The perpetual convolutions surrounding Sable Offshore’s quest to restart the 125-mile onshore pipeline that sprung so major a leak in 2015 just got even more convoluted. On December 17, the federal pipeline safety oversite agency known as the Pipeline and Hazardous Substance Safety Administration (PHMSA) agreed with a last-minute request by the ever-embattled Houston oil company that the pipeline in question is, in fact, “an interstate pipeline,” an obscure but crucial determination that effectively takes pipeline oversight and restart authority away from the Office of the State Fire Marshal, which has officially wielded that oversight since 2016.
That matters immensely to anyone with any stake in the ongoing soap opera that is Sable Offshore because the state Fire Marshal recently put Sable on notice that the repair work the company has done to fix the corroded “anomalies” throughout the badly corroded pipeline did not meet the Fire Marshal’s standards. According to the letter the Fire Marshal mailed to Sable a few months ago, the company’s margin of error for the repair work was not adequate.
Sable disputed that assertion and appealed the PHMSA on the grounds that the federal government is endowed with the regulatory authority over pipelines that traverse state boundaries. Last Wednesday, PHMSA issued a statement announcing it concurred.
For those attempting to follow the shaggy-dog story that is Sable, this came as a sudden departure. In 2016, PHMSA signed over all rights to pipeline oversight to the state Fire Marshal. At that time, the federal agency was experiencing a serious shortage in skilled pipeline inspectors; in addition, Plains All American Pipeline company — the operator found criminally negligent in causing the 2015 spill that effectively shut down all offshore oil production off the Gaviota Coast — had declined to make its required payment to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the grounds that the pipeline was shut down.
From Sable’s vantage point, the change qualifies as either a Hail Mary pass or a shoestring tackle. Or both. With Donald Trump in the White House and his administration on a quest for global oil dominance, it seems likely that Sable would experience a more open and amenable reception than it has already at the hands of the state Fire Marshal.
Around the fourth floor of the County Administration building, no one professes to know what options might be available to slow Sable down. The County Counsel is reportedly investigating the matter. To the extent there might be any countervailing forces with the heft to fight this change of regulatory venue, Sable’s opponents are pinning their hopes on State Attorney General Rob Bonta.
