Bill to require additional steps to restart oil production statewide clears Senate Natural Resources Committee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A bill to add additional requirements before restarting oil pipelines that have not been used for five or more years cleared the California Senate's Natural Resources Committee Tuesday.
Senate Bill 542 would require operators of facilities where an oil spill could impact state waters to get a certificate of financial responsibility from an administrator with the state's Office of Spill Prevention and Response, make sure an unspecified public process would need to be conducted before that certificate is issued, and prohibit existing pipelines that have not been used for five years to be restarted without first performing a hydro test.
The bill was introduced State Senator Monique Limón who represents Santa Barbara County where Houston-based Sable Offshore has been attempting to restart oil production after purchasing pipelines, offshore platforms, and the Las Flores Canyon production facility from ExxonMobil, collectively called the Santa Ynez Unit.
The image below is from an informational slide in an investor presentation by Sable Offshore courtesy of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and details the assets purchased by the company from ExxonMobil.
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 and destroyed thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.
The pipelines have remained dormant since the incident and would be the only current pipeline impacted by the additional requirements proposed in SB 542 confirmed State Senator Limón's Office Wednesday.
According to State Senator Limón's Office, current hydro testing requirements that were performed on the ruptured pipelines was not thorough enough to detect the corrosion and prevent the 2015 spill and the more comprehensive testing in SB 542 is intended to further reduce the risk of another spill.
Attempts to restart oil production cleared crucial regulatory hurdles at the county and federal level earlier this year and Sable Offshore filed a complaint against the California Coastal Commission concerning the state-regulators attempts to halt progress to restart the Santa Ynez Unit.
In response to continued work along the Gaviota Coast by Sable Offshore, the California Coastal Commission approved $18 million in penalties against Sable Offshore for work the state regulator claims is improperly permitted.
In response to a Coastal Commission staff report recommending millions in penalties in March, Sable Offshore issued the following statement, "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."
According to Sable Offshore's complaint against the Coastal Commission, Sable Offshore and its subsidiary, Pacific Pipeline Company, are required by federal law to schedule evaluation and remediation within 180 days for, "all anomalous condition in [any] pipeline" and 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."
"The oil pipeline restart process [for the Santa Ynez Unit] has been concerning from the moment this pipeline project began," said Senator Monique Limón. "SB 542 seeks to not only provide a clear opportunity for the public to weigh in on the restart process, but it strengthens required integrity testing to better protect our community from a possible oil spill in the future."
SB 542 is expected to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee next month before heading to a full floor vote shared Senator Limón's Office in a press release Wednesday.
The bill will have to clear the Senate's Appropriations Committee and be scheduled for a vote before the full Senate in time to meet the house of origin deadline in May noted Senator Limón's Office.
