A town hall organized to inform Santa Barbara County residents about the future of Sable Offshore Corp. drew an energized crowd of supporters, protestors and celebrities, and ended with part of the audience walking out in frustration.

The town hall, organized by State Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, who represents District 21, and Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara from District 37, was held Thursday at La Cumbre Junior High School.

“We have deep concerns about what is in front of us, and you need to know that as your state representatives, we have been there and we will continue to be there,” Limón said.

Multiple state agencies met in Santa Barbara to share presentations about how their departments work and the status of the Sable pipeline transfer. Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, welcomed the audience and emceed the meeting.

The meeting was held on campus in the Jo Ann Caines Theatre with a packed auditorium. The audience was full of Sable protestors wearing red, chanting slogans, and holding signs demanding that the project be halted.

The walkout occurred during a speech by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who spoke at the meeting and an earlier press conference alongside Jane Fonda.

“I can smell a rat, and this project is a rat,” Louis-Dreyfus said.

She continued by saying the environment is the engine that drives California’s economy and nothing brings Californians together more than protecting the coast.

During Louis-Dreyfus’ speech, several jokes from the audience rang out referencing “Seinfeld” and her other work.

As she continued, many of the Sable supporters, many of whom were wearing hats with the Sable logo, stood up and made their way to the exit. About a third of the audience left at that point, leaving mostly protestors against the pipeline.

After the town hall, Sable criticized the inclusion of Louis-Dreyfus and other members of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC).

“Sable Offshore management, employees, contractors, labor and supporters showed up today in good faith to participate in a town hall meeting where only government officials were on the agenda to present. Project opponents forced the moderators to give them dedicated time to present biased information and smear the project. The opponents’ self-serving fundraiser and rally was not an appropriate use of public resources,” said Steve Rusch, Sable’s vice-president of environmental and governmental affairs.

During the meeting, the various departments described their history and laid out how they were working with Sable as it works to restart the pipeline.

In attendance at the meeting were representatives from the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Office of Spill Prevention, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the Department of Conservation, Department of Parks and Recreation, and the State Water Resources Control Board.

One of the speakers was Daniel Berlant, the state fire marshal, who explained how his department covers close to 5,500 miles of pipelines. He said his department has worked with Sable to require more safety valves and annual inspections on the pipeline.

Berlant said that since the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill, the annual inspections now include stricter integrity assessments, pressure testing, and requirements for immediate repairs to corroded areas.

“It’s really important to know (…) that at any time if we determine that an operator is not following through with the safety concerns of ours, non-compliance of our rules, we have the authority to immediately shut down any of our lines,” Berlant said.

He also said that many of the people in his department live along the South Coast and are concerned about the environment as well.

After the presentations from the agencies, the representatives took questions from the audience.

One question from the audience was why Sable did not face harsher penalties for violating work stop orders from the California Coastal Commission. Cassidy Taufel, the deputy director of energy and ocean resources, stated that the penalties are still in place, and they accumulate over time.

Sable has received multiple cease-and-desist orders for work it has done on the Gaviota pipeline that caused the Refugio spill. The company hopes to use the pipeline to restart production for three offshore oil platforms, the processing center, and multiple pipelines.

The company sued the California Coastal Commission in February 2025, saying that the violations from the commission are unlawful.

Another request asked if the agencies would do a review under the California Environmental Quality Act, which would examine the possible environmental impacts the project could have.

However, none of the agencies committed to conducting a CEQA review.

Some of the audience expressed frustration with the lack of commitment and tried to press for clearer answers by yelling from the crowd.

After the meeting, Brady Bradshaw, the senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, called for the state agencies to commit to conducting an environmental review.

“Santa Barbarans have spoken loud and clear about not wanting to see this pipeline restart, but the state hasn’t assured us that oil won’t spill again,” said Bradshaw. “It remains to be seen whether state agencies are serious about getting the situation under control and the public deserves a post-spill environmental review. Until then, our voices will only get louder.”

One of the audience members was Ravid Raphael, who has lived in Goleta for the past 11 years. One of his concerns was that there are too many departments and that they are too fragmented.

“There was a lot of information given, but not a lot of clarity of how to get Sable to follow the law,” Raphael said.

Click through the slideshow below to see more photos from Thursday’s events.