A federal judge recently ruled that conservation and indigenous groups can help legally defend Santa Barbara County after oil giant ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against the county regarding the denial of an oil trucking proposal.
The project—which was denied by the Board of Supervisors in March—proposed trucking crude oil along highways 101 and 166 from its Las Flores Canyon processing facility to the Santa Maria Pump Station or to the Plains Pentland Terminal in Kern County, according to previous Sun reporting. It would have allowed ExxonMobil to resume operations at three idle oil platforms that have been shut down since the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
In May, Exxon filed a lawsuit against the county for violating its U.S. and California constitutional rights to private property and its use. The oil and gas company is in the process of selling its Santa Ynez Unit onshore and offshore facilities—which they hoped to restart with the trucking proposal—to Sable Offshore Corporation for $643 million. The deal is part of a merger between Sable and SPAC Flame Acquisition Corporation.
“The sale advances ExxonMobil’s focused investment strategy and highlights our willingness to divest assets to those who can derive greater value,” an ExxonMobil spokesperson told the Sun via email.
In the third quarter of 2022, ExxonMobil announced that it earned $19.7 billion, a $1.8 billion increase from its second quarter earnings of $17.9 billion, according to Exxon’s earnings release.
Sable borrowed $623 million (about 96 percent of the total cost) from Exxon under a five-year loan agreement to cover the purchase, according to a presentation that Sable gave its investors on Nov. 3. If the company does not resume oil operations by Jan. 1, 2026, Exxon could take back its property.
Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Environmental Defense Center, said that Exxon also bought and sold the accompanying pipelines as part of its goal to resume operations. Those pipelines were owned by Plains All American Pipeline, whose oil pipeline caused the spill.
“The fact that Exxon bought the pipelines, but it’s a part of a package to another company, doesn’t change what we’re going to do,” she said.
The Environmental Defense Center, the Sierra Club, and the Santa Barbara County Action Network are now able to submit evidence, research, and findings to the Santa Barbara County Superior Court to support the county’s decision to deny Exxon’s trucking project.
“I think it’s really important to have the environmental groups in the lawsuit because the groups did the research and uncovered and revealed the tremendous risk of transporting oil by tanker truck, one of the most dangerous forms of oil transit,” Krop said. “Exxon did also raise some constitutional claims in its lawsuit, [like] taking of private property. Those issues will have to be addressed. But the first step will look at [if] the county’s decision was based on the information it received.”
ExxonMobil declined to comment on the lawsuit. Both sides will have until Dec. 13 to file their findings, and there is no schedule for hearings at this time.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2022.
