Everyone wants a piece of the Trump administration these days. In what should be a surprise to no one who’s been following the Sable Offshore Corp. saga, the administration ordered the company to restart that pesky pipeline that leaked oil all over the Gaviota Coast more than 10 years ago.
And Sable did what it was told without wasting a single minute or paying attention to any of the lawsuits pending against the Texas-based oil company in the state of California or the laws it broke getting to the point where it is now.
We are now in a standoff: the state of California versus the federal government (aka Newscum vs. Trumpty-Dumpty). And California seems to be losing while the feds are pretending to do something about the $6 a gallon gas prices that will continue to increase thanks to an ongoing war with Iran that no one else but Israel wanted.
But don’t worry, the politicians are making their public statements and the environmental organizations are wagging their fingers.
Since the order came down on Friday, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California), U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), and the Central Coast Caucus with Assemblymembers Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) and State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), among others, have sent out press releases condemning the action.
“President Trump is using the war in Iran as a pretext to override the will of Santa Barbara County residents and the state of California,” Carbajal said. “The reality is that restarting the Sable project would produce nowhere near enough oil to lower the skyrocketing gas prices families are facing. … Jamming the Sable project through is a hollow solution.”
Let’s not forget that people in several countries across the Middle East are dying in the war as well. Gas prices seem like a secondary issue, but I digress.
The United States uses more than 20 million barrels of oil per day. Sable could potentially produce up to 1.5 million barrels per month, if it’s operating at full capacity. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that’s going to fix the issue.
Every state representative on the Central Coast opposes the Trump administration’s efforts to restart this pipeline. No surprises there. And everyone promises to fight this thing until the end. Good thing we voted them into office. None of their promises have been able to slow the Sable freight train.
The Center for Biological Diversity insists that what’s happening is illegal. It just might be.
But Sable has never stopped doing what it’s doing in the face of fines, stop work orders, criminal charges, and lawsuits. The president is fighting an illegal war in a foreign country right now, where American troops have died and hundreds of Iranians have died. We’ve managed to further destabilize the Middle East, involved several other countries, and disrupted the global supply of oil. Winning!
It seems like Sable and Trump make excellent bedfellows, and together they’re standing against liberalism, democratically created rules of law, and environmental protections. Together, their propaganda is fighting the great conservative scapegoat: California.
I don’t think angry press releases are going to do anything to tip the balance.
The Canary is sick of ‘statements’ that do nothing. Send some to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in March 19 – March 26, 2026.