California sues to block federal restart of offshore oil pipeline

The state of California is challenging the federal government’s attempt to restart a long-dormant offshore oil pipeline in a legal battle that pits state authority against federal emergency powers. State officials are appearing at a federal court hearing on Monday in Los Angeles to demand that Sable Offshore Corp. Cease operations of a pipeline segment passing through Gaviota State Park and remove the infrastructure entirely. The pipeline system had been idle since one of its pipelines ruptured in 2015 and caused one of California's worst oil spills, blackening beaches for 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright used a Cold War-era provision March 13 to direct Sable to restart production, saying shoring up domestic oil supplies is needed to lower gas prices amid the Iran war as the Islamic Republic continues to squeeze a vital shipping channel through which one-fifth of the world's oil travels. The U.S. Energy Department said Sable will help California's in-state oil production jump by 15%, which will replace almost 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude oil each month. However, state officials say permission to use the pipeline on state land expired in 2016.

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The legal conflict has drawn sharp criticism from California officials. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has filed lawsuits over the project, said the U.S. already produces significantly more oil and gas than we use — it's a completely fabricated claim intended to curry favor with the oil industry. Academic experts, such as Paasha Mahdavi of the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the estimated production of 50,000 barrels a day is also a drop in the bucket on the global scale and will have no impact on domestic gas supplies or prices. Stanford Law School professor Deborah Sivas characterized the federal move as an expansion of the act intended to bypass state regulations. This broad expansion of the act, where they're saying we're just going to preempt all of state law, we're going to use it to just crush state law and order what we want going forward — it's anxiety producing, Sivas stated.

The situation remains volatile due to broader regional tensions. President Trump said on Monday that the U.S. Would become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we'll call it the 'Guardian Angel of the Strait'. And we should be reimbursed for that. The Santa Barbara District Attorney also filed felony criminal charges against Sable, accusing it of polluting waterways and harming wildlife as it repaired the pipeline system.

Local judicial efforts to halt the project persist. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Donna Geck kept in place an injunction she imposed last year after the California Coastal Commission fined Sable a record $18 million for ignoring cease-and-desist orders over allegations of working without the proper permits. While Sable argues that federal orders supersede local requirements, Judge Geck maintained in her ruling that the Defense Production Act, by itself, does not permit the violation of applicable state regulatory law. Jim Flores, Sable's chairman and chief executive officer, said April 20 that the pipeline had already produced more than 1 million barrels of oil.

What to watch next

• Federal court proceedings in Los Angeles will determine whether the administration’s emergency order successfully preempts California's property and environmental laws.
• Criminal proceedings led by the Santa Barbara District Attorney regarding the 2015 pipeline system failure remain active, potentially impacting the company's long-term ability to operate.