On March 13, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright invoked the rarely used Defense Production Act and directed Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp. to restart a pipeline that caused a massive oil spill near Santa Barbara in 2015. 

The move to restart the pipeline represents a major development in a years-long battle over the Santa Ynez project, which includes three offshore oil platforms and the pipeline connecting them to processing facilities on land. It comes amid rising global fuel prices due to the administration’s war with Iran, though Sable has been working for over a year to restart the pipeline that caused one of California’s worst oil spills a decade ago.

California regulators and environmental groups have taken numerous actions to stop Sable's attempt to restart the pipeline, while the company remains determined to steamroll through legal hurdles and environmental concerns. When the pipeline burst in 2015, the ensuing Refugio Oil Spill released more than 100,000 gallons of oil, fouled 150 miles of coastline, shut down beaches for two months, and killed over 550 seabirds. It was the worst oil spill in the state since 1990. 

The Trump administration asserts that it has the authority to supersede state laws under the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law enacted during the Korean War that allows the president to identify specific goods as "critical and strategic." With oil prices rising due to Trump’s war in Iran, the administration is eager to tap domestic fossil fuels under the false impression that it will help lower skyrocketing gasoline prices. Shortly after entering office, Trump issued the executive order, “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” which was amended on March 13 to delegate more authority to the Secretary of Energy so Wright could invoke the Defense Production Act.

Wright said the restoration of the platforms and pipeline are necessary “to address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil.”

Alex Katz, executive director of the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, said allowing the Sable pipeline to operate will have zero impact on gas prices. 

“What we’re seeing is a corrupt abuse of the president’s power to benefit one company that has plowed up the coast without permits, ignored orders from state regulators, and racked up criminal charges including five felony counts,” said Katz. 

Katz is concerned that the administration could give similar orders to other oil companies. 

“If they can override California laws, they can do the same in any other state,” he said. “This is a profoundly irresponsible decision for the benefit of one oil company with potentially disastrous consequences for everyone else.”

Talia Nimmer, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said the Trump Administration does not have the power under the Defense Production Act to run roughshod over state and federal law.

“There are serious statutory and constitutional issues at play here, and we expect the courts will strike this down,” she said.

Nimmer said the pipeline remains a dangerous and unnecessary project that has already caused serious harm to coastal California. The area is home to a wide diversity of species, many of which are threatened or endangered, including humpback whales, southern sea otters, black abalone, red-legged frogs, California tiger salamander, steelhead trout, and western snowy plovers.  

“We believe that Sable still must comply with outstanding federal and state judicial requirements before it can lawfully restart these dangerous pipelines which jeopardize our environment, health and safety,” Nimmer said.

Trump’s executive order is the latest escalation in an ongoing dispute between Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over California’s energy policies, with the state favoring clean energy and Trump pushing fossil fuels. The administration also recently sued two Bay Area cities over energy efficiency policies that block natural gas infrastructure in new construction. And, in January, the Trump Administration released plans to open more than one million acres of public lands in California to oil and gas drilling and fracking. Federal regulators are also considering approving new offshore fracking operations at drilling platforms along the state’s coastline for the first time in several years. 

Newsom was quick to condemn the Trump administration for exploiting the “Iran war crisis of his own making to harm California’s coastline,” with its order to restart the pipeline.

“California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy,” said Newsom. “The Trump Administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.”

In January, California Attorney General Rob Bonta challenged the Trump administration’s attempt to federalize the pipeline and bypass state oversight, calling it an “unlawful power grab.”

On March 13, Sable sued the California Department of Parks and Recreation asking a judge to declare that the new federal orders overrode any state requirements for further environmental testing or review. In response, the California parks department demanded that Sable immediately remove a portion of its pipeline crossing Gaviota State Park in Santa Barbara County. The parks department asserts that the company’s easement to use state park land for pipeline operations expired in 2016.

Santa Barbara has a long history of opposition to offshore drilling, ever since a 1969 platform blowout spilled over 4.2 million gallons of oil that devastated the coastline and helped launch the modern environmental movement.

The previous pipeline owner, Plains Pipeline, was deemed criminally negligent for the 2015 rupture that led to the Refugio oil spill and recently agreed to the largest ever settlement with the California State Lands Commission for $73 million on top of an earlier a $22.3 million settlement to restore natural resources injured during the spill. During the investigation into the spill, a pipeline safety feature called cathodic protection that is required by state and federal law was found to be damaged beyond repair on the nearly three-decade-old pipe.  

Maureen Ellenberger, chair of the Sierra Club Santa Barbara-Ventura Chapter, said the administration is ignoring the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration report issued on the spill in 2015, which “laid out in stark terms how dangerous a restart would be.”

“The cathodic protection system on this pipeline was severely compromised — the pipe was wrapped in insulation that trapped moisture directly against the metal and accelerated the corrosion that caused the 2015 spill,” said Ellenberger. “That damage doesn't disappear because there's a geopolitical crisis. What's changed is the political will to ignore the science. It's a liability dressed up in national security language.”

Lead photo: Oil on the beach at Refugio State Park in Santa Barbara, California, on May 19, 2015. (U.S. Coast Guard)