On May 1, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed another legal challenge to Sable Offshore’s oil-pumping activities through its two onshore California pipelines.
Bonta’s motion for a preliminary injunction seeks to halt Sable’s restart of the pipelines, known as the Las Flores Pipelines, after the Trump administration greenlit the operation through an arguably dubious order and declaration of an equally dubious national energy emergency.
Sable’s federal bailout — namely, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s “Pipeline Capacity Prioritization and Allocation Order” under the Defense Production Act — was unlawful, Bonta argues.
The motion is part of Bonta’s second lawsuit against the administration’s efforts to restart the Sable pipelines. In it, he urges the court to revoke the order and immediately block Sable’s transportation of oil through the pipelines. He says these actions are not only illegal, but could also “subject California to irreparable harm without the court’s intervention.”
To recap, oil is already flowing through the pipelines. Sable has repeatedly sidestepped state regulatory agencies in its pursuit to repair and restart the Santa Ynez Unit (including three offshore platforms, onshore processing plant, and the two pipelines) it purchased in 2024 — nearly 10 years after production was shut down due to the Refugio Oil Spill, caused by the severe corrosion of one of those pipelines.
To start moving oil in March, Sable skirted state requirements and approvals. Instead, it relied on federal permission, which state leaders and environmentalists argue was unlawfully given.
That’s the crux of Bonta’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, filed in March: The federal government should not be able to supersede state authority, and a federal Consent Decree, to allow Sable to restart oil transport through the pipelines. That federal decree requires Sable to obtain approval from the State Fire Marshal before restarting — approval the State Fire Marshal has so far withheld.
The Trump administration cited an “energy emergency” in its justification of the restart, which Bonta called “BS” in his announcement of the lawsuit. That was on March 23, two weeks after Sable had begun oil and gas production at the Santa Ynez Unit along the Gaviota Coast.
Bonta’s new motion for an injunction joins another injunction imposed by Santa Barbara Judge Donna Geck, which requires the company to secure all necessary state approvals, and give the court 10 days’ notice, before restarting. In April, Geck refused to lift the injunction, even though oil was already flowing.
It also piles onto Bonta’s first lawsuit against the administration for lending a helping hand to Sable. In January, he filed a lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s order to reestablish authority over the pipelines by reclassifying them as “interstate,” issuing a restart approval for Sable, and providing Sable an emergency permit that waived regulatory compliance in order for Sable to restart oil transportation through the pipelines. That lawsuit remains ongoing.
The first court hearing on the injunction is scheduled for June 1, which is the soonest it may go into effect, depending on whether the judge decides to grant it.
