Court injunction finds State Fire Marshal likely violated state law in approving Sable Offshore Corp.’s request to waive pipeline safety requirements
July 18, 2025
Injunction gives environmental groups another opportunity to challenge the restart of the pipeline responsible for the 2015 Plains Oil Spill at Refugio State Beach
SANTA BARBARA, CA—A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge today issued a preliminary injunction further complicating plans for the restart of a defective oil pipeline that failed catastrophically in 2015, causing one of the worst oil spill disasters in California history.
The injunction essentially extends a temporary restraining order granted by the judge in June. It does not block Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration from approving restart of the pipeline, but it requires Sable Offshore Corp. (Sable), the pipeline’s owner, to come back to the court after receiving all outstanding approvals and then gives environmental groups a 10-day period to seek further relief from the court.
Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based fossil fuel company, is attempting to restart the pipeline and other facilities formerly owned by ExxonMobil, including three aging offshore drilling platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel. The platforms, pipeline, and other facilities, collectively known as the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU), have been shut down since the disastrous Plains Oil Spill at Refugio State Beach ten years ago.
“The 2015 pipeline spill poisoned our coast, killed untold numbers of animals, including marine mammals, and devastated our local economy,” said Linda Krop, Chief Counsel for the Environmental Defense Center (EDC). “We seek to ensure that environmental and public review occurs before the same failed pipeline is allowed to restart.”
EDC requested the injunction as part of its lawsuit against the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM), which has authority over the restart of the pipeline. The agency waived normal safety requirements for the pipeline at the end of last year and is now poised to approve restart.
In April, EDC and its clients (Get Oil Out!, the Santa Barbara County Action Network, the Sierra Club, and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper) sued the Fire Marshal for failing to conduct an environmental review or provide an opportunity for public comment before issuing the waivers as required by state and federal law. The state’s waivers allow the pipeline to operate without effective protection against corrosion—the exact cause of the 2015 spill. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a similar lawsuit at the same time.
The judge’s injunction order found that OSFM likely violated a state pipeline safety law by failing to provide a statement of reasons justifying its finding that the pipeline will be safe to operate despite the lack of an effective cathodic protection system to prevent corrosion.
The plan to restart the failed oil pipeline has generated widespread opposition both on the Central Coast and across the state. Twenty-three members of congress including Senator Adam Schiff and Rep. Salud Carbajal sent a letter to Governor Newsom asking for environmental review and public process. Similar letters were sent by a group of state legislators and about 130 nonprofits in California.
At a town hall meeting in Santa Barbara in March, California’s Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot promised hundreds of concerned residents that an environmental review would happen, and that he would determine which agency would take the lead. However, that has not happened.
In recent months, Sable rushed to complete repairs on the corroded pipeline in violation of multiple cease-and-desist orders from the state Coastal Commission and numerous notices of violation from the Coastal Commission and other state agencies.
In April, the Coastal Commission issued a record $18 million fine and a third cease-and-desist order, however the company immediately continued its work on the pipeline until a different Superior Court judge issued a separate injunction halting repairs pending resolution of litigation between the company and the Coastal Commission. According to the Coastal Commission, much of the company’s work destroyed or disrupted sensitive habitats in the Coastal Zone.
The pipeline runs along the coast, through Gaviota State Park, under neighborhoods in the City of Buellton, under the Santa Ynez and Cuyama Rivers, and through the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain National Monument before ending about 120 miles away in Kern County.
