Both Beege and I have written about the ongoing battle between the state of California and the Trump administration over pumping oil onshore from offshore platforms.
The backstory here is that the pipeline, which is located in Santa Barbara, CA had a major spill back in 2015. After that spill, the state shut it down and was clearly planning on never allowing it to resume operation. But another company based in Houston bought it and has been fighting to reopen the pipeline after making some improvements to it.
That battle took a major turn in March when the Trump administration, in the midst of rising gasoline prices tied to the war with Iran, ordered the pipeline reopened under presidential authority.
Following an executive order from President Trump last week, Sable Offshore Corp. announced Monday that it resumed oil flow through pipelines that run across Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties. The infrastructure is part of an offshore oil operation that the Houston-based company has been trying to restart for more than a year.
The resumption of oil transport through the pipelines marks the latest escalation in a long-running battle between between California officials and the Trump administration over energy policy and safeguards…
On Friday, Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked the the Cold War-era Defense Production Act and ordered Sable to restore operations at the Santa Ynez Unit, arguing that the nation’s energy needs supersede state and local regulations.
California responded with lawsuits aimed at shutting down the pipeline. The California Coastal Commission and Sable, the pipeline’s current owner, fought it out in court, but Sable seemed to be losing.
A California appeals court on Wednesday affirmed a trial court’s order granting a preliminary injunction against an oil drilling company that would, in theory, prevent the company from repairing its oil pipeline. But the pipeline repairs have already been completed, and oil has been flowing for months, thanks to an intervention by the Trump administration.
Nonetheless, Wednesday’s ruling does mean that Sable Offshore Corp. is still on the hook for civil penalties.
All of this was over whether or not Sable had the right to repair the pipeline, something that it has already done. The dissent in last month’s case made this clear.
The ruling…drew a rather exasperated dissent from Justice Kenneth Yegan.
“First, a dose of reality,” Yegan wrote. “The repair work has been done. It is a ‘fait accompli.’ And, pursuant to federal intervention, oil is now flowing in the pipeline without incident. The supremacy clause of the United States Constitution takes precedence. The federal Government trumped the state’s Commission ‘cease and desist’ order and it trumps the preliminary injunction order.”
The Trump administration is now turning its attention to the California Coastal Commission. Sable is asking the administration to go farther and simply take possession of the land on which the pipeline is built.
Oil producer Sable Offshore Corp. has urged the Department of Energy to seize land around its pipeline in California as part of a push to create a new West Coast strategic petroleum reserve, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
The request from Sable would ratchet up President Donald Trump’s ongoing energy fight against California Gov. Gavin Newsom…
To ensure “continuous access of supply” from Sable’s Santa Ynez Unit — made up of three platforms off the coast of southern California — to a proposed oil reserve in south central California, two areas of “potential condemnation are required or advisable,” a lawyer representing Sable said in a June 2 letter to DOE obtained by POLITICO.
The Energy Department can under U.S. law use eminent domain for pipelines necessary to develop, operate and maintain a strategic petroleum reserve. It’s unclear whether the Trump administration will seek to establish a standalone reserve in California, but the taking of state land would almost certainly face fierce pushback from state officials.
In the midst of all of this legal wrangling, the NY Times just published a story about how local residents feel about the pipeline. This is basically the NIMBY argument against the Trump administration.
For the people who live here, coastal beauty takes precedence over almost anything else. On a breezy Santa Barbara beach, Amber Armistead walked her pug, Nacho, under palm trees and swooping sea gulls. Beachgoers nearby snacked on guacamole and fish tacos while others dragged their surfboards into the waves.
President Trump “doesn’t care if there’s another spill,” Ms. Armistead, 65, said. “We have such a beautiful place here on the coast. I don’t know why you would jeopardize it.”
All of this is basically built around the fear of another spill. But as the article notes, tar has been washing up on Santa Barbara’s beaches for as long as people have been there.
Black goo has washed ashore here for thousands of years as natural seepage from the abundant oil reserves below the ocean floor. The Chumash tribe waterproofed their canoes and baskets with the sticky tar. Locals know to keep baby oil in their cars to scrape it off their feet…
There’s no reason to believe that increased pumping is releasing more oil into the ocean, experts say, yet locals are on high alert for spills. Neighbors had been anxiously discussing whether the recent accumulation was from the Sable pipeline, Mr. Lewis said.
Mr. Lewis, who has lived in Santa Barbara for three decades, isn’t totally against fossil fuels — he drives a gas-powered car — but doesn’t want Sable to drill near the shoreline where he hangs out everyday.
“This is why I live here, for the beach,” he said.
Obviously you can’t ignore the possibility of a spill which would ruin the beaches, but you also can’t ignore that the Strait of Hormuz is going to be shut down once again and gas could be headed back to $6 per gallon. The oil flowing through Santa Barbara adds about 20% to California’s total oil production. And while that’s a lot of oil, it’s not enough to change the global price.
The real issue here is that letting the NIMBYs say no to every project does have an impact. If this were the only site where environmental concerns were trumping oil production that would be one thing, but this same process is being repeated up and down the coast. The same people who say no to this effort would say no to every effort if given the choice. So at some point they have to be told no and existing, refurbished infrastructure seems like a good place to say no.
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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