Pipeline That Caused Massive 2015 Santa Barbara Oil Spill Restarts Illegally

Texas-based company Sable Offshore Corp. announced today that it has restarted oil flow through the pipeline that ruptured and caused one of California’s largest oil spills on the Santa Barbara coast in 2015.

The restart occurred just one day after the Trump administration issued an order under the Defense Production Act, at Sable’s request, directing the company to “prioritize and allocate pipeline transportation services for hydrocarbons…” and “immediately commence performance under contracts or orders for services.”

“I’m distressed and saddened that California’s coast now faces the threat of another oil disaster from this unsafe pipeline,” said Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “For the sake of the incredible Pacific ocean and all of its wildlife, the community has worked so hard to make sure we’d never see oil flowing through this defective pipeline again. This is a dark day for California and I urge state officials to keep standing up to Trump’s bullying. We’ll keep fighting as hard as we can to protect Santa Barbara’s coast and end offshore drilling in the state once and for all.”

On Saturday State Parks rejected Sable’s application for an easement to use Gaviota State Park for pipeline transport and ordered it to immediately remove the 4-mile section of the pipeline that runs through the park.

The pipeline has been shut down since the massive 2015 spill at Refugio State Beach. Upon investigation, it was determined that the rupture was the result of progressive external corrosion, which remains a threat for the defective pipelines.

In attempting to restart the defective onshore pipeline, Sable has run into widespread public opposition and accumulated a series of state law violations and criminal charges. To date, Sable has still not received all necessary approvals for a restart from California state agencies, including the Coastal Commission.

The Trump administration “Pipeline Capacity Prioritization and Allocation Order” was issued at Sable’s request. Sable appears to be relying upon a recent legal opinion from the Department of Justice to assert that the order preempts state and federal law to allow a restart of the embattled oil project. Such a result would be radical and unprecedented.

“The cynical misuse of a national security law for the benefit an oil company that has repeatedly broken the law is a shocking development, even from this administration,” said Bradshaw. “The courts shouldn’t put up with this brazen abuse of power.”

The Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Foundation have a pending lawsuit against the Office of the State Fire Marshal regarding the restart, along with a similar lawsuit and request for relief from the Environmental Defense Center. Those cases challenge the agency’s issuance of waivers from corrosion-related pipeline safety requirements without any environmental review, public notice, or opportunity for a hearing. In October the State Fire Marshal informed Sable that its corrosion related repair work failed to meet standards required for restart.

In July 2025 the groups won a preliminary injunction, which was recently upheld by the court. They filed the request in response to Sable’s May 2025 announcement that it had resumed oil production from one of three offshore platforms and was storing that oil in onshore tanks while it sought to restart the failed Las Flores Pipeline System.

Several other lawsuits related to the pipeline restart are ongoing. Among other violations, Sable has been cited by the California Coastal Commission for unlawful work in sensitive coastal habitat and sued by the California attorney general and Santa Barbara district attorney for legal violations tied to unlawful discharge into creeks and waterways.

In December the Trump administration moved to seize control of the pipeline system from the State Fire Marshal and issued Sable an emergency special permit that enables a restart despite the pipelines’ design defects. The state of California has challenged these actions in court, as have environmental organizations including the Center.

The Santa Ynez Unit had been shut down since May 2015, when the corroded pipeline ruptured and released what is believed to be about 450,000 gallons of oil at Refugio State Beach. The oil spill ravaged 150 miles of the California coast and killed hundreds of birds and marine mammals, shutting down beaches and fisheries.

Sable purchased the unit in 2024 from ExxonMobil and has been aggressively pushing to resuscitate the defective pipeline system and restart oil operations ever since.