You know the powerful California Coastal Commission is an unaccountable bureaucracy when both Elon Musk and Governor Gavin Newsom agree it’s out of line.

In a Wall Street Journal article this past weekend, I explained how the Commission recently denied a U.S. Air Force plan to allow Musk’s SpaceX more rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. It was then accused by Newsom of issuing “legally erroneous guidance” that threatened to delay rebuilding efforts after the LA wildfires.

“Established in 1972 to protect California’s 840 miles of coastline, the commission has warped into what former dissident commissioner Arnold Steinberg describes as ‘a staff-controlled extortion racket that ties up homeowners and developers alike based on ideological whims and what concessions they can bully out of them.’”

President Trump vows that he won’t let Commission members “get away with their antics,” and a House committee has opened a probe into backroom deals by the Biden administration to shut down coastal dairy and cattle ranches.

The Commission is trying to shut down the 100-year-old Mendocino Railway that carries locals, tourists, and freight through 40 miles of redwood groves. The Great Redwood Trail Agency has teamed up with the Commission to replace the railroad with a 300-mile elite hiking trail. Caryl Hart, the Commission’s chairwoman, just happens to also be on the trail agency’s board.

The Coastal Commission is a symbol of why the Golden State is paralyzed on policy and in decline. As one online commenter put it: “SpaceX should be launching rockets, not facing the rocket fire of California’s petty autocrats.”