Coastal Commission staff recommend almost $15 million in fines against Sable Offshore Friday
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday, the California Coastal Commission posted staff reports about alleged violations by Sable Offshore during the Houston-based company's attempts to restart oil production locally and recommended almost $15 million in penalties that are scheduled for approval during the regulator's April meeting in Santa Barbara.
According to Friday's Coastal Commission staff report, "Sable undertook development at locations onshore, along the Pipelines, as early as, if not before, September of 2024. Sable undertook such activities without prior communication or notification to the California Coastal Commission...including the following: 1) excavation with heavy equipment; 2) removal of major vegetation; 3) grading and widening of roads; 4) installation of metal plates and other fill material within wetlands; 5) dewatering and discharge of water, including into coastal waterways; 6) pipeline removal, replacement, and reinforcement; 7) installation of shutoff valves; as well as other development associated with the inspection and anomaly correction work on Las Flores Pipelines CA324 and CA-325. At locations offshore, Sable undertook development beginning on November 29, 2024, including the placement of sand and cement bags on the seafloor below and adjacent to Sable’s out-of-service offshore oil and water pipelines."
“They have violations for destroying wetlands. They have violations for destroying habitat. So you take all the violations and you put a dollar amount per day. And again, they were under notice that these were violations. So this is their own making,” said Linda Krop from the Environmental Defense Center.
The Coastal Commission has the legal authority to issue cease and desist orders, seek injunctive relief, and levy civil fines.
“The Coastal Commission, when they were here in Santa Barbara a few weeks ago, said this is the first time in the agency's history that a company has ever ignored a cease and desist order of this blatantly. So there has to be consequences for for that type of of of behavior, because otherwise it sends a message that anybody can violate the Coastal Act,” said Environmental Defense Center Executive Director Alex Katz.
Sections 30821 and 30821.3 of the California Coastal Act allow the Coastal Commission's Executive Director to issue administrative penalties to the company, up to $11,250 per day for each violation.
The California Coastal Commission's next meeting is April 9 through April 11 at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Hotel and the above staff recommendations are scheduled for a hearing and potential approval on Thursday, April 10.
In response to the Coastal Commission's staff report, Sable Offshore issued the following statement Friday, "The repair and maintenance work done to ensure the safe condition of the Santa Ynez Unit and onshore pipelines was fully authorized by coastal development permits previously approved by the California Coastal Commission and Santa Barbara County. Commission staff’s unreasonable overreach is an attempt to exert influence over the planned restart of the Santa Ynez Unit oil production operations — something that is entirely outside of this Commission’s authority. All of Sable’s work has been conducted in previously disturbed areas, and Commission staff continues to exaggerate the project’s impacts."
In Friday's press release, Sable Offshore also argued that coastal development permits issued by the Coastal Commission when the pipelines were first constructed in the 1980s are still applicable to its current work in the coastal zone stating, "Sable’s repair and maintenance work is fully authorized by coastal development permits previously approved by Santa Barbara County and the [Coastal] Commission. These activities do not require new or amended coastal development permits and are not otherwise subject to the Commission’s enforcement authority."
On Sep. 27, 2024, the California Coastal Commission issued a Notice of Violation to Sable Offshore -the Houston-based company that purchased pipelines, offshore platforms, and the Las Flores Canyon production facility from ExxonMobil- for their work on pipelines without securing the proper permits.
On Feb. 12, 2025, the County of Santa Barbara's Planning and Development Department confirmed that four Zoning Clearance applications for anomaly repair work on pipelines 324 and 325a were authorized under existing permits in a letter to Sable Offshore despite actions halting work by the California Coastal Commission.
Pipeline 324, formerly known as Line 901, previously ruptured causing the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill, which impacted 150 miles of California coast, destroying thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.
In response, Sable Offshore filed a complaint in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, arguing the company is required by federal law to schedule evaluation and remediation within 180 days for, "all anomalous condition in [any] pipeline".
"The Coastal Commission’s issuance of the NOVs [Notice of Violation] and EDCDO [Executive Director Cease and Desist Order] prohibits Plaintiffs’ [Sable Offshore] compliance with federal law requiring Plaintiffs to promptly make anomaly repairs and conduct span remediation maintenance activities at the Pipelines as necessary to protect human health and the environment without prior compensation in violation of Article I, Section 19 of the California Constitution and the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment," added the complaint.
The image below, from an informational slide in an investor presentation by Sable Offshore courtesy of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, shows all of the assets purchased by the company from ExxonMobil collectively referred to the Santa Ynez Unit.
