Hands Across the Sand
Thousands of Californians Rally to Protect Our Coast and Oppose Offshore Drilling
Santa Barbara, CA–Environmental groups, students, Tribal leaders, and others will gather on the sand at Santa Barbara’s West Beach to join hands in solidarity and send one unified message: no new offshore oil drilling. Hands Across the Sand will take place in nearly a dozen communities across the state, bringing together thousands of Californians to join hands at the water’s edge and take one unified photo that shows the country that California strongly opposes offshore oil drilling and wants a clean energy future.
WHAT: Rally, brief remarks by local leaders, and hundreds of community members joining hands at the water’s edge for one unified photo calling for no new oil drilling.
WHEN: Saturday, September 26
- 11:00 am — Gather in the sand at West Beach
- 11:15 am — Short program at the stage
- 12:00/noon — Photo/video opportunity at water’s edge
- 12:15 pm — Nonprofit tabling and collective action
WHERE: West Beach, Santa Barbara, CA (just north of the dolphin statue)
WHO: Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Center, Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, Surfrider Foundation, Fearless Grandmothers, 805 Action, Clue SB, Unidos 805, 350 Santa Barbara, League of Women Voters, Last Chance Alliance, Sea Leagues, Get Oil Out!, Indivisible Santa Barbara, and Women’s March
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
- Emily Engel, Santa Barbara Sierra Club
- Spencer Jaimes, Chumash
- Linda Krop, Environmental Defense Center
- Meagan Harmon, California Coastal Commission Chair
- Ethan Maday, 805 Action and student activist
BACKGROUND: Right now, California’s Central Coast is under threat from the Trump administration’s plans to open the coast to new drilling, allow fracking in the Santa Barbara Channel, and empower the Sable oil company to operate its failed pipeline in violation of state laws and court orders.
Late last year, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced plans to target the entire California coastline, including the Santa Barbara Channel, for new offshore oil leases with the first sale as soon as 2027. This plan threatens California’s coastal resources, local economies, wildlife, commercial and recreational fishing, and the well-being of our communities. This is the first time the federal government has opened the California coast to new lease sales since 1984, when Ronald Reagan was president.
Additionally, earlier this year Sable Offshore restarted oil operations using the same pipeline responsible for the 2015 spill at Refugio State Beach. The company relied on a Trump administration order to ignore California state laws and an injunction preventing the restart of Sable’s facilities. We are now learning that only two months after restarting the pipeline, tests conducted in May 2026 identified anomalies that are significant enough to require Sable to have to excavate and potentially conduct repairs. The company has not obtained required permits from the California Coastal Commission to make repairs to the pipeline in the Coastal Zone. The 2015 spill was one of the worst in state history, spewing more than 120,000 gallons of crude, killing hundreds of marine mammals and birds, shutting down fisheries for over a month, and recreational opportunities were lost, costing local coastal industries millions in lost revenue.
An increase in offshore oil drilling and subsequent spills threatens the inherent value of the Santa Barbara Channel and California’s coast, as well as the state’s coastal recreation economy, valued at over $44 billion annually
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