The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is holding a special meeting Monday morning just days after environmental groups lost a bid to immediately block oil company Sable from restarting its Santa Ynez oil pipelines.
The meeting will be held in closed session at 9 a.m. amid a flurry of legal back-and-forth actions involving multiple groups. Board chair Laura Capps called the special meeting. Although the discussion will be in private, public comment is allowed prior to the hearing.
“Santa Barbara County is a community that cares deeply about our environment and has long been engaged in issues related to offshore oil,” Capps told the News-Press. ” With all of the recent developments related to Sable, we have heard from many concerned constituents. As Chair of the Board, I called a special hearing to allow the Supervisors to receive an update on the ongoing litigation we face.”
Sable, under a federal ruling, is allowed to restart its pipelines to transport oil from Santa Ynez to Bakersfield. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration approved on Dec. 22 a restart plan. Sable has started production at the Las Flores Pipeline System, but has not transported oil since May of 2015 after an oil spill at Refugio State Beach Park.
The Houston-based company would have to alert the county at least 24 hours prior to beginning transportation of the oil.
Several environmental organizations, including the Enviromental Defense Center, Get Oil Out! Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper, Santa Barbara County Action Network, claimed that the federal government’s issuance of emergency permits was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law” and/or “without observance of
procedure required by law,” according in an emergency request to halt the restart.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on New Year’s Eve denied the Environmental Defense Center’s immediate appeal, but the case is still scheduled to be litigated in March.
In the meantime, Sable is allowed to return to service and transport the oil from the pipelines after a decade of closure following the oil spill at Refugio State Beach Park in May of 2015.
The county’s hands may be limited in its role to stop the transporting of the oil, although the closed session meeting is likely to update the board of the status of the latest rulings.
The county is already snarled in litigation with Sable over a vote last year to transfer the permits to Sable from ExxonMobil, its former owner. Sable acquired the Santa Ynez Unit assets from ExxonMobil in 2024.
Fourth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Bob Nelson told the News-Press on Sunday that regarding Sable “everybody is kind of throwing as much shade as possible to slow them down and stop them.”
Nelson, who will become chair of the board next week, said with federal regulators involved, “there is a high likelihood that it is going to be out of the hands of locals.”
Nelson said that Sable has a permit to transport the oil and that “it is a property right.”
“In my opinion it is not a discretionary decision,” Nelson said. “Just because something breaks down doesn’t mean they don’t have the right.”
