{"id":406114,"date":"2026-07-21T03:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406114\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T03:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:58:17","slug":"california-fights-trump-administration-again-over-santa-barbara-oil-pipeline-the-coast-is-not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/406114\/","title":{"rendered":"California fights Trump administration, again, over Santa Barbara oil pipeline: The coast is ‘not for sale’"},"content":{"rendered":"

California has filed another lawsuit against the Trump administration over the oil operation<\/a> off the Santa Barbara County coastline, asserting in a petition Monday that the federal government \u2014 again \u2014 improperly permitted continued pipeline use.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit<\/a> asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down what it called an “unlawful” permit issued last month to Sable Offshore Corp. by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The special permit waives the Texas-based company’s compliance with a federal pipeline regulation and asserts that the federal agency has oversight of the oil venture.<\/p>\n

The filing from state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta is the latest in a string of challenges <\/a>from California<\/a> to the company’s restarting of three offshore oil rigs and related pipelines \u2014 which are proving to be a flash point between the state’s commitment to environmental protection and President Trump’s push for more U.S.-produced crude.<\/p>\n

“California’s coastline is not for sale to enrich the president’s fossil fuel friends,” Bonta said in a statement. “No matter how many times the administration attempts to help Sable evade state regulation, my office will see them in court at every illegal turn and continue to protect California’s communities and environment.”<\/p>\n

Read more: Hiltzik: An oil company joins with the Trump administration to bully California over offshore drilling<\/a><\/p>\n

Neither a spokesperson from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration nor Sable responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

But in the special permit, administration officials responded to more than 12,000 public comments and said federal regulators had “determined that the special permit maintains pipeline safety” and that they continued to have “sole and exclusive authority” over the pipelines. Bonta’s office, along with the state fire marshal, is also challenging that oversight <\/a>in court, arguing the lines that run through Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties were incorrectly reclassified as interstate pipelines.<\/p>\n

This spring, Sable restarted the use of its pipelines and offshore oil rigs <\/a>after the U.S. Department of Energy invoked the Defense Production Act<\/a> to supersede state laws after months of clashes between Sable and state regulators. Bonta has also disputed that order<\/a>, arguing it was unconstitutional and unlawful.<\/p>\n

The pipelines in question are so contentious because they include infrastructure that had sat idle since 2015, when a corroded section of one of the pipelines burst, resulting in one of the state’s worst oil spills<\/a>. Sable maintains that it has fully repaired the pipelines and that the company adheres to stringent safety precautions. Many locals, however, have concerns about a future spill, and California officials have continued to raise alarms about the company skirting state laws and regulations.<\/p>\n

Monday’s filing is just the latest legal entanglement to involve Sable. The company has been accused of several California Coastal Act <\/a>violations and is facing state environmental law criminal charges, <\/a>a congressional investigation<\/a> of the company’s practices and lawsuits related to claims of insider trading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sable continues to deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The rigs and pipelines remain in operation. As of mid-June, the company was producing an average of 43,000 barrels of oil a day from two of the three offshore oil platforms it has restarted, transporting the crude for sale through the pipelines, according to its latest federal financial statements<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California has filed another lawsuit against the Trump administration over the oil operation off the Santa Barbara County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97304,7,9,8,162819,73170,5876,162820,3020,2794,1799,1800,1695],"class_list":["post-406114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-9th-circuit-court-of-appeals","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-offshore-oil-rigs","tag-oil-pipeline","tag-oil-spills","tag-pipeline-regulation","tag-president-trump","tag-rob-bonta","tag-sable-offshore-corp","tag-santa-barbara-county","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406114","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=406114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}