{"id":209053,"date":"2026-03-07T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209053\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:18:09","slug":"trump-administration-sets-stage-to-ok-controversial-offshore-oil-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209053\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration sets stage to OK controversial offshore oil plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the war in Iran sends global fuel prices soaring, the U.S. Department of Justice has released a legal opinion claiming that President Trump has the authority to override California laws and regulations that have blocked a controversial offshore oil operation<\/a> by invoking the Defense Production Act. <\/p>\n

The 22-page opinion, published this week<\/a> by the department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel, takes aim at the many state regulators and agencies that have not yet approved production plans from Sable Offshore Corp. \u2014 the Houston-based firm that has struggled to revive long-dormant oil infrastructure along the Santa Barbara County coast. The opinion calls the networks of offshore rigs and connected pipelines \u201ca critical energy resource on the West Coast.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to the opinion, a presidential order issued under the Defense Production Act of 1950 \u201cwould preempt the California laws currently impeding Sable from resuming production and operating the associated pipeline infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Defense Production Act provides the president broad authorities to influence domestic industry in the interest of national defense or emergencies. It has been used, by former President Biden to help respond the COVID-19 pandemic, while Trump invoked the act<\/a> last March in order to ramp up domestic mineral production. <\/p>\n

A representative for Sable declined to comment on the opinion. But the company has spent months courting the Trump administration for increased support of its project, especially after several legal setbacks, increasingly cumbersome state laws<\/a> and ongoing financial losses<\/a> have left its future in limbo.<\/p>\n

Sable\u2019s proposal has generated intense pushback<\/a>, particularly because it seeks to restart a pipeline that ruptured in 2015, causing one of biggest oil spills in state history<\/a>. That pipeline, which Sable says it has fully repaired, was found to be severely corroded.<\/p>\n

But the project has been stalled for more than a year<\/a> as Sable has failed to secure necessary approvals from state and local officials, who have raised safety and environmental concerns about the project, finding repeated issues of noncompliance and unlawful actions<\/a> by the company.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for California\u2019s attorney general declined to comment on the office\u2019s legal strategy, but said in a statement that they continue to review this development in the Sable case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump Administration\u2019s desire to put oil and gas interests over our communities and a clean environment continues unabated,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

In January, Attorney General Rob Bonta challenged<\/a> the Trump administration\u2019s decision to federalize regulatory authority of Sable\u2019s oil pipelines, which transitioned oversight of the lines from the state\u2019s fire marshal to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Bonta claimed it was an \u201cunlawful power grab.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bonta\u2019s office is also representing the Central Coast Water Board in a lawsuit that alleges Sable repeatedly failed to follow state laws and regulations intended to protect water resources, putting \u201cprofits over environmental protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental groups vowed to fight any such order issued by Trump. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exploring all options to challenge what would be a blatantly unlawful order,\u201d said Linda Krop, chief counsel for Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center. \u201cEven in these unprecedented times, this abuse of executive power would be staggering. … The federal administration is threatening to prop up a company that has flouted the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sable insists it has followed all relevant California laws and regulations. It says that the Santa Ynez Unit \u2014 which includes three offshore rigs in federal waters, an onshore processing facility and a network of onshore and offshore pipelines \u2014 has \u201cmassive resource potential\u201d that could greatly benefit California\u2019s oil supply. Sable acquired the infrastructure in 2024 after a former owner shuttered operation after the 2015 spill.<\/p>\n

The company, however, remains entangled in several<\/a> ongoing<\/a> lawsuits<\/a>, including one in which a state judge ruled last week that Sable still needed to comply with state and local requirements before a restart as outlined in the federal consent decree that followed the 2015 spill. <\/p>\n

But the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s opinion on the matter noted that the an executive order under the Defense Production Act \u201cmay displace sanctions for non-compliance with a contrary consent decree.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if Trump will issue an order usurping California\u2019s oversight, but he has continued to call for increased domestic oil production. Even before the escalating energy crisis that followed the attacks on Iran carried out by the U.S. and Israel, and subsequent counterattacks by Iran, Trump had declared a national emergency related<\/a> to the nation\u2019s energy supply and infrastructure. <\/p>\n

But Krop worries that these so-called emergencies are being used to circumvent necessary safety requirements \u2014 and the Sable project may just be the beginning, she worries. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably not a one off,\u201d Krop said. \u201cThey\u2019re first test of if the president can override state laws. … They\u2019ll try to do this … in any state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the war in Iran sends global fuel prices soaring, the U.S. Department of Justice has released a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,3501,1804,96324,3978,19378,48,52,51,11760,47,50,49,346,9355,1506,1301,1844,14478,1695,31760],"class_list":{"0":"post-209053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-law","10":"tag-company","11":"tag-defense-production-act","12":"tag-emergency","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-legal-opinion","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","20":"tag-los-angeles-news","21":"tag-office","22":"tag-order","23":"tag-project","24":"tag-regulation","25":"tag-sable","26":"tag-state-history","27":"tag-trump-administration","28":"tag-u-s-department"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}