The State of California has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to prevent the restart of two onshore oil pipelines that have been shut down since causing the devastating 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill near Santa Barbara.
Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the legal action Friday, arguing that the federal government illegally seized control from the state in order to rush the pipelines back into operation. The petition, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, challenges recent orders by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that reclassified the pipelines as “interstate” and approved a restart plan for their new operator, Sable Offshore Corp.
“In its latest unlawful power grab, the Trump Administration is illegally claiming exclusive federal authority over two of California’s onshore pipelines,” Attorney General Bonta said in a statement. “California has seen first-hand the devastating environmental and public health impacts of coastal oil spills — yet the Trump Administration will stop at nothing to evade state regulation which protects against these very disasters.”
The pipelines, known as Las Flores Pipelines or lines CA-324 and CA-325, have been inactive for a decade. Their shutdown followed a 2015 rupture caused by corrosion that released hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil onto the Gaviota Coast. The spill contaminated coastal waters, killed hundreds of marine mammals and seabirds, shut down beaches and fisheries for months, and sickened local communities.
According to the Attorney General’s office, the federal government took two critical steps in December 2025 to bypass state oversight. On December 17, PHMSA reclassified the pipelines, which run from Santa Barbara County to Kern County, as “interstate,” thereby shifting regulatory authority from the California State Fire Marshal to the federal agency. Five days later, on December 22, PHMSA approved Sable’s plan to restart oil transport, citing an emergency permit based on President Trump’s “National Energy Emergency” executive order, which Bonta’s office has previously challenged.
State officials argue this move violates a Consent Decree established after the 2015 spill, to which PHMSA was a party. That agreement explicitly acknowledged the State Fire Marshal’s role in reviewing and approving any plan to restart the pipelines.
“Our team has worked diligently to uphold the terms of the consent decree and ensure the safety of lines CA 324 and CA 325,” said State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant. “The Office of the State Fire Marshal is committed to its mission to protect the people, property, and natural resources of California.”
The lawsuit alleges that PHMSA’s orders are “arbitrary and capricious” and violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
The legal action received strong support from Assemblymember Gregg Hart, who represents the Santa Barbara area affected by the spill.
“These are the same pipelines that ruptured in 2015, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil along our coast, killing wildlife, shutting down beaches, and hurting local businesses,” Hart said. “The federal government’s actions ignore history, ignore the law, and ignore the painful lessons our community learned firsthand. California will not allow Trump and his Big Oil friends to bypass our essential environmental laws and threaten our coastline.”
Hart emphasized that the state will not permit an outside company or the federal administration to ignore California’s laws. “The people of the Central Coast have been clear: we do not want another oil spill,” he stated. “This legal action is about accountability, safety, and making sure that decisions affecting our coast are made through a public process — not behind closed doors in Washington.”
Central Coast environmental nonprofits also filed lawsuits against federal agencies over their approval of Sable Offshore Corp. to restart the pipelines.
The Environmental Defense Center (EDC), the Center for Biological Diversity, and their clients filed an emergency lawsuit on December 24, 2025, to “halt the Trump administration’s rushed approval” to revive the oil pipeline system.
“I’m relieved that California is fighting back against Trump administration overreach,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s refreshing to see leaders who won’t be bullied by Trump and will stand up for the rule of law and our precious coastal resources.”
GOO(D)!
Let’s just buy our oil from our enemies.
Smarter yet, stop burning it.
You aren’t one to care about facts, but we import most of our oil from Canada and Mexico, two formerly friendly countries that the Orange Moron is trying very hard to turn into enemies. Is that what you’re advocating? Or is this post just another indication of your ignorance?
Which “enemy” are we buying oil from now? Or do you consider anyone outside of the US to be an enemy?
Oil is a globally traded commodity and currently 62% of our imported oil is from Canada and Mexico. We get another 4% from Saudi Arabia and another 3% from Brazil and Iraq. The rest is from a large variety of countries in South America and Africa.
Go for the jugular, Bonta.