The California Coastal Commission suffered a blow Thursday to its efforts to make a Texas-based oil company stop work immediately on its oil pipelines off the Santa Barbara coast.
What happened: A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge denied the Coastal Commission’s request for a temporary restraining order to block Sable Offshore’s maintenance and repair work on a pipeline in the area.
Context: Attorney General Rob Bonta’s (D) office sought a restraining order against Sable on Wednesday after the commission voted April 10 to issue its third cease-and-desist order to stop the company’s pipeline work. Sable started repairs to a dormant onshore pipeline last fall with the intent of restarting offshore oil production at its Santa Ynez unit.
In the request for the restraining order, the commission alleged that Sable was still continuing unpermitted development. Sable argued that its work was not causing environmental harm and that Santa Barbara County had already concluded that its work was authorized under existing permits.
