Trump order revives Santa Barbara oil pipeline fight

The Trump administration used the Defense Production Act on March 13 to order the restart of the Santa Ynez offshore oil platform and pipeline, reviving a Santa Barbara County fight that had been dormant since the 2015 Refugio State Beach spill.

Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based startup that bought the system from ExxonMobil in 2024, had been pushing to bring the pipeline back online after years of legal and regulatory resistance. In February, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Donna D. Geck tentatively ruled against Sable’s restart bid, signaling that the federal intervention would not automatically erase prior state-level limits on the line. California sued the Trump administration on March 24, arguing the order amounted to an unprecedented power grab and that officials had not shown a real energy shortage.

The 2015 rupture at Refugio State Beach sent more than 100,000 gallons of crude into the Pacific, killed hundreds of birds and marine mammals, and became one of the worst coastal oil spills in California in decades. The pipeline also carries oil to refineries in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and the Bay Area, and Sable projected production could rise from about 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to more than 50,000 if the system restarts.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the order would strengthen the nation’s oil supply and support national security and military readiness. Gov. Gavin Newsom said California would sue. The legal fight also turned on a 2020 federal consent decree requiring approval from the California State Fire Marshal before the pipeline can resume operations. That decree sits alongside pending state and environmental lawsuits, giving California multiple paths to slow or block a restart.

Santa Barbara was also the site of the 1969 oil spill, a 4.2 million-gallon disaster that helped inspire the first Earth Day and California’s ban on new offshore drilling, which still remains in place. In 2025 and 2026, community members patrolled the coast with binoculars to catch unauthorized work, while community groups warned that the pipeline remained corroded and dangerous.