No ocean drilling

Weakening environmental protections is a fulltime job for the Trump administration. Its emissaries are going after pollution controls, wildlife areas and water quality rules. Now the White House is setting up marine sanctuaries off the California coast and elsewhere in U.S. waters for oil drilling.

The idea is a slap at past Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who put millions of acres of coastal waters, from New England to Samoa, off limits to exploitation. In this state, four sanctuaries on the list include stretches of the Pacific from Monterey to the tip of Mendocino County.

Trump’s Commerce Department is weighing public comment on the idea of opening the areas to oil and gas drilling, an activity that both voters and elected officials in California have ruled out repeatedly as dangerous and ill-suited to the state’s future. Tourism, fishing and public enjoyment rate higher than fossil fuels and oil spills, Mr. President.

The tone-deaf action sounds implausible, especially with coastal counties, lawmakers and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris strongly opposing drilling. But the idea has a way of persisting against all logic, especially with the Trump administration, which has drawn a bead on so many environmental targets.

Prying away protections for coastal conservation follows an earlier White House directive to reconsider over two dozen presidentially conferred monuments and sanctuaries.

For now, millions of acres in the wild back country and open water are spared from mining, drilling and development.

But those protections are getting front-burner attention from Trump’s industryfriendly appointees. The fight to safeguard California’s coast isn’t over. This state should make its voice heard in stopping a reckless policy.