Legal Insurection by Leslie Eastman 4/27/2026
President Trump issued a Defense Product Act-based executive order to get oil flowing again off the California coast. State judge basically ruled a previous California court injunction against offshore oil drilling superseded that EO. Last month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order authorizing the Secretary of the Department of Energy to greenlight Sable Offshore oil company’s ongoing efforts to restart production at the much-fought-over Santa Ynez Unit off the coast near Santa Barbara, California.
Energy Secretary Christ Wright quickly followed up by doing exactly that.
“Today’s order will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that the West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness,” Wright stated.
…Friday’s presidential executive order and action of the Energy Secretary come shortly on the heels of the lengthy Department of Justice legal opinion concluding that the restart of Sable Offshore’s plant falls within the scope and jurisdiction of the Defense Production Act. The restart action flies in the face of opinions rendered by the California Attorney General and the Office of the State Fire Marshal. Last October, the Fire Marshal issued a ruling decreeing that Sable had not yet done enough repair work on a pipeline that spilled 142,000 gallons of crude in a leak in 2015. That spill was due to systemic corrosion to the pipeline.
This basically opened an oil spigot that had been shut off by a California court’s previous order halting oil production in this region. Sable considered the Defense Production Act-based executive order to have trumped the state’s ruling.
Empowered by this move and in response to escalating gasoline prices (including historic ones in the Golden State high enough to get Democrats to rescind the gas tax), Sable began pumping out 60,000 barrels of oil daily. As an added bonus, 100 jobs were created with more hires slated for the near future.
During an exclusive visit to the newly reopened platforms, where oil is once again flowing through onshore pipelines in Santa Barbara following a Trump executive order, The California Post sat down with the facility’s executive, who offered a pointed but measured response to the Democrat outcry at the decision, which is still facing legal action to shut it down again.
More:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/04/federal-power-meets-california-resistance-in-santa-ynez-oil-restart-battle/
