President Trump is asserting executive authority to demand the controversial resumption of offshore oil drilling along California’s coastline as gas prices soar amid the ongoing war with Iran.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order giving the Department of Energy the ability to use a Cold War-era law known as the Defense Production Act to accelerate oil and gas development. Energy Secretary Chris Wright quickly responded with an order directing Sable Offshore Corp. to restore operations of the Santa Ynez Unit and Santa Ynez Pipeline System along the Santa Barbara County coast.
“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 said in a statement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted the action as “an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators are facing criminal charges and prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting.” He pledged legal action against the move.
“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches.”
Friday’s announcements seek to make good on previous threats from the Trump administration to force the resumption of offshore oil drilling in California. They also follow years of effort from Houston-based Sable Offshore Corp. to revive dormant oil infrastructure along the Santa Barbara County coast.
Environmental organizations, local residents and state political leaders have strongly opposed such resumption, citing potential dangers to ocean health. Sable has faced particular backlash over its efforts to restart a pipeline that ruptured in 2015, causing one of the biggest oil spills in state history.
Talia Nimmer, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, decried Trump’s executive action as a “revolting power grab by an extremist president.”
“Trump is misusing this Cold War-era law just to help a Texas oil company skirt vital state laws that protect our coastline, and Californians will pay the price,” Nimmer said in a statement. “Mandating a restart of these defective oil pipelines won’t curb high gas prices, but it will put coastal wildlife at huge risk of another oil spill.”
Sable’s Santa Barbara County facilities could produce around 50,000 barrels of oil per day, replacing nearly 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude each month, according to the Department of Energy. Still, this represents a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 20 million barrels a day currently held up by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to ongoing American and Israeli attacks.
Two weeks into the Iran War, crude oil has reached $100 a barrel, and the average price of gas in the California has topped $5.40 a gallon, according to AAA.
Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.
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