California Attorney General Sues Trump Administration to Block Restart of Sable Oil Pipelines in Santa Barbara County

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has thrown another punch in the state’s legal boxing match against Sable Offshore Corp. and the Trump administration. 

In front of a gleaming backdrop of breaking waves on a Los Angeles beach — to “show what’s at stake” — Bonta announced on Friday that the state is suing to take back jurisdiction of the Las Flores oil pipelines, after the federal government ripped that jurisdiction from the hands of the State Fire Marshal and granted Sable an emergency permit to restart oil production along the Gaviota Coast. 

One of the pipelines Sable is attempting to restart is the same one that infamously ruptured and leaked 142,000 gallons of oil into the ocean and the coastline in the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill. In its attempts to repair it, the Houston-based oil company has been hit with a number of roadblocks in the form of lawsuits, fines, and permitting denials from the county and the state.

With the state doing everything in its power to make Sable comply with its environmental and safety regulations — which Sable has treated more as an inconvenience than a hindrance, resulting in much regulatory pushback from state agencies such as the Coastal Commission — Sable “went crying to Trump,” in Bonta’s words. 

Sable was seeking the approval it needed to restart production, which the state was so stubbornly withholding. On October 22, the State Fire Marshal decided that Sable’s repair work on the corroded pipeline was not up to par, pushing any dreams of a restart much, much further down the line. 

Sable turned to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to take back jurisdiction of the pipeline and grant it the approval it needed to restart production from its Santa Ynez Unit — including three offshore platforms and onshore oil and gas plant Sable bought from ExxonMobil in 2024 — and pump it across the coast. 

To accomplish this, on December 17, PHMSA declared the onshore pipeline an interstate pipeline (meaning it crosses state boundaries), placing it under federal oversight, despite it never leaving the state of California — effectively negating PHMSA’s 2015 determination that it was an intrastate pipeline under California authority. A few days later, it also granted Sable an emergency start-up permit, despite the protests of environmental groups.  

This declaration, bolstered by the administration’s “bogus National Energy Emergency,” Bonta argued, was far more than stretching the truth. It was a “fallacy,” a blatant disregard of the truth — saying the pipeline crossed state lines when that is not the case — to benefit the oil industry, in the pocket of which Trump is comfortably perched, Bonta charged. And that was categorically unlawful, he said.

Bonta said the lawsuit is not about whether oil should be able to run through the pipelines or not, but about who gets to decide — the president or the state of California. He wants to get the “right” jurisdiction in place, he said. And he’s moving forward with the lawsuit today to get ahead of federal approvals — the “sham” emergency permit, Bonta called it — that would allow Sable to restart production under Trump’s not-so-watchful eye. 

“The answer is clear, the state of California gets to decide,” Bonta said. “The disastrous spill, the Refugio Oil Spill in 2015, was caused by corroded pipes from one of the Las Flores pipelines. Now, over a decade later, Sable doesn’t like how the process is going, or the lawsuits that are piled up from local and state authorities … Sable said ‘Jump,’ and Trump said, ‘How high.’”

Filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Bonta’s petition for review challenges PHMSA”s attempt to evade state regulation and usurp California’s authority, his office said. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Office of the State Fire Marshal, argues that PHMSA’s orders violate the Administrative Procedure Act and asks that the Court overturn PHMSA’s “illegal” orders. It marks Bonta’s 55th lawsuit against the Trump administration.

“The Office of the State Fire Marshal is committed to its mission to protect the people, property, and natural resources of California,” said State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant in a statement. “Our team has worked diligently to uphold the terms of the consent decree and ensure the safety of lines CA 324 and CA 325,” also known as the Las Flores oil pipelines. 

Santa Barbara County’s assemblymember, Gregg Hart, commended the Attorney General for his action to “protect our coastline, our communities, and our economy.”

“The State of California will not allow Sable — nor the Trump administration — to come to California, ignore our laws, and expect to get away with it,” Hart said. 

“The people of the Central Coast have been clear: we do not want another oil spill,” Hart said. “This legal action is about accountability, safety, and making sure that decisions affecting our coast are made through a public process — not behind closed doors in Washington.”

The Independent reached out to Sable Offshore Corp. for comment but did not receive a response by press time. The story will be updated when a response is issued.