President Joe Biden’s historic protection of more than 625 million acres of United States federal waters from new offshore oil development on Jan. 6 includes the West Coast and notably, California, which currently has 27 offshore platforms.

It’s also where a 1969 drilling rupture in the sea floor at Santa Barbara’s Union Oil’s Platform A sent four million gallons of crude oil gushing into the ocean, killing wildlife and damaging habitats, and halting fishing and tourism in the region.

While horrible, that disaster catalyzed a movement which led to voter approval of California’s Proposition 20 in 1972 which enshrined our state’s policy of public coastal access. It also led Congress to approve environmental bills including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and a law that provided for the creation of the national marine sanctuary program in the early 1970s.

Today, 17 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments protect strategic areas of U.S. federal ocean and Great Lakes waters, including six national marine sanctuaries off the West Coast, such as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Each of these sanctuaries were designated thanks to the hard work of people who cared deeply about ocean protection.

In the same way, West Coast residents and leaders have organized since the 1969 oil spill to prevent new offshore oil development. Since 1969, California has had a moratorium on new leases in state waters (up to 3 miles from the shore). This ban on new leases in state waters was made permanent in 1994 through the passage of the California Coastal Sanctuary Act. Residents have also spoken out against proposed lease sales in federal waters (from 3 to 200 miles off the shore) and an annual effort by then U.S. Rep. Leon Panetta blocked funds that would have been used to implement federal oil lease sales for several years.

Twenty-seven California cities and counties have approved laws to prohibit, or require a vote of the people to allow, onshore facilities for offshore oil, such as pipelines, dewatering plants or service yards. Twenty-six of these laws were borne of a campaign started in 1986 by Save Our Shores and Santa Cruz City voters, and in 2017 Marin County brought the total to 27. Jurisdictions with these ordinances range from San Luis Obispo County up through Humboldt County, as well as a couple in Southern California including San Diego City and County. Thirteen local ordinances survived an oil industry lawsuit, demonstrating the validity of the ordinances.

President Biden’s recent executive action is rooted in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which was amended in the late 1970s to allow the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw portions of federal waters from potential offshore oil development based on their environmental sensitivity and importance. His action will further protect the wonderful array of habitats and wildlife that thrive in and around our federal waters.

But you can rest assured that this action will be challenged and when that happens, Save Our Shores will engage on behalf of the ocean, its wildlife and habitats, and you.

Katie Thompson is currently, and Dan Haifley was formerly, executive director of Save Our Shores.