This article was written by The Associated Press. The Mendocino Voice and The Associated Press partner to bring relevant fact-based and nonpartisan news and information to Mendocino County readers through the AP Fund for Journalism. Learn more about the program here.
WASHINGTON (AP), 3/15/26 — U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright directed a Texas-based oil and gas company Friday to restore operations in waters off southern California that were damaged by a 2015 oil spill, invoking the Defense Production Act.
Restoring Sable Offshore Corp.’s Santa Ynez unit and pipeline off Santa Barbara aims to address supply disruption risks, according to a department news release. The unit includes three rigs in federal waters, offshore and onshore pipelines, and the Las Flores Canyon Processing Facility. The facility can produce about 50,000 barrels of oil per day and would replace nearly 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude each month, officials said.
“The Trump Administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first,” Wright said in a statement. “Unfortunately, some state leaders have not adhered to those same principles, with potentially disastrous consequences not just for their residents, but also our national security. Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness.”
On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reverse former President Joe Biden’s ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts. A federal court later struck down Biden’s order to withdraw 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the move.
“This is an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators are facing criminal charges and prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting,” Newsom said in a statement. “California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy. The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.”
In January, California sued the federal government for approving Houston-based Sable’s plans to restart pipelines along the coast. Democratic state Attorney General Rob Bonta said at the time that the state oversees the pipelines through Santa Barbara and Kern counties and the federal government “has no right to usurp California’s regulatory authority.”
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A couple of points of clarification not mentioned in the article:
In 2015, the pipeline leak was onshore, not offshore, and was due to poor maintenance. Sable Offshore Corp. had nothing to do with it. They became owners later and made the necessary repairs. The Santa Ynez Unit is in Federal waters 5-9 miles off the Santa Barbara County coastline, not in California.
More importantly, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) stated military dependence on California’s oil and gas infrastructure is a national security crisis. Over 30 major military installations in the state are dependent on in-state refineries for critical jet fuels (JP-5/JP-8), diesel, and gasoline. While California can muck around with unique gasoline blends and the over regulation of refineries, when it comes to our national defense, political game playing ends. Our military cannot be dependent on foreign oil. Simple as that.
States do not control offshore drilling in federal waters, but they can influence it by:
coastal consistency review
permitting infrastructure
environmental approvals.
These tools often give states significant practical leverage.
Monday, March 16: After being offline for more than a decade, oil is officially flowing again through the Santa Ynez Pipeline System off the coast of Southern California!
The Hospital bedside heart monitor just clicked on. The ECG Waveform just started and there’s continuous electrical activity. It’s alive!