Local activist groups gathered to express their opposition to the proposed restart of the Sable Offshore Corp. oil pipeline ahead of a meeting of the California State Lands Commission.
The project was not specifically on Thursday’s agenda for the Goleta meeting, but the commission is involved in lease agreements and permitting for the pipeline. That pipeline running through Santa Barbara County has been shut down since it ruptured and caused the 2015 Refugio oil spill.
“Today, we are asking the commission to recognize the unacceptable risk that Sable’s restart plans pose to the community and reject the applications to assign the leases to Sable,” said Jeremy Frankel, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Center who represents Get Oil Out and the Santa Barbara County Action Network.
Frankel explained that his clients were involved in cleaning up the Refugio spill and stated that they have well-founded concerns that Sable will not be able to prevent another oil spill in the community.
Previous pipeline owner Plains All American, which was found criminally and civilly liable for the oil spill, sold it to ExxonMobil.
Sable Offshore Corp. formed in February to purchase Exxon’s Santa Ynez Unit assets and try to restart operations. The new assets include three offshore oil platforms, the Las Flores Canyon processing facility on the Gaviota Coast, and the pipeline.
Sable settled a $70 million lawsuit in May with property owners affected by the spill and agreed to abandon plans for a replacement pipeline. Instead, the company wants to install shut-off valves along the existing pipeline and restart it.
Despite the plans to install the valves, local groups have opposed restarting oil and gas operations using the pipeline.
Frankel said the EDC has received information through litigation with Sable that a worst-case scenario at the pipeline could be 14 times more devastating than the Refugio spill.
“What we also learned last week is that Sable does not have an adequate plan in place to respond to another spill, nor has Sable demonstrated that it is financially capable of remediating a spill,” he said.
Other speakers Thursday included Katie Davis, chair of the Santa Barbara-Ventura Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Along with concerns about oil spills, Davis said she is concerned about the pipeline’s proximity to the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.
The proposed sanctuary will run along the Gaviota Coast down to Santa Barbara County and is expected to be approved within the next year.
Even though the pipeline was not on the official agenda, Davis said they decided to arrange the event because it is a rare chance to be at the State Lands Commission in person and be heard.
“We want them to keep us in mind,” Davis told Noozhawk before the meeting, “and the impacts of their decisions on the locals here in the Goleta area as they think about [the pipeline] when it comes up in the coming months.”
Jennifer Lucchesi, executive director of the commission, provided an update on the pipeline and related leases after the public comment.
She announced that the commission staff is processing four applications that would reassign the leases from ExxonMobil to Sable, but there is no set date on when it will be discussed.
She continued by saying that the commission has tightened inspection and survey requirements for ExxonMobil, especially compared with federal or state standards.
“This is very high priority to the State Lands Commission and its staff,” Lucchesi said. “We are doing our due diligence across the board when it comes across the Santa Ynez Unit and the pipelines associated with that.”