A few days after a Texas oil company announced the announcement of offshore oil production along the Santa Barbara County coast to shock California environmentalists and regulators, the court has ordered the company to cease further construction or repairs until formal approval.
For months, Sable Offshore has denied that the California Coastal Commission oversees and approves the upgrade to the oil pipeline network that was shut down after a massive spill in 2015.
The company believes it does not require any new licenses as it only repairs and maintains existing pipelines (rather than building new lines), which means the Coastal Commission has no say in the matter. Sable sued the committee in February, claiming its power was too high.
But on Wednesday, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Anderle supported the Coastal Commission and ordered Sable to comply with the preliminary injunction to maintain the stop and termination order issued in April. The action requires Sable to cease any further coastal work until the company obtains the necessary permission from the coastal commission or ongoing litigation.
“The Commission has presented reliable evidence of a violation of the Coastal Law,” Anderer wrote in his ruling. He found that landscape grading and other pipeline work were “falls” carried out in the definition of “development” in the Coastal Act.
Sable insists it still runs under the original license from the 1980s. However, the committee disagreed and ordered the company to seek a new license.
“It’s a victory not only for the coastal committee, but for the environment, the country, the people and the rule of law,” said Alex Helperin, Assistant Chief Advisor of the Coastal Commission.
“We’ve never seen someone completely ignore a command from us. … It’s unprecedented for us [the judge’s ruling is] Our orders must be taken seriously, which is a very important sign that the rule of law and our orders must be taken seriously. ”
Although committee officials praised the judge’s decision as a victory, it is unclear how it will affect oil operations. Sable has done a lot of work (if not all) protests by staff.
Still, Sable officials said they plan to appeal the judge’s ruling.
“We look forward to overturning today’s decision, although it has nothing to do with Sable’s plan to resell by July,” said Steve Rusch, vice president of environmental and government affairs at Sable. “Sable will continue to actively defend our established rights in pursuit of low-carbon California oil and gas to stabilize supply and lower prices for consumer gas.”
In April, the California Coastal Commission discovered that Sable repeatedly violated the Coastal Act by repairing and upgrading oil pipelines without the necessary permit or approval. The company was fined $18 million, issued a stop order and directed the recovery of areas suffering from environmental damage.
Sable ignored the findings and filed a lawsuit with the committee.
A preliminary injunction issued Wednesday could not resolve the case, but could indicate how the court could rely on it in its final ruling – which could be months (if not years).
Last week it announced it had recovered one of its offshore platforms in federal waters (a offshore platform located in federal waters) at a rate of about 6,000 barrels a day, with angry environmentalists and officials restoring oil production and planning to rapidly increase extraction. The company said it was sending oil to the onshore Flores Canyon processing plant for storage, but it was clear that the full utilization of onshore pipelines had not yet begun.
But among those who announced the news, Governor Eleni Kounalakis served as chairman of the California Land Commission and supervised the offshore oil pipeline. She said the Sable was asked to update the state land commission with any oil flow, but did not do so.
“Sable’s failure to communicate these activities to the committee clearly and promptly has undermined the trust of Sable’s motivations, demonstrating the lack of understanding of the significant concerns of many people for the recovery activities and raised serious questions about Sable’s willingness to Sable become a transparent operator,” Kounalakis wrote in a May 23 letter to Sable, which was reviewed by Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times Times ”
Kunalakis also accused the company of misleading the public. She said the Land Commission staff told her that the new oil flow was the result of a good testing process required by the Safety and Environmental Enforcement Bureau before it restarted.
“These activities do not constitute a recovery or a complete restart of commercial production…Describing testing activities as restart operations is not only misleading, but also highly inappropriate, especially given that Sable does not obtain the necessary regulatory authorities to fully resume operations,” she wrote.
She said the company needs to address all pending legal challenges and regulatory requirements before attempting to fully restart commercial operations in order to comply with its offshore pipeline lease.
The committee spokesman Sheri Pemberton said Sable has not responded to the lieutenant’s letter.
Representative Sable did not answer questions about the letter or the questions raised by the Chairman of the State Land Commission.
Environmentalists believe that the judge’s ruling and Kunalakis’ letter further suggest that it is impossible to believe that Sable can safely carry out previous failed actions.
“It again shows that this is not a company we can trust to comply with California laws, nor is it a responsibly operating equipment that has caused one of the worst spills in our state’s history,” said Alex Katz, executive director of the Center for Environmental Defense.
