Environmental Groups Sue Trump Administration over “Emergency” Approval for Sable Pipeline

December 29, 2025

Environmental groups filed an “emergency lawsuit” against the Trump administration late last week for taking back regulatory control of the Las Flores Pipeline System and rushing to approve Sable Offshore Corp’s restart plan for the pipeline.

The state has repeatedly hindered the Houston-based oil company’s plans to restart the pipeline — the same one that caused a massive oil spill along the Gaviota Coast in 2015 — leading Sable to go over the heads of state regulators altogether and seek a bailout by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

On December 22, PHMSA approved Sable Offshore Corp’s restart plan — soon after it labeled the pipeline as “interstate” (despite it never leaving the state of California), therefore wrenching oversight from the hands of the State Fire Marshal and placing it under federal jurisdiction.

The Fire Marshal had just recently found that the pipeline still needed repairs before it could safely resume operations. The Environmental Defense Center — which filed the lawsuit alongside the Center for Biological Diversity and their clients, including the Sierra Club and Santa Barbara Channelkeeper — said the administration’s approval ignores laws requiring environmental review and public input for such a decision.

Filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the lawsuit names PHMSA, the Department of Transportation, and their heads — Paul Roberti for PHMSA and Sean Duffy, the secretary of the Department of Transportation — as defendants.

“Rushing to restart this failed pipeline without following basic federal safety laws and without even making the necessary repairs poses an immediate threat to lives, property, and the environment across a large part of our state,” said EDC Chief Counsel Linda Krop.

“We can’t allow the Trump administration and Sable to undermine California law and gamble with the safety of everyone living along the pipeline route.”

It’s a slap to the face for the EDC and other environmental groups that have been fighting Sable’s restart plans from the beginning, after it took over ExxonMobil’s previous assets, including the pipeline, three offshore oil facilities, and an onshore processing plant. Since then, the company has wracked up violations, cease and desist orders, criminal charges, and lawsuits from environmental groups and state agencies as it attempted to repair and restart the pipeline.

The move by PHMSA to grant an “emergency special permit” to Sable for the pipeline restart — waiving compliance with federal pipeline regulations — blatantly disregards multiple environmental safeguards put in place to prevent oil-based catastrophes like the 2015 Refugio Spill, the groups argue.

The feds’ “emergency” rubberstamping stems from the Trump administration’s declaration of a “national energy emergency” and claims that California’s lack of production somehow poses a national security threat.

Conservation groups call that a farce — they say that during the 10 years the pipeline was shut down following the 2015 spill there was no major uptick in oil or gas imports to compensate — and are requesting the court order an emergency stay on the PHMSA approval. They claim it violated the Pipeline Safety Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in “failing to follow the required public process, conduct the necessary environmental review, or make the required findings about pipeline safety or the so-called emergency,” according to the lawsuit.

“Restarting the Pipeline System would not only invite another oil disaster on the Central Coast, but all but ensure it,” the groups’ emergency motion states. “The Pipeline System has already ruptured once, and the underlying cause of that rupture has not been corrected.”