SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – Research from a UC Santa Barbara professor shows that despite claims by the Trump Administration that forcing the restart of oil production locally is crucial for national security reasons, the actual impact is far different.
Last month, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an order to restart oil production locally under the authority of the Defense Production Act of 1950.
"The Trump Administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first," stated Secretary Wright on Friday, March 13, 2026. "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."
The resumption of oil production was later confirmed by Your News Channel.
While the Secretary of Energy stated that state leaders were to blame for the shutdown of offshore oil platforms, an onshore oil processing plant at Las Flores Canyon, and associated onshore and offshore pipelines collectively referred to as the Santa Ynez Unit, the oil producing infrastructure was actually shuttered in May of 2015 following a massive oil spill from a ruptured pipeline.
Since onshore pipeline Line 901, now known as Line 324, ruptured in 2015, spilling over 100,000 gallons of oil over 150 miles of California coastline, the damaged pipeline and entire Santa Ynez Unit has been shut down and oversight of its restart was assigned to the Office of State Fire Marshal through a federal court order.
Back in February of last year, Professor Dr. Paasha Mahdavi with UC Santa Barbara's Department of Political Science found that the 2015 closure of the Santa Ynez Unit did not result in a direct increase in imported oil.
The chart below, courtesy of Dr. Mahdavi's research in Economic analysis of market impacts of resuming oil and gas production from the Santa Ynez Unit published in February of 2025, shows the impact of the Santa Ynez Unit's oil production compared to other sources.
"Aside from a peak in imports in 2017-2019, and the pandemic collapse in 2020, foreign import levels in 2023 were roughly the same as in 2014-2015 [see chart below]," explained Professor Mahdavi. "Looking at the period directly after the SYU went offline, there was no increase in foreign imports: imports actually fell to 316 million barrels in 2016 from 320 million barrels in 2014 and 318 million barrels in 2015."
Despite that federal consent decree requiring the state safety agency to manage restart plans, early last month, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a slip opinion that argued the President, or a designated person, can order Sable Offshore, the Houston-based company seeking to restart oil production since purchasing the Santa Ynez Unit from ExxonMobil in February of 2024, to begin oil production immediately -skirting federal, state, and local regulatory authority- for national security purposes.
"[Oil produced in California] is used by the 50 military bases in California, Nevada, and Arizona. And that's the reason why Trump invoked the Defense Production Act," claimed Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham following the forced restart. "He has to make sure those military bases and those sailors and airmen and so forth have fuel for their jets and their boats and so on."
The Trump Administration delegated the authority to invoked the Cold War-era national security law to the Energy Secretary through Executive Order 13603 "National Defense Resources Preparedness".
"By delegation [through Executive Order 13603], section 101(a) [of the Defense Production Act of 1950] authorizes the Secretary [of Energy] to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders and to allocate materials, services, and facilities, as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense with respect to all forms of energy," explained the Defense Production Act Order signed and issued by Secretary of Energy Wright on March 13, 2026.
The Trump Administration's order to restart did not explicitly direct crude oil from the Santa Ynez Unit for exclusive military uses nor limit its destination to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve and the same Administration is responsible for cutting billions in energy investments, potentially outside of its legal authority, rescinding over 3.5 million acres of offshore waters leased for energy generation, and even spending almost a billion dollars in one instance to halt plans to build offshore wind farms just last month.
The Trump Administration's unilateral exemptions to federal laws on behalf of private oil and gas production under the umbrella of national security are both not new and ongoing.
Your News Channel made numerous requests for more information about the destination of crude oil from the Santa Ynez Unit with both Sable Offshore and the Department of Energy, especially regarding the claims of an explicit national security purpose. No direct response has been received.
Instead, on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, Your News Channel author received an email from a Department of Energy spokesperson in response to questions about the restart of local oil production that stated:
"Despite being home to more than 30 military installations, California has adopted policies that have left our forces—and $4.1 trillion of our Nation’s GDP—dependent on imported oil. This is an untenable threat to our national security, especially in a time of military conflict.
Instead of correcting these self-inflicted vulnerabilities, California leaders are attempting to block the Secretary’s efforts to restart critical infrastructure and strengthen domestic energy production. California leaders should stop prioritizing political agendas over America’s energy security."
The the judge who oversaw the agreement in federal court regarding onshore pipelines, the state of California, its elected leaders, nor its voters have been officially designated under federal law as a national security threat in any publicly available listing from any federal agency.
Multiple questions regarding the above statement from the U.S. Department of Energy designating tens of millions of Americans as a national security threat went unanswered and the statement is now subject to Freedom of Information Act requests with both the federal energy agency and the Department of Defense.
The Defense Department acknowledged the official request and asked for additional time to respond in accordance with federal disclosure laws.
The Department of Energy though repeatedly feigned ignorance of the need to disclose information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and even went so far as to request that Your News Channel author cite the law requiring disclosure.
Your News Channel author complied with the request and provided an exhaustive explanation of how the request complied with all thirteen subsections of 10 CFR 1004.
The Department of Energy's assigned FOIA Officer did not respond to the assistance and it appears as though the federal energy agency intends to wait out the 20-day response period detailed in the federal disclosure law.
An official denial is required before an appeal can be filed shared the Department of Energy's Office of Hearings and Appeals when contacted by Your News Channel author.
In late March, Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores confirmed that oil from the Santa Ynez Unit was being sold to a private company.
"Sable is proud to announce oil sales through the Santa Ynez Pipeline System to Chevron," stated Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores in a press release. "In doing so, we are providing American oil from American soil through an American pipeline to an American refinery for American consumers and the United States military."
The fact that Chevron is buying oil from the Santa Ynez Unit has a substantial impact going forward.
Court documents showed that Sable Offshore initially secured a $622,000,000 loan from ExxonMobil to fund the purchase of the Santa Ynez Unit from the oil giant.
That line of credit had a very important condition.
Ownership of the Santa Ynez Unit would revert back to ExxonMobil unless oil from the Santa Ynez Unit under Sable's management entered the market.
That deadline and impact of sales were noted not just by Your News Channel author, but also by California's Attorney General Rob Bonta when the state filed a lawsuit regarding the forced restart in mid-March.
"Sable was and remains undercapitalized. As a condition of the acquisition, if Sable did not restart production by January 1, 2026, ExxonMobil had the right of reversion," stated the state's lawsuit. "[T]he Wright Order [directing a restart] does not say, and no public information indicates, that Sable holds a Title I government contract or that Sable is required to sell its crude to the government in a Title 1 contract. The Wright Order also fails to state where, or to whom, Sable will sell the crude oil it produces."
"The pipeline operator then relied on the [U.S. Secretary of Energy] Wright Order, and a contemporaneous opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, to argue that any state laws or existing court orders standing in the way of restart could be ignored and set aside," detailed the Attorney General's lawsuit. "The very next day, on March 14, 2026, the pipeline operator restarted pumping oil through pipelines despite an outstanding preliminary injunction in state court, despite not having necessary permits from either the state or the federal government for pipeline operation, despite still not having approval from several state agencies, and despite not having a current or valid easement to keep or utilize the segment of its pipeline crossing California state property."
A spokesperson on behalf of ExxonMobil declined to comment on the change in ownership facilitated by the Trump Administration when reached for confirmation by Your News Channel and Sable Offshore has repeatedly ignored related questions on multiple occasions.
Professor Mahdavi's research didn't just look at the historic output from the Santa Ynez Unit, he also crunched the numbers of what a potential restart might look like.
"Purely from an operating cost and up-front capital cost perspective, the SYU is more cost-competitive than roughly 80% of California's onshore oil fields," noted Professor Mahdavi. "Yet even without accounting for retirement costs, SYU's barrels are not more cost competitive than existing foreign suppliers to California. Assuming operating costs of roughly $44/barrel for SYU, this would still exceed average per-barrel total costs— including capital expenditures, taxes, transport, and administrative costs—for California’s top foreign suppliers of oil. This includes Saudi Arabia ($9/barrel), Iraq ($11/barrel), Colombia ($11/barrel), Ecuador ($7-$20/barrel), and Brazil ($21-28/barrel)."
"This suggests that restarting SYU production would not lead to a reduction in imports on a strictly economic basis," Dr. Mahdavi added.
Notably, the Secretary of Energy's March 13th order forcing a restart did not include any federal subsidies to reduce the cost of production which would ensure oil from the Santa Ynez Unit is cheaper than international sources, reducing the reliance on foreign sources of oil and solving the cited threat to national security.
"Today, more than 60 percent of the oil refined in California comes from overseas, with a significant share traveling through the Strait of Hormuz—presenting serious national security threats," acknowledged the Secretary of Energy in the oil restart announcement on March 13, 2026.
Approximately 20 million barrels of oil transited the Strait of Hormuz each day before the military strikes in Iran started in late February.
Sable Offshore detailed last month that Platform Harmony is producing about about 22,000 gross barrels of oil per day and the energy company expects production restart at Platform Heritage with an expected total rate of over 30,000 gross barrels of oil per day.
Platform Hondo is expected to resume production by the end of the second quarter of this year, producing over 10,000 barrels of oil per day added Sable Offshore.
Despite those impressive totals, just over 60,000 barrels of oil per day once all three platforms are operational, the impact on the price of oil is negligible because the price we pay domestically is dictated by global production as well as the trade in the futures market.
"Oil trades at a worldwide price," noted a press release from California's Governor on the day of the announced restart. "American crude sells to the highest bidder, not at a discount for American consumers. Prices are surging because Trump's military strikes on Iran have disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, trapping an estimated 20% of the global oil supply in the Persian Gulf."
"Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay. Now he's using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California's coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches," added Governor Newsom. "His answer is a pipeline that would contribute just 0.05% to total global crude oil production, and that represents less than 0.3% of the petroleum products that are trapped in the Persian Gulf because of Trump's war. That is a drop in the bucket that will not solve the crisis he created."
Dr. Mahdavi followed up on his research from last year with details about the impact of the restart on the local economy.
The Secretary of Energy noted in March, "Sable Offshore currently employs more than 100 workers and approximately 400 contractors in Santa Barbara County, and restoring operations is expected to create hundreds of additional American energy jobs while generating millions in local economic activity."
That distribution of direct and indirect contractor jobs came with a serious dilema noted by Dr. Mahdavi in his research from this year.
"A pronounced trend over the past three decades has been large integrated oil companies divesting their Santa Barbara County assets to smaller independent operators, often with fewer financial resources for spill response or well abandonment," detailed Dr. Mahdavi. "Although operators control production at the site of extraction, they often directly employ only a fraction of the wider workforce. Specialized contractor firms carry out various activities required for production, including drilling, servicing, equipment maintenance, transportation, environmental compliance, and other technical functions. A substantial share of onsite personnel are employed by firms classified as support activities."
The graph below, from Dr. Mahdavi's research this year, shows the spread of employment sources in Santa Barbara County in 2025.
Local members of Congress noted the potential impact of what another spill at the Santa Ynez Unit could have on a far broader portion of the economy last month.
Coastal counties in California constitute 22 percent of the state's total land area, but generated more than 80 percent of the state's GDP in 2015, the same year as the oil spill that shuttered the Santa Ynez Unit, detailed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a report about the state's ocean-based economy.
Coastal-based tourism and recreation alone accounted for 85 percent of businesses in coastal counties and 67 percent of ocean-dependent jobs detailed the state's 2024 Marine Economy Report.
Dr. Mahdavi also polled locals about their opinions on prohibiting new onshore oil and gas operations countywide.
"Almost two out of every three county residents (64.9%) support the policy [prohibiting any new oil and gas operations in Santa Barbara County]," detailed Dr. Mahdavi's research. "A majority support an ordinance to ban new drilling in four of the five districts of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors."
A breakdown of the responses by Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisor Districts, courtesy of Dr. Mahdavi's research, is shown below.
The image below shows the geographic distribution of respondents opinions as well as the District boundaries discussed above.
Dr. Mahdavi went further in his research this year and detailed what the impact of staying on track with the state's renewable energy buildout plans would mean for the local economy if oil and gas jobs were phased out starting in 2028.
"If Santa Barbara County deployment stays on track with state targets, clean energy buildout is projected to create approximately 712 direct jobs and 2,000 total jobs (including indirect and induced effects)in Santa Barbara County by 2045," explained Dr. Mahdavi. "The existing cleantech sector in Santa Barbara County provides a foundation for this growth. The Regional Economic Action Coalition (REACH) estimates that Santa Barbara County accounts for roughly 3,800 of the region's 9,300 clean technology jobs, with electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, power line installers, and HVAC mechanics making up the largest share of the workforce.98 Each cleantech job supports roughly 0.75 additional regional jobs through supply chain and household spending effects".
Dr. Mahdavi acknowledged that the transition is not a 1:1 direct exchange of jobs if oil and gas production employment opportunities are phased out and warned that additional steps would be required by County officials if the proposed phaseout is implemented.
"Santa Barbara County must engage in transition planning for oil and gas workers at the same time it considers a phaseout of onshore oil and gas operations," shared Dr. Mahdavi. "Mitigating harm to workers will take time and careful planning. The plan must include engagement with directly impacted workers as well as a strategy for creating more skills aligned jobs. The county's oil and gas workforce is a web of independent contractors and a low level of unionization in extraction jobs."
Restarting oil production comes with a substantial back-end cost besides a potential spill.
"Comparisons by quality also show that the greenhouse gas intensity of SYU crude exceeds that ofcommensurate foreign imports," Dr. Mahdavi's research from last year showed. "Among heavy oil comparisons, SYU greenhouse gas intensity would be higher than any field rated by OCI+ [Oil Climate Index plus Gas]. Among light oil comparisons, SYU greenhouse gas intensity exceeds all estimated fields with the exception of four that are not currently exported to California.
Dr. Mahdavi's research showed that, "every barrel of oil from SYU would add 245 kg CO2e above and beyond emissions from barrels from Elk Hills [in nearby Kern County] (195 kg CO2e/mboe). Considering the anticipated annual volume of production, this translates to roughly 2.5 million tons of CO2e abovewhat would be emitted if the SYU were not producing."
"The decision today [March 13, 2026] by the Trump Administration and Secretary Wright is a wildly disingenuous attempt to pin the blame at California for the short-sighted decision to launch a war in Iran that is costing American taxpayers $11 billion dollars in the first week alone," shared Lt. Governor of California Eleni Kounalakis back in March. "The reason oil is nearly $100/barrel and gas prices are skyrocketing across the country isn't because of California's production, it's because of decisions from the Trump Administration. Not to mention the catastrophic environmental consequences from oil spills that have resulted in bipartisan support to keep offshore drilling out of California's coasts."
UC Santa Barbara Professor crunches the numbers on national security claims by the Trump Administration and Sable Offshore News Channel 3-12.
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