NOAA Must Reject the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Demands for Deregulation in the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary
By Elic Weitzel, November 14, 2023
Access to telecommunications infrastructure is absolutely important … , but the Chamber of Commerce is simply using justice-oriented language to promote business interests at the expense of environmental health and Indigenous sovereignty.
In the summer of 2015, a coalition led by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council requested that approximately 7,600 square miles of central California’s coastal waters be officially designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (CHNMS). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is currently considering an updated version of this proposal, which would institute a variety of legal protections for a coastal marine area between California’s Channel Islands and Monterey Bay, safeguarding this environment as well as the cultural heritage of the Indigenous Chumash and other peoples who have lived in this region for millennia.
However, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has recently expressed their opposition to the environmental protections included in the proposal for the CHNMS.
The Chamber is concerned that the CHNMS would negatively impact existing and future subsea fiber optic cable infrastructure. Their specific complaint is that under the CHNMS, companies would be required to obtain additional permits to repair and construct subsea cables. They request that NOAA exempt subsea fiber optic cables from any further regulation under the CHNMS, arguing that such cables are already regulated enough and that regulations on such telecommunications infrastructure can hinder Americans’ access “to healthcare, the financial system, education, and other crucial products and services.”
Access to telecommunications infrastructure is absolutely important for these reasons, but the Chamber of Commerce is simply using justice-oriented language to promote business interests at the expense of environmental health and Indigenous sovereignty. NOAA must reject these disingenuous arguments and maintain full regulations on all development projects within the CHNMS.
As the largest dark money lobbying organization in the United States, spending over $1.8 billion since 1998 to exert their political agenda, the Chamber of Commerce is, in this case, likely speaking on behalf of its members. The Chamber is known to be interested in subsea communications cables, but as they do not publicly disclose their membership lists, it is not possible to say which corporate members may be pushing for this deregulation.
Subsea fiber optic cables may seem like a strange point of conflict, but this contention exists because the CHNMS would abut the town of Grover Beach, CA: the location of the Pacific Crossing cable landing station. This landing station is an important point at which subsea cables spanning the Pacific Ocean surface from under the water and connect to terrestrial communications networks in the United States. As new subsea cables have been laid and connected to this landing station as recently as 2020 and 2022, the Chamber of Commerce could be lobbying for deregulation of such telecommunications projects on behalf of any number of parties interested in profiting from existing and future fiber optic cables in the area.
Contrary to neoliberal dogma, however, deregulation does not produce the sustainable outcomes needed in the face of climate change. Minimally regulated and profit-oriented business practices are the cause of our myriad ecological crises, and are unlikely to also be the solution. The answer lies not in further deregulation, but in instituting mechanisms by which communities and collective groups can take control of our economy and move us towards a more sustainable future. The CHNMS provides a means by which this can occur in central California.
The proposed CHNMS will be part of the National Marine Sanctuary program coordinated by NOAA, which protects well over half a million square miles of marine and interior waters across the territory of the United States. NOAA is currently preparing the final designation documents for the CHNMS, which would be the first such sanctuary proposed by Indigenous groups, and will publish their official designation sometime in 2024. The details of this designation will reflect the proposal by the Northern Chumash Tribal Council and their allies as well as revisions to this plan put forward by NOAA, including the shrinking of the protected area to 5,617 square miles. NOAA is also considering input from the public who had several months to comment on this proposal over the summer and fall of 2023, and it is through this public comment phase that the Chamber of Commerce made their position known.
The CHNMS is needed to protect the diverse flora and fauna of the California coast from pollution and other harms. The CHNMS would also provide an important opportunity to prevent future extraction of fossil fuels from the area, as several oil fields exist within the boundary of the sanctuary. Additionally, the CHNMS is intended to protect archaeological and cultural sites of value to the Chumash, Salinan, and other Native tribes in the area. One such site is Lisamu’, or Morro Rock: a 600-foot tall volcanic rock of great religious significance to the Chumash and Salinan tribes. This stretch of coastline also includes submerged archaeological sites in need of protection, as the region has been inhabited by Native peoples since the last Ice Age and sea level rise has inundated countless Native villages and camps which now lie under the ocean.
Importantly, and as it is Native American Heritage Month, the CHNMS would not only be regulated by NOAA, but by the Native tribes of the area as well. The proposal includes the outlines of a collaborative management plan between the tribes and the federal government, which would involve these tribes in the governance of what was once their sovereign territory. Ample scientific research has demonstrated that the key to sustainable use and management of natural resources, like those within the CHNMS, is local community governance. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom’s research reveals that both privatization and central governmental control of natural resources often fail to produce long-term sustainable outcomes. In contrast, local control by stakeholders can be superior due to strong personal investment in and direct ecological knowledge of the resources in people’s own backyards. Provided there are ways for all parties to participate democratically and collectively sanction rule violators, sustainable ecosystem and resource management can persist indefinitely. Indigenous involvement in the governance of the CHNMS is therefore an important step towards this goal.
We at Change the Chamber*Lobby for Climate therefore ask that NOAA maintain full regulations on undersea development projects in this marine sanctuary, including permits for subsea fiber optic cables. NOAA must reject the disingenuous call by the Chamber of Commerce for deregulation of infrastructure projects within this important sanctuary to preserve the marine environment of central California and its Indigenous governance for the benefit of all, now and into the future.
To find out more, please visit the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary website here and keep track of NOAA’s decision-making progress here. Please help to support the CHNMS by sharing this article on social media and support our work at Change the Chamber*Lobby for Climate here.
Change The Chamber is a bipartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates.