Local environmental groups held an emergency protest against the restart of the Sable Offshore oil project off the Gaviota Coast after members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet paid a visit to the site this morning.
More than 50 members of the community gathered in front of the Community Environmental Council building on State Street Friday evening for a brief demonstration.
Members from the Environmental Defense Center, Society of Fearless Grandmothers and 805Action were there in support, with some holding signs that read. “Stop Zombie Pipeline” and “Protect Gaviota Coast.”
“We’re here today to say in protest that we don’t want your stinking oil,” said Maureen Ellenberger, president of the Santa Barbara chapter of the Sierra Club, who led the protest.
California has been locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over who has jurisdiction over the pipeline. Despite several injunctions preventing Sable from restarting, they’ve repeatedly continued to pump gas. However, in a blow to California’s efforts this week, a U.S. District Court denied the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation bid to stop Sable from transporting oil.
U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum boosted support for the Trump administration’s restart of the controversial offshore drilling project today in an interview with Fox News, where they were calling in from the site of the project.
Speakers at the protest labeled the trip as a “publicity stunt” and “offensive” to Santa Barbara families who remember the havoc oil spills have wreaked in their community.
“Had they been on the right tour, they would’ve met residents like all of us, who have a memory of the devastation that oil brings,” said Sigrid Wright, executive director of the CEC.
Ethan Maday, a 15-year-old environmental activist from Santa Barbara High School, described Trump administration officials as “parading around the restart like it’s a victory.”
Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, denounced Sable Offshore and the Trump administration as acting “above the law.”
He also described the fight against Sable as bigger than just Santa Barbara.
“It’s about whether California will retain the ability to enforce our environmental laws, uphold rigorous oversight and protect the coastal resources that define our communities in the economy and Santa Barbara County and all of California,” Hart said.
He also refuted some of the statements made by the secretaries in their interview with Fox News.
“Sable is pumping oil, and the price of gasoline is $1.50 more than it was before they took up the oil,” Hart said. “So the promise that they made that their additional production is going to benefit Californians is a lie…Oil that’s produced in California is sold at global prices. We don’t get any discount, we don’t get any benefit, and we bear all the risks.”
Secretaries Wright and Burgum echoed several claims this morning that Trump has used previously in his reasoning for restarting the Sable project. They said that California’s policies are responsible for raising gas prices, reliance on foreign oil poses a security risk and Trump’s energy policies, like increasing domestic production of oil, will make America more affordable.
A statement by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) read by one of his staffers called the energy crisis Trump is trying to solve with domestic oil production as self-inflicted with his “idiotic and illegal war in Iran.”
Recently, Carbajal joined U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) in launching an investigation into Sable Offshore’s potential collaboration with the Trump administration to restart the project.
The protest today represents ongoing efforts by local Santa Barbara environmental groups to stop the restart of the Houston-based oil company’s Santa Ynez Unit near the coast of Santa Barbara. The oil pipeline, at the time owned by another company, caused the massive 2015 Refugio Oil Spill.
Its fate currently rests in federal court.
