WASHINGTON D.C. (KEYT) – On Thursday, members of California's Congressional delegation hosted a press conference regarding the impact of the Trump Administration's expansion of oil and natural gas development in previously protected waters.
The U.S. Department of Interior announced its plans to replace the existing offshore leasing program in the outer continental shelf in November of last year with an expansive program that would open up over one billion acres of currently protected ocean environment to leasing and development.
Under Section 18 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Secretary of Interior is required to approve a five-year schedule for oil and gas leases in federal waters.
November's announcement would terminate existing restrictions under the 2024-2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program approved during the Biden Administration and includes at least 34 potential offshore lease sales including six along the Pacific coast.
"Offshore oil and gas production does not happen overnight. It takes years of planning, investment, and hard work before barrels reach the market," noted Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum back in November.
In total, an area of approximately 1.27 billion acres will be opened to oil and gas lease sales including 21 areas off the coast of Alaska and seven in the Gulf Coast region.
In January of 2025 at the end of the his administration, President Biden approved federal protection for over 600 million acres of open ocean in the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf Coast, and Arctic regions which withdrew those areas from future leasing using two Presidential Memoranda.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law on July 4 of this year by President Trump and required changes to leasing opportunities along the outer continental shelf.
The six proposed leases along the California coast would be the first attempt to develop those areas for oil and gas extraction in over 40 years.
"Despite clear opposition from public officials, environmental experts, and residents across our state, the Administration has proposed to sell California’s coastline to Big Oil," stated Congressman Salud Carbajal in November. "Trump’s plan puts delicate marine ecosystems at risk and threatens the public health of coastal communities across the West Coast – all so oil executives can line their pockets. The Central Coast knows the devastating consequences of oil spills firsthand. That's why we’ve long stood at the forefront of the environmental justice movement. Our community is ready to lead in this fight once again, and I will do everything in my power to ensure we rise to the challenge."
These proposals would open up the opportunity for future leasing in the previously protected waters and Thursday's press conference noted the potential impact on California's more than 30 major military installations and over 200,000 active-duty personnel.
Existing oil production infrastructure off the Gaviota Coast has already been forced to restart despite regulatory hurdles at the state, federal, and local level.
On March 13 of this year, the Trump Administration ordered Sable Offshore, a Houston-based company seeking to restart oil production in Santa Barbara County since 2024, under the authority of the Defense Production Act of 1950 and delegated to the Energy Secretary by Executive Order 13603 "National Defense Resources Preparedness".
"Sable is directed to immediately commence performance under contracts or orders for services, including contracts or orders hereinafter entered into or sought, for hydrocarbon transportation capacity in the SYPS [Santa Ynes Pipeline System] from the point of production in the SYU through the SYPS, including transportation service activities at the onshore facilities in Las Flores Canyon, California, to the Pentland Station terminal in Pentland, California, at which point hydrocarbons move through the Plains All American Line 2000 for transport to refineries," instructed the March 13 order from the Energy Secretary.
The company shared with investors that it has resumed production of hydrocarbons from Platform Harmony and will ramp up to full production from platforms Harmony and Heritage by the end of this month. Platform Hondo is expected to join its sister platforms at full production by June of this year.
Transportation of oil through onshore pipelines across Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties has also resumed and sales are expected to start on April 1, 2026, shared Sable Offshore.
"The Trump Administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first," said Secretary Wright in a press release about the forced restart earlier this month. "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."
Despite multiple requests for more information about the destination of oil from the Santa Ynez Unit with both the Trump Administration and Sable Offshore, no response has been received by Your News Channel.
"[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," stated Sable Offshore's CEO Jim Flores during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham last week. "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."
Friday's order from the Trump Administration did not explicitly direct crude oil from the Santa Ynez Unit for exclusive military use nor limit its destination to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve.
On Wednesday, 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 Department of Energy has not responded to Your News Channel's request for clarification of the national security designation targeting California nor has it responded to multiple requests for details on the forced restart.
The state of California, its elected leaders, nor voters who participated in the proposition process have been officially designated under federal law as a national security threat and local military installations confirmed with Your News Channel that military personnel have not been tasked with taking corrective or enforcement actions regarding the restart of oil production locally.
In response to a question from Your News Channel Thursday about the claims that California and the rule of law are considered a national security risk by the Department of Energy, Congressman Carbajal noted that the Trump Administration is searching for an excuse for its actions.
"He might say it was Obama next," the Central Coast Congressman quipped.
Court documents show that in 2024, Sable secured a $622,000,000 loan from ExxonMobil to fund the purchase of offshore and onshore oil production infrastructure that is collectively referred to as the Santa Ynez Unit.
Since onshore pipeline Line 901 ruptured in 2015, releasing at least 100,000 gallons of crude oil that spread across 150 miles of California coastline, the pipelines have remained dormant and oversight of their restart has been assigned to the Office of State Fire Marshal through a federal court order.
Line 324's sister pipeline which was also shut down in 2015, Line 325, runs from the Gaviota Coast to Pentland Station in Kern County and was also restarted after the order from the Trump Administration.
California's Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday of this week challenging the restart order explaining, ""Restarting the flow of oil through Lines CA-324/325 does not fix any of these purported problems. Defendants' national defense and national energy emergency justifications are patently unreasoned. To the contrary, the offshore platforms have a maximum expected gross oil rate of 50,000 barrels per day, contributing a fraction of a percent to the domestic energy market. Although international conflict has driven up oil prices globally by reducing oil exports from the Middle East, there is no actual shortage of crude oil in the United States; the incremental oil production the Wright Order directs would thus neither address a shortage (because there is none) nor lower the cost of crude oil in the United States (because this miniscule incremental production would not have an impact on the global price of oil). And even if there were any marginal benefit to the "national defense," it would be vastly outweighed by the environmental and safety risks, as well as the unlawful and unconstitutional displacement of the State’s police powers and the intrusion upon the State's sovereign property rights."
After Sable Offshore submitted a Request for Approval of Restart Plans in September of last year to the California Office of State Fire Marshal in accordance with a federal consent decree agreed to by the previous owner of the pipelines, the state safety regulator found that there were still outstanding steps required before approving restart.
Instead of conducting the requested safety actions, Sable Offshore instead informed investors in December of last year that it had determined that pipelines connecting the onshore oil processing plant on the Gaviota Coast to Pentland Station in Kern County are technically interstate pipelines under the Pipeline Safety Act and requested that federal regulators take over its restart plans.
The Department of Transportation agreed with Sable Offshore's assessment and promptly asserted its authority over restart plans in mid-December.
Sable confirmed that it had not made those requested repairs in an 8K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early February when it informed investors that it has not made any additional capitol investments into onshore facilities and pipelines outside of ongoing court proceedings.
Congressman Carbajal shared during Thursday's press conference that California's elected leaders were simply seeking to ensure Sable Offshore, "meets our regulatory standards" during the restart process.
Some repair work that was completed last year is subject to civil charges brought by the California Attorney General and criminal charges brought by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office.
"The Wright Order is an affront to, and usurpation of, the traditional police powers delegated to the states, in that it seeks to override any and all California laws that stand in the way of the restart of the Pipelines. The Wright Order also tramples over California’s property rights to the extent it purports to allow Sable to operate Line CA-325 through a state park without an easement—or the safety and environmental conditions the Department of Parks and Recreation previously imposed under a now-expired easement—and to operate the Offshore Pipeline through leases from the California State Lands Commission without abiding by lease terms, including those mandating compliance with all other statelaws."
"We just want them to follow the law," argued Sable Offshore CEO Jim Flores during last week's interview on Fox News. "But that doesn't happen in California. You have to defend yourself. And the aspect is, the more of this going on is running so many people out of the state. And we're one of the few people investing in the state and trying to help it."
Congressmembers Derek Tran and Jimmy Penatta both noted the potential impact of an oil spill on the local economy and military readiness during Thursday's press conference.
According to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, coastal counties in the United States cover only 17 percent of the country's land area, but accounted for 34 percent of total GDP and 37 percent of total employment in 2022.
In California, the labor market has grown by more than 4.2 million jobs between 1998 and 2024, with the number of businesses with employees growing more than 72 percent, which both outpaced the state's population growth of 18 percent over the same time period.
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 detailed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a report about the state's ocean-based economy.
Coastal-based tourism and recreation accounted for 85 percent of businesses in coastal counties and 67 percent of ocean-dependent jobs detailed the state's 2024 Marine Economy Report.
During Thursday's press conference, Congressman Levin noted that the Trump Administration has cited national security for its decision to terminate multiple offshore wind generation projects, going so far as to pay $1 billion to a French energy company to halt a plan to build offshore energy infrastructure off of the coasts of North Caroline and New York just yesterday.
Selling oil from the Santa Ynez Unit on the open market, as opposed to refilling the nation's strategic petroleum reserve or directing it for explicitly military use, plays a crucial role in who will own the oil production infrastructure going forward.
Ownership of the Santa Ynez Unit would revert back to ExxonMobil unless oil from the Santa Ynez Unit under Sable's management enters the market.
Sable stated in a press release after the ordered restart that it expects to make its first sales of oil on April 1 of this year at an expected gross oil rate of 50,000 barrels of oil per day and therefore, retain ownership of the Santa Ynez Unit going forward.
A spokesperson on behalf of ExxonMobil declined to comment on the change in ownership indirectly facilitated by the Trump Administration when reached for clarification and Sable Offshore has not responded to questions about the change in ownership despite multiple requests for more information by Your News Channel.
That facilitation of ownership now directly connected to a forced restart by the Trump Administration was something noted in Attorney General Bonta's lawsuit this week.
"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 Monday's lawsuit from Attorney General Bonta. "Sable’s precarious financial position dictated that it prioritize restarting the pipelines quickly, above all else. Shortly after the acquisition, Sable began its venture to restart oil production at the Santa Ynez Unit, transport crude oil through Lines CA-324/325, and sell the oil commercially. In order to do so Sable ultimately opted to repair instead of replace the pipelines.
"Defendants' [U.S. Department of Energy] unprecedented act of government assistance to a single struggling oil company endangers the health and safety of California's residents and the environment," added the lawsuit.
Regardless of those regulatory hurdles and notable financial interest in a restart, earlier this month the U.S. Department of Justice issued a slip opinion that argued the President, or a designated person, can order Sable Offshore to begin oil production immediately -skirting federal, state, and local regulatory authority- for national security purposes.
"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 Monday'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."
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