For the first time in more than a decade, offshore oil is once again flowing through a controversial network of pipelines from California’s Central Coast to Kern County.
Following President Trump’s executive order last week, Sable Offshore Corp. announced Monday that it has restarted the flow of oil through pipelines through Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties. The infrastructure is part of an offshore oil operation the Houston-based company has been trying to restart for more than a year.
The resumption of oil pipelines marks the latest escalation in a long-running battle between California officials and the Trump administration over energy and defense policy.
The network has been closed since 2015, when a corroded pipeline burst and caused the worst oil spill in the state. The unit called Santa Ynez was under different ownership at the time.
Sable had struggled to get the permits and approvals needed from California regulators to resume offshore oil operations. In the process, Sable is accused of repeatedly ignoring the orders of state and local officials, as well criminal acts related to California environmental and coastal laws.
On Friday, Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act and said the nation’s energy needs state and local laws.
It’s a move California officials have derided and have begun to fight.
On Saturday, the California Department of Parks and Recreation demanded that Sable “immediately remove the pipeline” where it passes through Gaviota State Park, formally denying the company’s request to use the line in that protected area.
The agency said it decided to suspend the review of Sable’s project “due to Sable’s difficulty with state resources and the incompatibility of their project with the park department.” The letter said the agency “will take legal action to protect federal property rights” if Sable does not respond within 10 days.
Sable acknowledged the letter in its announcement Monday, but noted that it had filed a new lawsuit against California State Parks the day before. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks confirmation that Sable has the right to operate the park under an executive order.
Sable is still embroiled in several lawsuits with California officials and environmental groups over the pipeline, but this will be the first to test the authority of the Defense Production Act.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump’s use of the Defense Production Act “an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators face criminal charges and which has been prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting.”
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental nonprofit that has pushed for more oversight of Sable’s work, called the use of DPA “egregious and unprecedented.”
“The reckless use of national security law to benefit an oil company that has repeatedly violated the law is a shocking development, even for this administration,” Brady Bradshaw, senior ocean campaigner at the nonprofit, said in a statement. “The courts should not tolerate this shameful abuse of power. … We will continue to fight as hard as we can to protect Santa Barbara’s coastline and end offshore drilling in the state once and for all.”
Sable officials and the Trump administration say the project is important to national security and will benefit consumers.
“Sable Offshore is putting California consumers first by increasing crude oil production in the California market by approximately 17% and we look forward to continuing to operate as directed,” said Jim Flores, Sable’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Department of Energy in full compliance with the DPA and working with the Trump administration to take all necessary steps to deliver the energy needed to protect the nation.”
Sable resumed production at one of its three offshore oil fields last May, but has been unable to transport oil through onshore pipelines due to ongoing legal and regulatory hurdles.
The company said it had 540,000 barrels of crude oil processed this weekend, and plans to bring two of its other offshore rigs – all in federal waters – online in June.
Sable plans to begin sales on April 1 at a rate of 50,000 barrels per day.
“Sable is fully staffed and will continue to operate under special emergency permit conditions,” the company wrote in its update.
