An oil company joins with the Trump administration to bully California over offshore drilling

Oil companies aren’t known for playing nice with their adversaries. Put them together with the Trump administration’s reliance on bullying to get its way, and watch the public interest get trampled.

That is what’s happening with an effort by Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston oil company, to restart a California oil pipeline system that has been fallow since 2015, when a leak from a corroded line spilled nearly 143,000 gallons of crude oil, fouling miles of the Santa Barbara coastline, including several marine preserves.

Actually, the pipelines actually have already been restarted, thanks to a March 13 Trump administration order that cited “national security” as a rationale for preempting not merely state laws and regulations, but a 2020 consent decree that was agreed on by the federal government. The consent decree set forth numerous procedural and operational safeguards to be met before the pipelines could be restarted.

Sable acquired the pipeline system in 2024, but acknowledges that it’s subject to the consent decree.

Sable says that it has met all the requirements of the consent decree, having spent more than $100 million on repairs and upgrades. The obstacle to restarting the lines, it has said, is the Newsom administration. Accordingly, it sought President Trump’s help in defeating the state.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-21/an-oil-company-joins-with-trump-administration-to-bully-california-over-offshore-drilling