California sues Trump administration over oil pipelines

By Dave Mason
The Center Square

California is suing the Trump administration over its decision to take control of two state pipelines and permit Sable Offshore Corp. to restart pumping oil through them.

With the Pacific Ocean behind him, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the suit Friday during a news conference at a Los Angeles beach. It was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

“I brought you here so you can see first hand what Trump and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration are putting at risk,” Bonta, a Democrat, told reporters. He cited the value of coastal areas to businesses dependent on tourism.

The lawsuit challenges the PHMSA’s Dec. 17 order to federalize two pipelines that originate at Las Flores Canyon in Santa Barbara County, CA-324 and CA-325, and end in Kern County, where refineries are located. On Dec. 22, PHMSA, which previously classified the pipelines as intrastate and subject to state oversight, re-designated them as “interstate,” making them subject to federal oversight. PHMSA also approved Sable’s plan to restart pumping oil through the pipeline, citing President Donald Trump’s National Energy Emergency Executive Order.

The Center Square reached out to PHMSA, which defended its decisions on the pipelines.

“This pipeline was regulated for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, as an interstate pipeline,” a PHMSA spokesman told The Center Square Friday afternoon, answering questions by email. “The Las Flores pipeline was only redesignated as intrastate in 2016 when it was taken out of service. Based on the facts presented by Sable in their letter to us last November, PHMSA agreed with the operator that returning the pipeline to our jurisdiction was appropriate.

“Restarting the Las Flores Pipeline will bring much needed American energy to a state with the highest gas prices in the country,” the PHMSA spokesperson said.

On Friday, California’s average price was $4.215 a gallon, well above the national average of $2.862 a gallon. The only state with a higher average was Hawaii at $4.413 a gallon, according to AAA.

“We look forward to a swift resolution in this case to provide the operator with regulatory certainty and Californians with affordable American energy,” the PHMSA spokesperson told The Center Square.

In his Jan. 20 executive order, Trump said energy problems “are most pronounced in our Nation’s Northeast and West Coast, where dangerous State and local policies jeopardize our Nation’s core national defense and security needs, and devastate the prosperity of not only local residents but the entire United States population. The United States’ insufficient energy production, transportation, refining, and generation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to our Nation’s economy, national security, and foreign policy. In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency.”

Bonta contended Friday that the emergency doesn’t exist.

In the lawsuit, Bonta and the Office of the State Fire Marshal argue that PHMSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, violated the Administrative Procedure Act by federalizing the pipelines and issuing Sable the emergency permit.

The decision to allow the pipelines to be restarted was arbitrary and capricious, according to the lawsuit.

The pipelines have been closed since the 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill when a corroded segment of one pipeline ruptured. Twenty-one thousand gallons of oil reached the ocean, Bonta said.

The Center Square reached out to a nonpartisan think tank, the Pacific Research Institute, for its reactions to the lawsuit. Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the Pasadena-based institute, described the federal actions as “disconcerting.”

“My first reaction is this is very much a federalism issue,” Winegarden told The Center Square. “The country is better off when the states can exert their authority and experiment with policy.

“Maybe California is being overprotective. Maybe they’re doing the right amount of protecting,” Winegarden said. “It’s a state call, not a federal call.”

In addition to the pipelines, Sable Offshore Corp. is attempting to restart oil platforms off the Santa Barbara County coast.

In December, the county’ Board of Supervisors voted to deny permits to Sable Offshore Corp., which purchased the platforms, wells and pipeline systems in the county from ExxonMobil, as reported previously by The Center Square. Those offshore platforms are Hondo, Heritage and Harmony, and they can be seen from Haskell’s Beach in Goleta, a city just north of Santa Barbara.

Opponents warn against the environmental risks. Santa Barbara was the site of a massive oil spill in 1969.

But proponents say technology has made drilling safer. They also note offshore drilling could boost America’s energy independence and lower gas prices in California.

Bonta Friday said the new lawsuit is California’s 55th against the Trump administration and that the state will stop suing when the president stops breaking the law.

The White House couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. But earlier this week, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Center Square in an email that Bonta should focus on the state’s problems, such as illegal immigration, “instead of bragging about filing frivolous lawsuits against the Trump Administration.”