For months, the Trump administration has sought to open the California coast to a radically industrialized future: large-scale desalination plants, floating nuclear reactors, more rocket launches and expanded offshore oil drilling along the state’s most iconic beaches. Holding the line against all this is a little-known but longstanding federal law, the Coastal Zone Management Act, which grants coastal states like California the right to review and object to any project in federal waters that clashes with state policy. Now, citing California’s “environmental extremism,” Trump officials are attempting to decertify the state’s power under this law. Framed as a performance review of the state’s coastal management practices, this challenge begins in earnest Monday during a public hearing in Santa Monica.