California state Senator Monique Limón and State Assembly Member Gregg Hart hosted a town hall meeting on March 13 at La Cumbre Junior High’s auditorium to share information on the restart of the Santa Ynez Unit by Sable Offshore. The event featured presentations from representatives from nine state agencies, each discussing their organization’s jurisdiction and role in the pipeline, followed by a Q&A session where community members could raise their concerns and ask questions.
Protestors held signs protesting Sable’s operation. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Around 500 audience members attended the event, including local residents and Sable Offshore employees. Limón emphasized that the event was not a hearing and was strictly informational.
In May of 2015, the Las Flores Pipeline burst and spilled an estimated 451,500 gallons of crude oil, resulting in one of the worst oil spills on the California coast in history. Sable Offshore has since attempted to restart the Pipeline, invoking protests from environmentalists across the state.
Limón emphasized that the event was strictly informational.
“There are not going to be any decisions made today. This isn’t a hearing; it’s not a formal setting for a decision. This is being convened to ensure that we are all given the same information, that we all have the opportunity to hear the role of state agencies as it relates to [the pipeline], but also to ensure that we’re level-headed about what each state agency can or can’t do,” she said.
Prior to the town hall, the Environmental Defence Center (EDC) hosted a rally with roughly 100 protestors featuring various prominent figures in the Santa Barbara area. The guest speakers included actresses Jane Fonda and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, CEO of Patagonia Ryan Gellert, founder of ecoStick’s Julia Schneiderman, as well as Advocacy Chair of UCSB Environmental Affairs Board Jenna McGovern.
The protestors were almost all dressed in red, holding signs protesting Sable’s operation, saying “STOP ZOMBIE PIPELINE,” “Sable is not able” and “You’re killing the earth,” among others.
Fonda discussed how climate change caused by fossil fuels can negatively impact our environment and criticized Sable for reopening the pipeline, saying it’s a threat to our environmental sustainability.
“We are nature. We live on the planet because nature is alive and healthy and allows this to happen without nature, we die. Let’s just remember that because somehow we’ve become alienated from our life source,” Fonda said.
As the chair of the California Senate’s Natural Resources Committee, Limón has been heavily involved with oil and environmental legislation, expressing her commitment to collaborating with state agencies to develop legislation based on community concerns and environmental sustainability.
Meanwhile, Hart praised state agencies for their environmental regulations and oversight, comparing the state’s approach to supporting public employees regarding current events playing out on the federal stage.
“Public employees are being attacked in Washington [D.C.], and many of the federal agencies that work hand-in-hand with the state organizations here are under attack,” Hart said. “Here in California, we’re not doing that. We are doing the opposite. We are investing. We believe in science. We believe in the importance of having a rigorous environmental review process.”
Both Limón and Hart cited past oil spills – the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and the 2015 Refugio Beach Oil spill – as reminders of the risks of past corporate negligence.
“We have serious concerns about what is being proposed with the Sable Pipeline. We need to keep our community and environment safe while carefully balancing the environmental risks associated with this project,” Hart said. “That is why this meeting is so important – it provides an opportunity for you to hear directly from the experts whose job it is to protect our environment.”
The California Natural Resources Agency, which oversees the oil and gas sector and protects California’s coasts, was represented by its Secretary for Natural Resources, Wade Crowfoot. He emphasized that the Sable Pipeline proposal is a significant issue for the community, but said that many community members don’t fully understand the roles of various state agencies in regulating the project. Crowfoot explained that eight state agencies oversee different aspects of the Santa Ynez unit, and are responsible for public health, safety, environmental protection and Sable’s compliance with laws and regulations before restarting operations.
“The charge of the [agency representatives] up here is not to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the project based on their own opinions or experiences,” Crowfoot said. “They have a legal obligation to [enforce] laws that our legislators make and the regulations that they spend their career enforcing.”
The California Coastal Commission, an independent state agency created under the California Coastal Act, controls 1,100 miles of coastline and is responsible for ensuring that projects affecting coastal resources comply with state and federal regulations.
The commission was represented by Cassidy Teufel, who detailed some of Sable’s recent activities, including repairs on the pipelines, which he said were conducted without proper authorization. In response to this unauthorized activity, the Commission issued multiple cease and desist orders, to which Sable filed countersuits and refused to seek proper permits.
“The timing of much of this work has been very problematic,” Teufel said. “It’s been occurring during the breeding season for the area’s federally endangered steelhead and threatened red-legged frog, the nesting season for most bird species, and the time of year when ground disturbance is most likely to result in erosion, scarring, and discharge of sediment into wetlands and watercourses.”
Teufel said that this situation was unprecedented in the commission’s history.
“This is the first time in the agency’s history that we’ve had a party blatantly ignore a cease-and-desist order like this and refuse to submit a permit application. Sable’s representatives have told us that they’ll only stop if the court makes them, so we’ve been working with the Attorney General’s office for the past month to move in that direction,” Teufel said.
The California State Lands Commission is an independent commission that is responsible for around 4 million acres of public trust lands, which encompasses tidelands, submerged lands and navigable waterways and was represented by its Assistant Executive Officer, Grace Kato.
Kato explained that the commission plays two roles relating to the pipeline, firstly as a land manager who has jurisdiction over gas production leases and offshore pipeline leases within state waters, as well as a regulator that has authority over oil terminals and responsibility for preventing oil spills.
The commission manages four leases for the Santa Ynez Unit, including two offshore pipeline leases and a mooring lease. Kato emphasized the commission’s commitment to holding stricter oversight and mentioned how recent lease amendments were aimed at enhancing safety and regulatory compliance.
“Recently, as of December 2023, the State Lands Commission authorized amendments to two of the offshore pipeline leases and imposed more rigorous inspection schedules exceeding federal regulatory requirements,” Kato said. “[These changes] granted staff greater access to additional pipeline inspection and maintenance data, ensuring better oversight.”
Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), explained his agency’s role in protecting California’s wildlife, public lands, and waterways.
Bonham explained that CDFW has three areas of authority in regard to the pipeline First, CDFW manages public lands, including the Carrizo Plain Ecological Reserve, which the pipeline crosses under an existing easement. Second, any project like the Sable Pipeline, which could modify or divert a waterway, requires a Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement from CDFW. Third, CDFW requires permits for activities that may harm protected wildlife or plant species under the California Endangered Species Act.
“If you are an individual or entity in California [working on] a project that could substantially modify [a waterway], you need to tell us,” Bonham said.
Next, Heather Geldart, an administrator from CDFW’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), explained that her office oversees oil spill prevention, response and environmental restoration. OSPR ensures that operators like Sable follow regulations and have the necessary resources to address potential spills. To prepare for such events, OSPR requires operators to submit a Certificate of Financial Responsibility, which guarantees that operators will cover cleanup costs, restoration, and legal penalties.
California’s State Fire Marshal, Daniel Berlant, explained that his office has legal responsibility for regulating hazardous liquid pipelines. Following the 2015 Refugio oil spill, California took over regulatory authority of the Sable pipelines from federal oversight, allowing the state to enforce stricter safety regulations.
Berlant explained the importance of safety valves as part of the state’s stricter safety regulations, which require Sable to install 27 new safety valves, which are remote-controlled shutoff valves to reduce spill risk and improve response times. He also emphasized his agency’s commitment to frequent inspections, which he said exceed federal standards that require inspection every five years.
“It’s not uncommon that our engineers are on site twice a year or even beyond that,” Berlant said. “We’re not just inspecting the line itself. We’re not just out there looking [for] corrosion, reviewing the test standards [and the] company’s training law, making sure that their operations, their record keeping, their policies are all up to date.”
Jennifer Luchessi, Director of the California Department of Conservation, explained that her agency’s Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) is responsible for regulating oil and gas production operations.
“We are continuing to engage with Sable to ensure that they will meet all of our requirements under the law for the production portions of the [Los Flores Canyon Processing Facility],” Luchessi said.
Following this, California Department of Parks and Recreation Director Armando Quintero explained that Sable must secure a new easement to operate its pipeline, which passes through a four-mile section of Gaviota State Park. Additionally, his agency will be utilizing an environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act before granting necessary approvals.
Lastly, Yvonne West, Director of the State Water Resources Control Board, explained that California Water Boards regulate potential water quality impacts but not pipeline operations. West specifically noted that the pipeline falls under the jurisdiction of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
After state agency representatives concluded their presentations, Linda Krop, EDC’s chief counsel, and Louis-Dreyfus delivered additional messages.
Louis-Dreyfus, a Santa Barbara County resident, denounced the Sable Pipeline project, calling it “a rat” and criticizing Sable’s attempts to restart the pipeline without proper environmental review and public input.
“It is the same catastrophe waiting to happen all over again,” she said. “The report also details the dangers – fires, hazardous materials, water contamination and gas [leaks] into our ocean and our state parks, our native lands and wilderness and into our air. Folks, it’s a ticking time bomb of risks, but Sable says, ‘trust us, trust us, it’s safe.’”
She also called out Sable’s unauthorized continuation of operations after ignoring a state stop-work order.
“If I violated a stop work order on my own property, I would get arrested. But these guys from Texas get passed? What? And while Stable brazenly breaks the law, they’re also suing you and me as representatives of our coastal commission. So, effectively, they’re suing us while they continue to work illegally. This is not the behavior of a responsible corporation,” Louis-Dreyfus said.
Following this statement, the large majority of Sable employees left the auditorium, prompting commotion among the audience. Some audience members shouted, “Go back to Texas,” at the exiting Sable employees. After this, less than half of the audience members remained.
Sable Offshore Vice President of Environmental and Governmental Affairs Steve Rusch responded in a statement personally emailed to the Nexus.
“Sable Offshore management, employees, contractors, labor and supporters showed up today in good faith to participate in a town hall meeting where only government officials were on the agenda to present. Project opponents forced the moderators to give them dedicated time to present biased information and smear the project. The opponents’ self-serving fundraiser and rally was not an appropriate use of public resources,” the statement read.
Louis-Dreyfus concluded her message by pleading with California officials to intervene in the situation.
“We are asking Attorney General Rob Monta, the Secretary of National Resources, Wade Grossman, and Governor Gavin Newsom to stand up [and] do their job, and enforce the laws of our great state in the name of the people who elected you to your high office,” Louis-Dreyfus said.
Following this, Krop spoke on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups, businesses and local agencies that opposed the Sable Pipeline project.
“We are here today because of the tremendous risk facing our state,” Krop said. “As evidenced by the letters from members of the California Congressional Delegation, state legislators, 130 organizations from around the state.”
Krop emphasized that Sable is not qualified financially to operate, and had repeatedly committed violations of state law, concluding her speech with requests that state agencies take swift action in enforcement against Sable’s violations.
This concluded the portion of the town hall dedicated to presentations and speeches and was followed by a Q&A session, in which state agency representatives addressed audience members’ concerns.
