Overview
- U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson modified the 2015 consent decree to let Sable Offshore continue moving oil through the onshore pipeline and assigned compliance authority to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
- The ruling, issued Wednesday, found that a Department of Energy order invoking the Defense Production Act preempts any state law that would block Sable’s operation of the onshore pipeline.
- Wilson also fined Sable nearly $1.5 million for violating the court’s restart conditions and required the company to provide biannual reports to California, which can ask the federal court to enforce compliance.
- California officials and environmental groups criticized the decision as a loss of state control and said they will pursue appeals, while other federal judges have taken narrower views of DPA preemption, increasing the odds of further litigation.
- The case revives long-running safety and enforcement questions from the 2015 Refugio State Beach spill, highlights rare use of the DPA to press energy operations, and could shape how federal agencies override state environmental rules in future energy disputes.