WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24), along with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Top Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), led 14 of their colleagues in filing an amicus brief in California v. Wright, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, to challenge the Trump Administration’s use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to facilitate the restart of the Sable Offshore oil pipeline system along the California Central Coast.
The brief argues that the Administration has failed to identify a legitimate national defense need for Sable’s crude oil and that the DPA order does not satisfy the statutory requirements for invoking this extraordinary authority. Sable produces crude oil—not finished fuels used by the military—and the order does not establish a connection between Sable’s production and an unmet military fuel requirement.
Joining Carbajal, Whitehouse, Padilla, and Schiff, the amicus brief is co-signed by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-11), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-18), Nanette Barragán (D-CA-44), Julia Brownley (D-CA-26), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37), Mike Levin (D-CA-49), Ted Lieu (D-CA-36), Doris Matsui (D-CA-07), Dave Min (D-CA-47), Kevin Mullin (D-CA-15), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19).
“The Sable pipeline restart is a classic example of the Trump administration abusing power to benefit political allies at the expense of local communities,” said Rep. Carbajal. “As our brief outlines, there was no legitimate national security justification for invoking the Defense Production Act on behalf of Sable. This Administration is clearly fixated on boosting the fossil fuel industry, even when doing so risks putting our environment and public health in harm’s way. The people of Santa Barbara County and California have every right to be concerned about the pipeline restart given its role in the 2015 Refugio oil spill. I will keep fighting alongside my colleagues to hold the Administration accountable for this overreach and protect our communities’ right to a safe environment.”
“Californians have been clear: we don’t want oil infrastructure off our coast,” said Sen. Padilla. “The Trump Administration is using a bogus justification to open our waters to their Big Oil donors, jeopardizing our environment and our economy. It’s corrupt, it’s dangerous, and I’ll do everything in my power to stop it.”
“The idea that reopening a damaged pipeline on the Central Coast of California is somehow imperative to our national defense – when killing other renewable energy sources is just fine, when data centers are demanding new energy and we’re taking offline 90 to 95% of the new energy coming into the grid – tells you this has nothing to do with national security. It has nothing to do with your price at the pump. It only has to do with the president keeping a promise to the big oil companies, and we are all paying the price,” said Sen. Schiff.
An excerpt from the brief is below. The full amicus brief is available HERE.
