{"id":219788,"date":"2026-03-14T17:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219788\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T17:52:11","slug":"trump-orders-restart-of-oil-drilling-off-california-coast-as-iran-war-pushes-gas-prices-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/219788\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump orders restart of oil drilling off California coast as Iran war pushes gas prices up"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump moved Friday to force the restart of a disputed\u00a0offshore oil project<\/a> off the California coast, invoking emergency powers as his administration blamed the conflict with Iran for oil market turmoil and rising gasoline prices.<\/p>\n

In an executive order<\/a> signed March 13, Trump expanded the Energy Department’s authority under the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era law that gives the president broad power to direct industry in the name of national defense.<\/p>\n

Soon after, Energy Secretary Chris Wright ordered Sable Offshore Corp. to restore operations<\/a> tied to the Santa Ynez Unit<\/a>, a network of offshore platforms, pipelines and processing facilities along the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County.<\/p>\n

“Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness,” Wright said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the president of using a wartime crisis to push a project that has been tangled for months in court and before state regulators. (Damian Dovarganes\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The move set off an immediate clash with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who accused Trump of using a wartime crisis to push a project that has been tangled for months in court and before state regulators.<\/p>\n

“Trump knew his war with Iran would raise gas prices. Now he wants to illegally resurrect a pipeline shut down by courts and facing criminal charges. And it won’t even cut prices,” Newsom said on X<\/a>. “I refuse to let Trump sacrifice Californians, our environment, or our $51 billion coastal economy.”<\/p>\n

Gasoline prices have surged during the first two weeks of the Iran war. Crude oil has climbed to roughly $100 a barrel, and the average price of gas in California has risen above $5.40 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The infrastructure, now owned by Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp., has been at the center of California’s long-running fight over offshore drilling<\/a>. The system has been largely dormant since the 2015 Refugio oil spill, which fouled the Santa Barbara County coastline.<\/p>\n

\"Cargo<\/p>\n

Cargo vessels are anchored offshore, sharing space with oil platforms, before heading into the Los Angeles-Long Beach port. On Friday, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to push the restart of a disputed offshore oil project off the California coast amid the ongoing Iran conflict. (Eugene Garcia\/Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Federal officials said the project could restore roughly 50,000 barrels of oil a day. Critics, including Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, said that would do little to lower prices because oil is sold on a global market.<\/p>\n

“His reckless war is causing immense damage, and jamming the Sable project through is a hollow solution,” Carbajal said in a statemen<\/a>t. “Once again, the President is prioritizing Big Oil over the well-being of our community.”<\/p>\n

Newsom has pledged legal action.<\/p>\n

This article originally published at Trump orders restart of oil drilling off California coast as Iran war pushes gas prices up<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump moved Friday to force the restart of a disputed\u00a0offshore oil project off the California coast,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,1595,9,8,13267,536,66490,147,86820,457,19378,13265],"class_list":["post-219788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-coast","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-chris-wright","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-department","tag-gas-prices","tag-gasoline-prices","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-iran","tag-offshore-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219788","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=219788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}