruz already pass these updates?

 

The City of Santa Cruz did but Santa Cruz County has not. In June 2026, the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously approved updated protections addressing onshore facilities that could support offshore oil and gas development and deep seabed mining similar to those now before Santa Cruz County voters as Measure D.

 

The City and County are separate jurisdictions. The City Council could update the City’s ordinance directly, while the County’s existing ordinance was approved by voters and must therefore go back to County voters to be changed. Measure D thus gives voters throughout Santa Cruz County the opportunity to show their support for local control by voting to update the County ordinance and provide similar protections for the unincorporated areas of the County as those recently approved directly by Santa Cruz City.