{"id":208783,"date":"2025-12-30T19:16:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/208783\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T19:16:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:16:22","slug":"environmental-groups-sue-trump-administration-over-emergency-approval-for-sable-pipeline-restart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/208783\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Groups Sue Trump Administration over \u201cEmergency\u201d Approval for Sable Pipeline Restart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Environmental groups filed an \u201cemergency lawsuit\u201d against the Trump administration late last week for taking back regulatory control<\/a> of the Las Flores Pipeline System and rushing to approve Sable Offshore Corp\u2019s restart plan for the pipeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state has repeatedly hindered the Houston-based oil company\u2019s plans to restart the pipeline \u2014 the same one that caused a massive oil spill along the Gaviota Coast\u00a0 in 2015 \u2014 leading Sable to go over the heads of state regulators altogether and seek a bailout by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).\u00a0<\/p>\n

On December 22, PHMSA approved Sable Offshore Corp\u2019s restart plan \u2014 soon after it labeled the pipeline as \u201cinterstate\u201d (despite it never leaving the state of California), therefore wrenching oversight from the hands of the State Fire Marshal and placing it under federal jurisdiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fire Marshal had just recently found that the pipeline still needed repairs before it could safely resume operations<\/a>. The Environmental Defense Center \u2014 which filed the lawsuit<\/a> alongside the Center for Biological Diversity and their clients, including the Sierra Club and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper \u2014 said the administration\u2019s approval ignores laws requiring environmental review and public input for such a decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawsuit names PHMSA, the Department of Transportation, and their heads \u2014\u00a0 Paul Roberti for PHMSA and Sean Duffy, the secretary of the Department of Transportation \u2014 as defendants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRushing to restart this failed pipeline without following basic federal safety laws and without even making the necessary repairs poses an immediate threat to lives, property, and the environment across a large part of our state,\u201d said EDC Chief Counsel Linda Krop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t allow the Trump administration and Sable to undermine California law and gamble with the safety of everyone living along the pipeline route.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a slap to the face for the EDC and other environmental groups that have been fighting Sable\u2019s restart plans from the beginning, after it took over ExxonMobil\u2019s previous assets, including the pipeline, three offshore oil facilities, and an onshore processing plant. Since then, the company has wracked up violations, cease and desist orders, criminal charges, and lawsuits from environmental groups and state agencies as it attempted to repair and restart the pipeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move by PHMSA to grant an \u201cemergency special permit\u201d to Sable for the pipeline restart \u2014 waiving compliance with federal pipeline regulations \u2014 blatantly disregards multiple environmental safeguards put in place to prevent oil-based catastrophes like the 2015 Refugio Spill, the groups argue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The feds\u2019 \u201cemergency\u201d rubberstamping stems from the Trump administration\u2019s declaration of a \u201cnational energy emergency\u201d and claims that California\u2019s lack of production somehow poses a national security threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conservation groups call that a farce \u2014 they say that during the 10 years the pipeline was shut down following the 2015 spill there was no major uptick in oil or gas imports to compensate \u2014 and are requesting the court order an emergency stay on the PHMSA approval. They claim it violated the Pipeline Safety Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in \u201cfailing to follow the required public process, conduct the necessary environmental review, or make the required findings about pipeline safety or the so-called emergency,\u201d according to the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRestarting the Pipeline System would not only invite another oil disaster on the Central Coast, but all but ensure it,\u201d the groups\u2019 emergency motion states. \u201cThe Pipeline System has already ruptured once, and the underlying cause of that rupture has not been corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Environmental groups filed an \u201cemergency lawsuit\u201d against the Trump administration late last week for taking back regulatory control…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-208783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}