A California judge has ruled Sable Offshore Corp. — thecompany Donald Trump is usingto give the state an oil lifeline — did not have the authority to restart its operations.
Judge Donna Geck of the Santa Barbara Superior Court said a state injunction on the gas giant blocking its operations from restarting is still in place, handing a win to environmental groups and Gavin Newsom.
“A California court just confirmed what we have said all along: Trump and his Big Oil donors are not above the law,” Newsom said in a statement.
Back in March,Trump signed an executive orderto resume oil drilling operations off the Southern California coast, citing national energy security concerns.
The order invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act, stemming from concerns of limited oil supply from America’s war with Iran.
In response to the order, Sable Offshoreresumed operationsnear Santa Barbara at its Santa Ynez offshore oil platform and pipeline.
They were shuttered in 2015 after a spill released thousands of barrels of crude into the Pacific Ocean.
The Santa Ynez pipeline restart “marks a 15% increase in California’s in-state oil production, which will replace almost 1.5 million barrels of foreign crude oil each month,”according to the Department of Energy.
Environmentalists and anti-Trump Democrats furiously claimed that Trump’s order was “illegal” and that any restart needed approval by state regulators. They sought the temporary injunction, granted in February.
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Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
