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(This story has been updated to add new information.)
California is challenging an agency under the Department of Transportation for giving a company the “green light” to resume pumping oil through a pipeline, but officials insist the federal government gave the green light.
Against the backdrop of the waves at Dockweiler State Beach, Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday, Jan. 23, that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had illegally given Sable Offshore the “green light” to resume pumping oil through two onshore pipelines that run from Santa Barbara County to Kern County.
In a petition for review filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Attorney General argued that PHMSA had issued an order assuming federal jurisdiction over the pair of pipelines.
Although these pipelines are located only within California, they have been reclassified as “interstates,” Bonta said. He described the move as legally federalizing the pipeline and “taking away state control.”
“This pipeline has been regulated as an interstate pipeline for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” a PHMSA spokesperson said in an email to USA TODAY Network. “The Las Flores pipeline was only redesignated stateside in 2016 when it was taken out of service. Based on the facts presented by Sable in a letter to us last November, PHMSA agreed with the operator that it was appropriate to return the pipeline to our jurisdiction.”
The move comes after the Trump administration began unveiling plans to restart oil operations off the coast of California, a move that quickly raised concerns from advocates who warned it could harm the environment through oil spills and other impacts.
“PHMSA’s approval of Sable’s reopening of this potentially dangerous pipeline is the latest example of President Trump at the mercy of the oil industry,” Bonta said.
Bonta said one of the pipelines had previously ruptured, causing the Refugio oil spill along the state’s coast in 2015.
Houston-based Sable said on its website that restarting both the Santa Ynez unit and the Las Flores pipeline system, the latter of which is the subject of Bonta’s Jan. 23 legal challenge, “will bring significant energy and economic opportunities” to the state. More specifically, it will bring energy to “states with some of the highest gas prices in the country,” a PHMSA spokesperson said.
Last November, the Interior Department announced plans to end the Biden administration-era “restrictive” 2024-2029 National Outer Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Program. At the time, the Interior Department described the project as “the lowest oil and gas lease sales in history.”
The Home Office said the new proposal includes “as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales” offshore, including in the Pacific Ocean.
The environmental nonprofit Surfrider Foundation voiced its opposition to the news.
“The Surfrider Foundation urges the federal government to implement a five-year offshore oil and gas program with no new lease sales,” the foundation said in November. “Such actions will not only protect our precious marine and coastal ecosystems, but also the communities and businesses that depend on these resources.”
Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. please contact her pbarraza@usatodayco.com.
