Santa Barbara Environmentalists Celebrate Newsom’s Signing of One of ‘Strongest Anti-Offshore Oil Bills in State’s History’

With new oil and gas leases on the horizon for federal waters off California’s coast, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that secures protections for the state’s coastline. 

Assembly Bill 1448, authored by Assemblymember Gregg Hart of Santa Barbara, prohibits any new offshore oil and gas operations, under leases issued after January 1, 2026, from using state-controlled offshore infrastructure.

That means if oil or gas is drilled in federal waters off California in the future, operators cannot use existing infrastructure in state waters — such as oil rigs and pipelines — to produce, process, or transport that oil or gas. 

The new law, which takes effect in January 2027, comes as the Trump administration has proposed opening California’s coast to six new federal offshore oil leases from 2027 to 2030. California has prohibited new drilling in state waters for more than three decades, and the federal government has not issued a new offshore oil and gas lease off California since 1984.

While only four oil rigs exist in the three nautical miles from shore that comprise the state’s waters — two of which are already being decommissioned — there are pipelines established along the coastline that could be used to transport oil ashore. But everything will now be off-limits, “effectively blocking” development, Hart claimed at a press conference on October 2. 

“There’s really no way for them to develop those leases without having the use of existing infrastructure,” he said.

He said the bill also strengthens environmental and safety considerations for oil and gas infrastructure and further protects the state’s Marine Protected Areas and National Marine Sanctuaries — zones of ocean where most extractive activities are prohibited — from new oil and gas leases. 

Hart described the importance of such protection for Santa Barbara: several oil spills have sullied the county’s coastline dating back to 1969. “We know firsthand what happens when oil and water mix in a really dangerous way,” Hart said. 

This bill will serve as the final piece in a trilogy of legal protections for the California coast, building off prior legislation that banned offshore oil drilling in state waters in 1994. It also closes the remaining loophole in a 2018 bill authored by former state senator Hannah-Beth Jackson that prevented the construction of new infrastructure in state waters to facilitate federal offshore oil development.  

“Assemblymember Hart got the whole loaf this year,” Jackson said during the conference, held at the Santa Barbara headquarters of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), one of the bill’s main sponsors. 

Linda Krop, Chief Counsel for the EDC, said components of Hart’s legislation were tried before but not passed due to pushback. This time, “nothing got cut” from the bill, which is “almost unprecedented,” and creates one of the “strongest anti-offshore oil bills in the state’s history.” 

“It will be a major obstacle to any new fossil fuel development in federal waters offshore California,” Krop said.

This will help the state continue to “wean off oil,” despite everything the federal administration has done to “prop up this industry,” she said. Just look at Sable Offshore, the oil company that has circumvented state authority and regulations to revive oil production in Santa Barbara County, she said. With dubious emergency permissions from the Trump administration, she noted, they are restarting aging platforms and pumping oil through a once-corroded onshore pipeline that runs through the Gaviota Coast. 

This bill will have no effect on Sable’s continued operations, Hart clarified — only on future offshore leases.

Other speakers, including representatives of the bill’s sponsoring organizations such as Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity, cited the well-documented drawbacks of oil and gas development: threatening vulnerable wildlife, such as blue whales and sea otters, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and risking massive spills that could hurt California’s multimillion “blue economy.” Despite the administration’s claims of potential economic benefits and a need to fight a so-called national energy crisis, research shows that new offshore oil and gas production would have a negligible impact on gas prices, they argued. 

When asked if he expects any pushback on the new law, such as from possible industry interests or the administration, Hart said no. 

“I think it’s very clear: California has the right to determine what happens in state waters,” he said. “I’m not naive about the fact that the Trump administration might try something outside of the Constitution that is illegal, and that we will have to fight … but we’re ready for that.”