Gavin Newsom and Elon Musk agree on at least one thing that ails California.

It’s super bureaucracies that answer to no one: Not the people. Not the California Legislature. And not the governor.

More specifically, it’s the California Coastal Commission.

It is among such agencies as the California Air Resources Board, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and the Delta Protection Commission that basically are autonomous government bureaucracies making wide ranging edicts impacting the day-to-day lives of Californians.

Newsom believes the Coastal Commission is a big hinderance to rebuilding Los Angeles after it was devastated by wildfire.

The smoking gun is the Coastal Commission circumventing Newsom’s January executive order suspending its permitting process for wildfire victims.

The Coastal Commission’s review process for permits often drags on for years in normal situations,

It gets worse.

The Coastal Commission routinely has obstructed, and continues to do so, proposed measures to reduce wildfire risks including instances that many experts believe contributed to the severity of the LA wildfires.

The dragging out of permits for remedial wildfire prevention work applies to private, county, state, and federal lands.

The Coastal Commission edict that got the most press, though, was their October rejection of a request by the Air Force to allow more rocket launches for SpaceX from Vandenberg Air Force Base that is within the 840 miles of coast that the commission’s bureaucracy has a chokehold on.

Commissioners who rejected the request made it clear they were acting not on the merits of more launches and whether it was an impact but rather Musk’s politics.

The most outspoken was Gretchen Newsom, who is no relation to the governor. She stated at the commission meeting where the Air Force request was torpedoed stated, “we’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively interjected himself into the presidential race.”

Musk is also the guy who has revitalized California’s aerospace industry that is now a $210 billion concern. SpaceX employs 13,000 people in California.

The commission’s decision and Musk labeling it as blatantly political prompted Gov. Newsom at the time to state, “I’m with Elon, I didn’t like that.”

The commission was created in 1972 by the California Legislature with basically complete autonomy.

It was structured so it answers neither to the governor or the legislature.

The decision to do so was based on the assumption it would keep politics out of decisions regarding development and protection of California’s coast.

Yet, in October the commission acted 100 percent on politics in their stated reason for not allowing more SpaceX launches.

They didn’t even try to disguise the real reason for their actions.

The commission goes after small businesses, moderate income homeowners, and farmers as well as developers.

They are well versed in acting on ideological whims to extract concessions that local, state, and even federal agencies would never try as it often looks like, and is, an overreach of government run by a bureaucratic agency that answers to no one.

The commission, as an example of overreach, is working to shut down the Skunk Train that has operated over 100 years as part of the Mendocino Railway.

The train carries more than tourists on tracks through 40 miles of redwoods.

It also moves freight and local passengers.

And it’s not like the railroad isn’t working to get environmentally friendly.

The Mendocino Railway this year became the nation’s first railroad to use locomotives that are zero-emission and powered by hydrogen.

Why is the Skunk Train in the crosshairs of the Coastal Commission?

The Great Redwood Trail Agency wants part of the tracks to tie into a 300-mile hiking trail.

Forget the fact the Skunk Train gives tens of thousands of people of all physical abilities the ability to access views of the redwoods.

And forget the fact it is now doing it in a much green friendly way than those tens of thousands of people relying 100 percent on automobiles that are mostly fossil fuel powered.

The Coastal Commission is really overstepping its authority given railroads are regulated by the federal government.

The state has no jurisdiction nor do local governments. Yet an autonomous bureaucracy has decided it does plus assumes that it has the authority to do so even though railroads are the federal government’s exclusive purview.

The commission also has played a heavy hand in wiping out a fifth of Marin County’s agriculture base by rejecting an agreed upon water quality plan between standard government regulatory agencies and a dozen organic dairy farms and cattle ranches within the Point Reyes National Seashore.

The California Air Resources Board is cut from the same cloth as the California Coastal Commission.

CARB is the agency that is banning the sales in California starting in 2030 of natural heating systems for homes even if it is to replace an existing unit that has failed.

It is just one of countless “air quality” decisions the agency makes that impacts Californians that the legislature and governor can throw up their hands and say it is out of their control because of how autonomy CARB was given when it was put in place by their predecessors.

Of course, when the legislature majority agrees with CARB’s action they don’t protest whether edicts are actually what’s best for Californians, `especially those that are the most financially vulnerable.

There are movements in the legislature by Democrats to rein in the Coastal Commission.

Congressman Kevin Kiley, R-Calif, has introduced the Coastal Commission Accountability Act for consideration by the House of Representatives.

He wants the state commission stripped of its  powers under federal law.

Musk, by the way, now launches 30 SpaceX rockets a year from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

SpaceX requested to triple it to 90.

Given the supposedly heavy emphasis the nation has in expanding the exploration and development of space, it’s a modest number.

But the California Coastal Commission doesn’t care about the nation’s priorities.

It cares first and foremost about politics and ideology.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com