California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Energy, seeking to block its attempt to restart the long-contested Sable Offshore pipeline system, which connects the Santa Ynez offshore platform to refineries in California.
The legal challenge comes after US Energy Secretary Chris Wright moved earlier this month to reactivate the pipeline using authority granted by former President Donald Trump through an executive order. That order invoked the Defense Production Act, allowing federal powers to override state regulations.
“We won’t let this outrageous federal overreach go without a fight,” Bonta said during a press conference on Monday. He argued that the restart order violates state laws, existing court rulings, and a federally approved settlement.
Neither the Department of Energy nor Sable Offshore immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit, which has been filed in federal court in San Francisco.
California is asking the court to declare the restart order unlawful under both federal law and the US Constitution, and to prevent the federal government from using it to operate the Santa Ynez platform and its associated pipelines.
The Santa Ynez facility has remained shut down since a 2015 oil spill that released more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, contaminating beaches near Santa Barbara. The current dispute is part of a broader clash between federal efforts to expand fossil fuel production and California’s aggressive climate policies under Governor Gavin Newsom.
The federal move to restart the pipeline comes amid rising global fuel prices, partly driven by geopolitical tensions, including the US-Israeli conflict with Iran. Earlier this month, Sable Offshore said it had resumed transporting hydrocarbons from Las Flores Canyon to Pentland Station on March 14 and expects output to reach 50,000 barrels per day by April 1.
“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said in a March 13 statement. “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.”
This is not the first legal clash over the pipeline. In January, California also sued the Trump administration over its decision to classify the Sable pipeline system as “interstate,” despite it operating entirely within state boundaries.
