The Environmental Defense Center hosted a press conference on May 7 with California Senator Adam Schiff and local stakeholders who condemned Sable Offshore’s oil pipeline restart.
Schiff emphasized the importance of moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, stating that it would be an overall positive shift. Anusha Singh / Daily Nexus
In March, the Texas-based oil and gas company restarted oil production from the Santa Ynez Unit after 11 years of inactivity following a 2015 rupture that spilled over 100,000 gallons of crude oil near Refugio Beach. The restart was prompted by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright who issued a statement of approval following President Donald Trump’s March 13 executive order that invoked the Defense Production Act because of the war with Iran.
The restart is in violation of an injunction placed on Sable prohibiting the restart of the specific or same oil pipeline. As of May 1, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion for a preliminary injunction of the pipeline restart, which is Bonta’s second lawsuit against the Trump administration’s efforts to restart the pipeline.
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Shoreline Park, Environmental Defense Center (EDC) Chief Counsel Linda Krop welcomed guests with a reminder of why they are still in the fight against Sable.
“We are here today because our coast and the rule of law are under threat. We’re facing an outrageous and unprecedented situation with the restart of the Sable pipeline, the same pipeline that failed in 2015 and caused one of the worst oil disasters in California history,” Krop said.
Krop went on to say that every day that Sable continues its oil production “increases the risk of another massive oil spill.” Before introducing the first speaker, Krop announced that the EDC and the Center for Biological Diversity and Earth Justice will be filing a motion to “intervene and join the state of California in fighting the Trump order.”
Next, 24th District Congressmember, Salud Carbajal, emphasized the environmental impact of the 2015 oil spill and the 1969 spill that sparked environmental advocacy nationwide. Carbajal said that the “pro big oil Trump administration” is putting the Central Coast at risk for another spill with the restart.
“I think for many of us, the fight to stop Sable can feel personal because so many of us can vividly remember what it’s like when oil companies get reckless. Who can forget 1969 Santa Barbara and 2015 Refugio?” Carbajal said. “Oil spills both left damage to our environment, our local economy. Oil slick beaches, piles of dead wildlife and a costly cleanup bill. Simply put, they were major environmental disasters for our community.”
Additionally, Carbajal condemned Trump’s “reckless” proposal to open up the California Coast to oil and gas leasing for the first time in over four decades. He reminded the audience of Trump’s campaign promise to be big oil’s “best friend” if they donated to his campaign, which Carbajal said is the “one campaign promise he has actually managed to keep.”
“We do not want to gamble with our environmental and [economical] well-being, and we will not sacrifice our public safety in the name of a big oil bottom line,” Carbajal said.
Next, in light of the pipeline restart, Schiff emphasized the importance of moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, stating that it would be an overall positive shift. He specifically called for the end of fossil fuel reliance, stating that it would prohibit the federal government from using the “oil economy” as a justification for foreign intervention.
“I think moving off of fossil fuels and moving to renewable sources of energy is an environmental imperative. It is a health imperative. It’s an economic imperative. It is a national security imperative,” Schiff said. “So many of these conflicts, like this war we’re in now with Iran, end up being about the oil economy, and the more that we can do to wean ourselves off this reliance on fossil fuels, the better we are across the board.”
Schiff called out the “absurdity” of Trump invoking the Defense Production Act and using war and gas prices as reasoning to restart oil production, despite gas prices continuing to rise and oil companies seeing billions in quarterly profits.
“This has nothing to do with national security. It has nothing to do with your price at the pump. It only has to do with the present, keeping a promise to the big oil companies,” Schiff said.
Next, California State Assemblymember Gregg Hart condemned Trump and Sable’s illegal opposition to environmental protections.
“We cannot allow Sable and the Trump administration to operate as though they are above the law, particularly laws that are designed to protect [the] environment and public safety,” Hart said.
Hart promised to continue fighting against Sable and the restart of the pipeline, underscoring how critical it is to protect the health of marine life and the California coast.
“We have institutions in the rule of law that we’re going to hold these federal actors accountable to. Our coastline is too important and too vulnerable to the aging infrastructure that these oil industries operators operate, and we cannot allow for weakened oversight of our regulatory processes,” Hart said. “We’re going to protect our environment and preserve these resources for future generations without repeating the mistakes of the past.”
Mati Waiya, chairman of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, said that the restart is in direct opposition to “children’s birthright to a healthy ecosystem and a place that they can call home.”
“It’s like a nightmare. It’s going to happen again, and then we’re going to look back. We have to ask ourselves, ‘How much and how long do we accept this brutality?’” Waiya said.
Brady Bradshaw, representing the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, spoke to the importance of continuing to resist Trump, stating that giving up is not a sustainable option.
“What’s happening today is Trump’s energy agenda, which can be summed up in three words: fossil fuel authoritarianism. When big oil billionaires have a president in their pocket because of donations they made, this is what happens,” Bradshaw said. “The president [is] invoking a fake national energy emergency to force an unsafe pipeline back online. When power is abused like this, the easiest thing to do is to throw up our hands and give up, but we’re fighting back because we have to draw a line in the sand.”
To conclude the event, Schiff called out Sable for its “hostile” environmental policy and announced the pipeline restart on the 10-year anniversary of the Refugio spill.
“Sable was just too happy to announce the restart of this project on the 10-year anniversary of the oil spill. Who does that? Who thinks that’s a date to be celebrated and commemorated? It’s just a deliberate poke in the eye. It’s an attitude that we see frankly, throughout the administration, that says we not only don’t care about the environment, we are just affirmatively hostile, and we are proud of it,” Schiff said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the May 14 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
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