Congress Votes to Give Department of War Power over State on Behalf of Sable Offshore

In perhaps the most unprecedented measure on behalf of a single oil company ever, the House voted narrowly on Wednesday to approve this year’s $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act into which an amendment was tucked giving the Department of War absolute approval authority over Sable Offshore’s bitterly contested oil pipeline rights in Santa Barbara and Kern counties. 

The amendment, authored by Republican Congressmember Wesley Hunt from Houston, specifically calls out Sable by name and lists all the legally contested pressure points at which various state agencies have sought to limit, condition, or deny Sable’s applications to move forward. The bill authorizes the Secretary of the Department of War to condemn any state property that Sable needs to transport its oil from three offshore oil platforms off the coast of Santa Barbara through pipelines that have been the subject of intense controversy over corrosion control safety protections and to commercial refineries that can process that oil. The bill, as written, declares that Sable’s unfettered production and transportation rights a matter of national security. 

Sable has noted that California’s refinery capacity has dropped to new lows in recent years due, in part, to loss of production throughout. Without adequate production levels in California, the Houston-based company has argued, more refineries will close and military bases along the state’s coast will experience fuel shortages, which in turn will compromise the nation’s national security. 

The amendment language would make such authorization irrevocable and irreversible no matter how various state and federal courts, now deliberating over various legal controversies surrounding Sable’s production plans and jurisdictional supremacy, might rule. 

This change — known as the Hunt amendment in honor of its author — is not final, stated Eduardo Carrizosa, Santa Barbara Congressmember Salud Carbajal’s press spokesperson. The Senate has yet to vote on the defense authorization bill, which passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 216 to 212 on Wednesday. Senate Democrats have been able to stall the bill thus far, and Republican Senators have expressed their own reservations about the funding bill, especially in light of new revelations how much the war with Iran is costing, its impact on the economy, and how much longer that war might go. The Hunt amendment, it should be noted, won by just one vote 215 to 214 in a separate vote on Tuesday night.

Congressmember Carbajal, who has consistently opposed Sable Offshore, argued against the Hunt amendment in Congress. 

“We know that the military does not need this provision to ensure a stable supply. We are already the largest oil producer in the world, producing nearly 14 million barrels a day. So let’s be clear. This is not about energy independence or national security. It’s about giving Big Oil special treatment at the expense of California,” he argued. 

Carbajal noted that Congressmember Hunt represents the district in which Sable Offshore is headquartered. Carbajal likewise noted that he himself represents the district in which the 2015 oil spill occurred due to badly corroded oil pipelines. 

“Let me be clear again,” he stated. “This isn’t about national security. It is a bailout for polluters.” 

This may be the most dramatic intervention by the Trump administration on Sable’s behalf, but it is not the first. Late last year, the federal agency responsible for pipeline safety asserted it now wielded the jurisdictional authority needed to approve that the pipeline repairs Sable had made were up to snuff. It also ruled that the safety objections made by the Office of the State Fire Marshal were excessive and that the regulations cited by the state were no longer grounded in the new technological realities of pipeline corrosion control. The Department of Justice authorized the Trump Administration to invoke the Defense Production Act, a 1950 bill that authorizes the White House to order businesses to take certain steps in the name of national security. In accordance with that finding, Trump’s Secretary of the Interior ordered Sable — at Sable’s request — to commence production this March, which it did.