On March 14, Sable Offshore Oil Corp. began transporting oil produced at the Santa Ynez Unit through the Las Flores pipeline system, which ruptured in 2015 and spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil in Refugio, to Pentland Station in Kern County.
According to U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, a new executive order from President Donald Trump justified the restart of oil operations as a matter of national defense.
“Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness,” Wright announced on March 13.
Trump’s new decree (Adjusting Certain Delegations Under the Defense Production Act) amends a section of President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive order dedicated to maximizing domestic energy supplies. Obama’s order gave the secretary of commerce sole authority to determine if or when materials, services, and facilities are critical and essential to national defense. Trump’s March 13 revision grants the Secretary of Energy that same authority.
Wright stated that his decision to direct Sable to restart oil operations at the Santa Ynez Unit was meant to “address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil.”
Wright was referring to the California Coastal Commission (which fined Sable $18 million in 2025 for breaking state permitting protocols) and other state agencies entangled in ongoing legal battles tied to Sable’s oil operations at the Santa Ynez Unit.
Following Wright’s announcement, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) scrutinized the Trump administration’s implication that certain current events should justify overriding state and local authorities’ jurisdiction.
“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 in a March 13 statement. “The reality is that restarting the Sable project would produce nowhere near enough oil to lower the skyrocketing gas prices families are facing. His reckless war is causing immense damage, and jamming the Sable project through is a hollow solution.”
Carbajal added that he will “continue to fight this federal overreach in Congress and stand with our local partners as they pursue legal challenges in court.”
In April 2025, a handful of local environmental agencies sued the California Fire Marshal for granting Sable a waiver that allowed the company to proceed working toward resuming oil production without formal public noticing protocols in place.
One month later, two of those nonprofits—the Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation—filed an injunction request as part of the lawsuit. A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge granted the injunction, which directed Sable to notify the court once it obtained approvals to restart the Santa Ynez Unit and then wait 10 court days before commencing oil operations.
As of March 17, Center for Biological Diversity Staff Attorney Talia Nimmer told the Sun via email that the court has upheld that injunction.
“It’s a victory for California that the judge kept this injunction in place, but it’s outrageous Sable has been pushing oil through these pipelines in defiance of this clear court order every day since the restart,” Nimmer said.
In September 2025, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office charged Sable Offshore Corp. with 21 separate criminal counts, including five felony counts, centered on its work completed in 2024 to restart the Las Flores pipeline system. The DA accused Sable of knowingly discharging excavated pollutants into three waterways.
On March 16, Sable announced that it expects to commence sales of oil produced at the Santa Ynez Unit by April 1.
“Sable Offshore is putting California consumers first by increasing domestic supply of crude oil into the California market by approximately 17 percent,” Sable CEO Jim Flores said in a March 16 statement. “We look forward to working closely with the Department of Energy, … and working with the Trump administration to take all necessary steps to deliver the energy necessary for the security and defense of the country.”
After noting that the Refugio oil spill killed hundreds of marine mammals and birds in 2015, Center for Biological Diversity Senior Oceans Campaigner Brady Bradshaw described the Trump administration’s order that restored oil flow at the Santa Ynez Unit as “a disgusting abuse of power.”
This article appears in March 19 – March 26, 2026.