State Fire Marshal waives safety requirements for restart of the pipeline that caused the 2015 Refugio spill, paving the way for another disaster on the California coast
Plans to restart the failed Plains pipeline – the same one that caused a massive oil spill on the Central Coast almost ten years ago – got a major push forward this week from the California State Fire Marshal.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) approved a waiver allowing the pipeline to operate without effective protection against corrosion, according to a filing by Sable, the Texas oil company attempting to restart a massive drilling and processing operation in Santa Barbara County formerly owned by ExxonMobil.
The decision, made without public input or environmental review, is a critical step forward for the company’s plans to restart the three offshore platforms, two onshore processing facilities, and other equipment known as the Santa Ynez Unit on the Gaviota Coast.
“The Central Coast has already lived through two major oil spill disasters, including one caused by this same pipeline,” said Alex Katz, Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), a nonprofit environmental law firm opposing the pipeline restart. “California should be leading the country to address the climate crisis and phase out this kind of unsafe and unnecessary fossil fuel production. Instead, by clearing the way for this project, the Newsom administration is bringing back a massive source of greenhouse gas emissions and inviting another environmental disaster in our own state.”
In 2015, the heavily corroded Plains All-American pipeline ruptured near Refugio State Beach. The spill devastated 150 miles of the California coast, destroyed thousands of acres of shoreline and subtidal habitat, killed untold numbers of animals, including hundreds of marine mammals, shut down beaches, fisheries, and businesses, and resulted in criminal convictions of the former owner.
According to a draft Environmental Impact Report by Santa Barbara County, restarting this pipeline likely would result in a spill every year, and a major rupture every four years.
The restart plans have generated concern and outrage from community members, environmental groups, and others. Last week, more than 120 organizations signed a letter to Governor Newsom opposing the restart. Previously, a group of 13 state legislators, including Assemblymember Gregg Hart and Senator Monique Limón, wrote to the Fire Marshal asking for an environmental review and public input into the waiver decision – a request that the Fire Marshal apparently ignored.
Because the pipeline lacks an effective system to protect against corrosion, Sable was required to apply for a waiver allowing it to operate. Under federal law, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration now has 60 days to decide whether to approve or deny the waiver.
EDC and its clients, Get Oil Out! (GOO!) and the Santa Barbara County Action Network (SBCAN), will continue to fight this project on all fronts.
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COAST – “Jobs, sustainability and energy independence.” LOL you have to be kidding. Those are 3 words that describe ONLY ONE type of energy source – renewables. You should look up the word, “sustainable,” as you clearly don’t understand what it means. A finite source is not sustainable by the very definition of the word. Energy independence? LOL how? If you want to really ONLY on US oil, you will destroy our country’s ecosystems and communities, again…… FOR A FINITE source. In NO WAY can oil be sustainable, much less so with only drilling in the US.
Why are you so supportive of increasing production of something that destroys wildlife, pollutes the air we breath and shortens the life of our planet in all phases of it’s life cycle AND IS NOT SUSTAINABLE (extraction, production and use) over something that is ACTUALLY SUSTAINABLE, creates jobs and gives us MORE energy independence without the death and pollution at a similar scale as oil?
I’ll answer for you: you don’t like facts. That’s the only reason. You’ve allowed yourself to be convinced by oil propaganda that somehow renewable energy is bad.
Look man, we will still be using petroleum for a long time, there’s no way around it as you said at this point in time. BUT…. we don’t need to use as much of it. It’s so got dang simple. We use less oil so we don’t run out as fast and don’t pollute as much AND don’t need it from other countries, while at the same time ramping up renewable energy production which is actually CLEANER, INFINITE and CREATES MORE INDEPENDENCE.
It’s so effing SIMPLE, yet too many, like you, believe everything you hear/read on Truth Social and Fox.
Facts need to become “popular” again.
Hear hear
LAYT – Looks like you did not read (or understand) my comment if you’re agreeing with it.
Drill baby, DRILL…. Jobs, sustainability and energy independence. Whether you like it or not, oil/petroleum products are manditory in our society and will be for sometime. That keyboard you’re pounding on, the screen, the chair you’re sitting on, the roof over your head and the Amazon orders you placed ALL DEPEND on oil.
Just another rendition of big carbon propaganda.
This is absolutely shocking. After SB’s own history, research and setting safety standards for a reason, it has been decided to throw caution and common sense to the wind for the benefit of the destruction of the Channel Islands Marinlife and adjacent and variable protected areas? Is everyone going mad?!
…almost as “shocking” as the 1000’s of Wind Machines that are going to be planted off shore and all the submersed radar, foundation building, construction, turbine noise, maintenance of machines (precarious frequent OIL changes) and blade replacements. (The blades are made and transported across our roads with OIL …) The whale migration WILL be affected as well as coastal birds like Californa Brown pelicans (that fly in closely winged flocks) that WILL be decimated. It falls on deaf ears because it comes under a “GREEN” agenda mindset that has been brainwashed into manditory blind acceptance. The study on the local affect of how birds of prey and others have been killed by the wind turbines in Lompoc has already been published…. but it doesn’t matter.
COASTWATCH – are you also upset about the pollution and wildlife death caused by oil production when you say “drill baby, drill?” Of course not.
Facts are really important.
The destruction of wildlife and habitat (including ours) by big carbon is a couple of orders of magnitude greater than that of renewables. But, babble away, as usual, with the propaganda. Rest assured that people with cognitive skills ignore you.
Finally, a responsible, courageous, controversial, uninfluenced by partisan and whiner environmental groups, decision by our “beloved communist” State leader
Whatever his agenda is, and whatever you propagandized minority think, this is the most important POPULAR DECISION CA needed
What you enviro-pukes did to thousands of petroleum industry workers and their families (I’m one of them), and to the economy of this State over the last 10+ years is the real travesty here
Please protest in the streets so I’ll have the opportunity to give each and every one of you a tissue for your treasonous kombucha tears so you don’t get any on your Birkenstocks
LAYT – you realize that the “enviro-pukes” (dErP) are trying to make it so your children and grandchildren have clean air to breath, food to eat, and energy sources that aren’t used up. Right? Do you really think tapping all the wells in our country and continuing unmitigated oil drilling and production is going to clean up our planet?
Sorry you chose a crap job, but CA is not the place to be an oil worker anymore. There are literally thousands of jobs in wind and solar though!
Do me a favor and watch Billy Bob Thornton’s video on wind energy
Do your research
I’m not fooled by anything you are and I’m not about to get an argument with you over it, it’s just useless with you people
I will say, I have no doubt that what happened with the pipeline was sabotage by militant ecoterrorists
Haven’t heard about that ?
That’s why I said treasonous
LAYT – Lol! You mean the rant on Landman? That is a fictional show and that whole monologue was based 100% on anti- wind BS. It’s hot garbage, every word of it. Deflection and propaganda.
Yeah wind uses some oil. BUT IT’S FAR LESS THAN OIL PRODUCTION ONLY.
That stupid rant was embarrassing and almost ruined a great show. Taylor Sheridan is just another Con who doesn’t know why he doesn’t like wind power other than oil people told him to.
That you cite that as some “evidence” is hilarious!
You have to remember that some people get all their information from social media and TV, and lack the reasoning ability to differentiate between what’s real and what is fantasy.
Heavy duty crazy, probably from breathing petroleum fumes.
A clip from Billy Bob Thornton’s new show “Landman” went viral on X for slamming the use of renewable energy like wind turbines, that are intended to combat the effects of climate change.
… Billy Bob Thornton’s character said.”
With most of the research in the world at your fingertips, you cite a fictional character?! I guess it was easy to find, going viral on X…
Very telling that you find it “useless” to argue with facts, and hooo-boy does it say a lot that you think Billy Bob’s anti-wind-and-solar scripted ranting on a TV SHOW is somehow “do your research”. My god, man. That was fiction and it got more things wrong than you would taking an IQ test. Just to be clear, that’s a lot.
Also, a word of advice: consult a dictionary before you use big words like “treasonous”. They’re free online.