President Trump issued a Defense Product Act-based executive order to get oil flowing again off the California coast. State judge basically ruled a previous California court injunction against offshore oil drilling superseded that EO.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Last month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order authorizing the Secretary of the Department of Energy to greenlight Sable Offshore oil company’s ongoing efforts to restart production at the much-fought-over Santa Ynez Unit off the coast near Santa Barbara, California.
Energy Secretary Christ Wright quickly followed up by doing exactly that.
“Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that the West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness,” Wright stated.
…Friday’s presidential executive order and action of the Energy Secretary come shortly on the heels of the lengthy Department of Justice legal opinion concluding that the restart of Sable Offshore’s plant falls within the scope and jurisdiction of the Defense Production Act. The restart action flies in the face of opinions rendered by the California Attorney General and the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Last October, the Fire Marshal issued a ruling decreeing that Sable had not yet done enough repair work on a pipeline that spilled 142,000 gallons of crude in a leak in 2015. That spill was due to systemic corrosion to the pipeline.
This basically opened an oil spigot that had been shut off by a California court’s previous order halting oil production in this region. Sable considered the Defense Production Act-based executive order to have trumped the state’s ruling.
Empowered by this move and in response to escalating gasoline prices (including historic ones in the Golden State high enough to get Democrats to rescind the gas tax), Sable began pumping out 60,000 barrels of oil daily. As an added bonus, 100 jobs were created with more hires slated for the near future.
During an exclusive visit to the newly reopened platforms, where oil is once again flowing through onshore pipelines in Santa Barbara following a Trump executive order, The California Post sat down with the facility’s executive, who offered a pointed but measured response to the Democrat outcry at the decision, which is still facing legal action to shut it down again.
“We have a perfect, safe restart of the pipeline,” J. Caldwell Flores, president and COO of Sable Offshore Corp., told The Post.
“We recognize we’re providing a necessary service to California and the country as a whole.”
About 100 new jobs have already been created, and an additional 200 are expected once all three platforms are fully operational, according to Sable.
However, a state judge has decided she has more power than the President when it comes to the nation’s energy security.
Oil development off Santa Barbara County’s Gaviota Coast has long turned on fine legal margins — interstate versus intrastate, State Fire Marshal versus the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, court orders versus claims of immunity. On Friday morning, in the Santa Barbara courtroom of Judge Donna Geck, one of those margins snapped into focus.
Geck refused to lift the injunction blocking Sable Offshore Corp. from restarting its pipeline system — even as oil continues to flow.
That alone might sound like just procedural sparring, but this time, the ruling did something new: It rejected, for the first time, Sable’s argument that a federal order issued under the Defense Production Act allows it to sidestep state law and the court’s prior orders.
“This is the first time a court has recognized that the Defense Production Act order does not relieve Sable of its requirements under state law,” said Talia Nimmer, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD).
Sable Offshore Corp. plans to fight this ruling vigorously. It also plans to continue pumping oil.
The oil giant vowed to fight the “show-cause” process in court next month and pointed out it had been given the green light to reopen by the president.
Judge Donna Geck of the Santa Barbara Superior Court said last week a state injunction on the gas giant was still in place, blocking it from restarting and handing a win to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Jeffrey Dintzer, attorney for Sable Offshore, told the California Post: “We’re disappointed that the court chose not to rescind the order.
…“The pipeline is still operational, and we are continuing to pump crude through the Santa Ynez system pursuant to the order of Secretary Wright who is authorized by the president.”
Hot Air’s John Sexton has a few thoughts on how this legal battle will continue:
Judge Geck has set a hearing for next month to decide whether to hold the company in contempt of court. Hopefully a higher court will correct Judge Geck on appeal. Then again, it’s possible the emergency, in the form of the war with Iran, will be over before this gets sorted out.
The clash unfolding off the coast of Santa Barbara is more than a regional permitting dispute. It’s more like a live test of whether federal authority on energy security carries any real weight when it collides with California’s regulatory regime. For now, Sable is operating in a legal gray zone where oil is flowing, jobs are materializing, and gasoline relief is tangible, despite a state court insisting none of it should be happening.
Once again, California finds itself in the familiar position of needing the very energy infrastructure its political leadership keeps trying to shut down, and the contradictions are getting harder to ignore.
If Judge Geck is determined to shoot herself in the feet, may I recommend that she chooses the largest possible calibre?
50 caliber Desert Eagle
20 mm?
44 Magnum: The most powerful hand gun in the world
Superior court judges in California are a dime a dozen. 58 counties all have superior courts and over 1600 judges preside. Easy to judge shop. Easy to influence as they all must have been a member of the California bar for 10 years before they get appointed. Of course, They all attend democrat fundraising dinners in order to get appointed.
That’s easy: 12 gauge.
State jurisdiction only extends 3nm offshore except texas and florida where is 9nm for gulf coast
In presuming this platform is within federal jurisdiction which is from 3nm to 200nm, and sources say it’s 5nm in the Santa Barbara channel.
The judge has no jurisdiction
I think the issue arises on the last mile for the pipeline to get to shore, which would fall again in the state’s jurisdiction. Sadly “wormhole” pipelines haven’t been invented yet to get crude oil from one point to the other.
How would interstate commerce clause apply? Curious. If this oil is to be used by more than just California (refined products go to Nevada and Arizona) then the judge cannot block the Feds on this one. Or, better yet, more oil on the market regardless of where it is used affects prices beyond California. I think the judge will get overruled.
As a Nevadan, I can only hope you’re right. I fear Varg’s observation may overrule despite support from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Judges are too easily bought – but then they are usually just attorneys in robes, so one shouldn’t expect a sudden adoption of good morals.
True. Wishing the best for you. I left LA in 2023 for Texas, yet I’m native Texan so I was just coming home.
I’m amazed that Nevada, which gets almost all of its refined products from California refineries, aren’t suing California for their Environmental position as it will impact Nevada greatly as more refineries shut down.
“Sadly “wormhole” pipelines haven’t been invented yet to get crude oil from one point to the other.”
Hyperbolic. Exxon/Sable could have built a proper pipeline system and properly maintained it. They did not. And they still had not met California specs when Wright/47 mandated production restart.
In fact, the larger issue is why California is allowing production from so many of their other platforms. Exxon/Sable’s pipelines were probably the least badly operated/maintained of the bunch. Those working offshore and in the Orcutt office in the late 90’s still remember responding to the Platform Irene pipeline spill. It was caused by hardly able pressure monitoring that allowed over pressuring of an under inspected, non pigged, system to burst. Ironically, Jim Flores, a litigant here, (and proud owner of the biggest residential spread in Houston at the turn of the century) bought Irene a few years later and did nada to improve that operation.
The judge cares not.
nm = nanometers? Newton-meters?
I think he means nautical miles.
A newton-meter is a unit of torgue
nm = international nautical mile is defined as exactly 1,852 metres;
6,076 ft; 1.151 miles
Nautical Miles = ~1.15 miles
Maybe I’ve been too much of the wrong type of science, but the first time I saw “nm” my mind read it as nano meter.
On that note, I don’t know what kind of “science” you’ve been [sic], since you still can’t tell us what the Second Law of Thermodynamics says, can you, Professor?
And if you think that ignoring my basic physics question makes you look either smarter or more gentlemanly, well, it doesn’t. Even Willis the fisherman knows that a man ought to be able to defend his words. Are you less of a man than Willis? What do you think this is, “Skeptical Science“? Or perhaps “The Conversation“?
Maybe California will elect a Republican governor next time.
It’s a possibility.
If it’s raining through the roof…just burn the house down.
If it’s raining through the roof…just burn the house down.
Ahh.. preaching far-left ideology again, I see. !
Just repeating what it’s been told to believe.
Kind of like you repeating what you were “told to believe” about the Second Law, Professor? Does the word “hypocrite” mean anything to you?
Probably not, unfortunately
New car registrations: +4% in Q1 2026; battery-electric 19.4% market share
In a world using less oil money well spend…
How many jobs did trumps tariffs and war on renewables cost?
He also did a real number on US farmers.
Now all those new EVs in Europe have to do is figure out how to get electricity and how to pay for it.
Your second URL, I see, “An overlapping series of headwinds—ranging from climate to economics and geopolitics—have made farming in the U.S. an exceptionally brutal profession in recent months.”
When has farming anywhere ever NOT been brutal?
“The US EV market has experienced a slump in sales, with a 4% decline in 2025 ..
… and a 27% drop in the first quarter of 2026. “
The US is not the world…
Thank God.
The only places where the sales of EVs is going up, are those places where the government is banning everything else.
But that is what happens whereever incentives and subsidies are dropped.
One of those EV’s belongs to my Cal Poly STEM grads son/DIL, now working and raising a family in the east bay. He gave his mom a ride when she went out to visit earlier this year and she called right after. She’s never been to a drag strip, but still used the term “drag strip acceleration”.
In my younger years, I have been to drag strips many times and have no idea why one needs a personal auto with “drag strip acceleration”.
I agree. He doesn’t use it. Just an observation on his Ioniq. My 2023 Bolt EUV is much less powerful, but still plenty. Both have more pickup than my 1963 425 HP, 409 c.i. lopey cam, dual Carter WCFB’s, 4 gear Impala convertible I ran in my wasted youth.
Short term virtue… now hook up a big trailer and see how far you get. in any of those EV’s.
I’ve got a Chevrolet Colorado Z71 2.8 diesel for that. Like 59% of the country, we’re a 2 car family. The Bolt for 80% of our miles. The Colorado to pull our bed hitch fiberglass trailer for our summers on the California central coast.
So your little EV is essentially a glorified shopping cart… OK !!
And the OIL industry has allowed you enough wealth to buy that shopping cart as well as owning a proper car.
You are saying that a proper ICE car is needed for anything substantial.
You are NOT helping your argument for EVs 😉
Wow, I hit a nerve… Still need a proper ICE vehicle to go anywhere..
I dare you to go EV only. !
“Still need a proper ICE vehicle to go anywhere.”.
If “anywhere” is the l.t. 20% of our driving that involves long distance towing, got me there.
“I dare you to go EV only. !”
Why?
@bigoilbob. You and I disagree immensely on many things, but I think we can agree bnice2000 is probably best ignored. And @bnice2000, I would prefer you don’t respond because then I see the notification and I have to go the extremely slow admin page, bogged down by millions of comments, read yours, and approve or delete.
Heard. I am also culpable here and stand admonished.
gotta protect the climate trolls 😉
Reach the end of the strip.. and wait 2 hours to recharge 😉
The war on renewables has saved thousands of jobs as the price of energy dropped.
There have been a number of companies who have returned production to the US.
It really is funny how the left thinks that government mandates proves that they people want what they are selling.
Where will that oil be sent if there are no more refineries in CA?
A question. Can the President declare the closing of the California refineries a national security issue since there are a number of military installations, ports and all the related transportation in CA? Then order them to remain open and refining? Seems right to me.
He may not have that power but he might determine all the ways that Gruesome is pushing them out of the state and stop that sabotage.
Good question. Could the military/federal government take over the Richmond refinery and then contract operation out to Chevron?
The US government essentially built Shell’s Domingez facility (now dismantled) to supply 100 Avgas for
WWIIWW eleven.Don’t forget that Arizona and Nevada rely on refinery products to keep our economies running. I personally don’t give damn if California destroys their economy, but I don’t like that they can damage their neighbors with their insane ideas.
Hmmm…. It appears the 1950 DFA has been monkeyed with. For example, I noticed the following: “(6) to further assure the adequate maintenance of the domestic industrial base, to the maximum extent possible, domestic energy supplies should be augmented through reliance on renewable energy sources (including solar, geothermal, wind, and biomass sources), more efficient energy storage and distribution technologies, and energy conservation measures.”
There is nothing about having a war (undeclared or not) ongoing, so the Iran War is not an issue.
When you think about it, so-called “green energy”, which is not a market based energy, but rather, an ideology based one is a threat to the grid, the economy, and our national sovereignty. If Communism was the threat in the 50s and 60s, then Greenism is even more of a national security threat today.
An ideological judge is a threat to society in the real world.
We should inform Gov. Gavin N. that we always need lots of diesel fuel for firetrucks, garbage trucks, transport trucks, fishing boats and all the heavy machinery used in agriculture, which generates a large portion of the state’s GDP.
I don’t know what to say, California government is a cesspool.