California officials push back against oil pipeline reopening

(CN) — Oil and gas company Sable Offshore Corp. announced Monday that it restarted transporting oil through a pipeline that burst a decade ago in response to an executive order by the president.

Sable said Trump’s intent is to address energy scarcity and supply disruption risks created by California policies, which have forced the area and the military to rely on foreign oil.

Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump’s invocation of the Defense Production Act reckless and illegal. He said the pipeline’s reopening was a political move to blame California for gas price spikes while trying to distract Americans from his wartime failures.

California gas prices, already among the highest in the nation, have jumped since the closure of the Straight of Hormuz following Trump’s Iran attack. Some 20% of the world’s oil is transported through the straight.

Newsom said oil from the reopened Santa Ynez Unit would do little to alleviate cost concerns, as it would increase total oil production by 0.05%.

“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said in a statement. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches. This wouldn’t lower prices by a cent.”

The Center for Biological Diversity also decried Sable’s move, saying California once again faces the threat of an oil disaster from an unsafe pipeline.

“For the sake of the incredible Pacific Ocean and all of its wildlife, the community has worked so hard to make sure we’d never see oil flowing through this defective pipeline again,” said Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner at the center, in a statement. “This is a dark day for California, and I urge state officials to keep standing up to Trump’s bullying.”

The Santa Ynez Unit has remained shuttered since May 2015, after a pipeline ruptured and sent some 450,000 gallons of oil into Refugio State Beach. Workers later documented dead fish, birds and mammals in the affected areas. It also closed fisheries, shut down beaches and affected recreational campers and fishers.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, also slammed Trump for the pipeline’s reopening.

“Any attempt to betray California voters and reopen our waters to risky offshore drilling will face immediate, bipartisan resistance,” he said in a statement. “Our coastline is not a bargaining chip for political cover. We will always defend our pristine coast, its ecosystems, tourism economy, workers and communities.”

The reopening the Santa Ynez Unit is the subject of multiple lawsuits.

California in January sued the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The Ninth Circuit case targets the federal government’s claim that it has exclusive jurisdiction over the Las Flores pipelines, and a subsequent restart plan enabling their return to service.

The state in its suit says that no part of the affected pipeline — from Santa Barbara County to Kern County — crosses into another state or international waters. That means jurisdiction over the pipeline lies solely with California.

On Friday, Sable sued the California Department of Parks and Recreation in the Central District of California. Sable seeks to confirm its rights under the Defense Production Act.

Sable said the state Parks Department sent it a letter on Saturday questioning its rights under the executive order.

“We look forward to working closely with the Department of Energy in fully complying with the [Defense Production Act] and working with the Trump administration to take all necessary steps to deliver the energy necessary for the security and defense of the country,” said Jim Flores, Sable’s chairman and CEO, in a statement.