A Legal Battle Brews Over Outdated Oil Platforms off California Coast

A new legal battle is on the U.S. energy horizon as part of an attempt to challenge and foil the allegedly outdated plans for three aging oil platforms off the coast of California. This lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of ignoring the harms such plans will bring and aims to thwart Sable Offshore, a Texas-based oil company, from bringing back into operation a pipeline that will transport hydrocarbons produced at three offshore platforms linked to it.

Sable Offshore, the pipeline’s new owner, is attempting to restart production at the Santa Ynez unit’s three platforms, where production has been shut down since May 2015, when a corroded onshore pipeline ruptured and released what is believed to be about 450,000 gallons (1,703.44 cubic meters) of oil near Refugio State Beach north of Santa Barbara.

Last year, letters were sent to the state fire marshal to ask for an environmental review as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before authorizing the plan to restart the former Plains All-American pipeline on the Gaviota Coast, as the oil spill reportedly killed hundreds of birds and marine mammals, including dolphins and sea lions.

Sable is attempting to restart the project, but the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and environmental activists claim this is being done under outdated plans, originally approved in the 1970s and 1980s.

As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has not requested a revision or supplementation of the plans to address the perils of restarting production and did not respond to a notice identifying the violation, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

This legal step has been made in Federal District Court in Los Angeles to take the Trump administration to court over the so-called federal failure to require updated development and production plans for oil drilling at the Santa Ynez unit offshore California.

Kristen Monsell, Oceans Legal Director at Center for Biological Diversity, commented: “I’m appalled that Trump officials would even consider allowing these offshore oil platforms to come back from the dead under plans approved decades ago. Any potentially dangerous infrastructure, especially if it hasn’t been used in a decade, should get close scrutiny, but that’s not happening here.

“Without updated plans, coastal residents will be left in the dark about the full scope of harms from restarting oil production. It’s incredibly frustrating that even after a disastrous spill, we have to sue to get the attention of federal officials.”

Since the Trump administration repeatedly promised to “drill, baby, drill,” President Donald Trump issued what the Center for Biological Diversity describes as an “illegal” executive order on his first day in office to revoke former President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of vulnerable ocean areas from future oil-and-gas leasing, including areas in the Pacific off California.

The withdrawals were interpreted to leave most of the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America on the table for oil leasing, where nearly all U.S. offshore drilling occurs. Several groups are part of a lawsuit challenging that order.

The latest lawsuit states that the failure of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to require Sable to update the plans for the Santa Ynez unit violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and Administrative Procedure Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity claims that BOEM’s decision ignores numerous harms arising from offshore oil and gas activity, such as air pollution, risk of oil spills, and the subsequent contribution to climate change.

California has three remaining oil platforms in operation off the coast of Orange County – Eva, Emmy, and Ester – which were constructed between 1963 and 1985. The Golden State is laying the groundwork to reach net-zero carbon emissions and 100% clean electricity by 2045.

With this in mind, Governor Gavin Newsom threw his support behind a lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in 2023 against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The legal challenge was set in motion over the six players’ alleged role in minimizing and giving little weight to the potential threats the development and extraction of fossil fuels pose to the climate and the environment.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman denied the oil companies’ motion to dismiss the case in October 2024.