Some members of California’s congressional delegation are calling for the removal of legislation that an oil company could use to circumvent environmental protections in Santa Barbara County.
The Hunt Amendment would allow the federal government to use eminent domain to seize property, including state park land, to allow Sable Offshore Corporation to continue its operations. Republican Sen. Wesley Hunt of Texas introduced the amendment as part of the Defense Spending Act package.
Sable tried, and failed, to get state approval to restart the oil pipeline which ruptured on the Gaviota Coast in 2015, causing a 140,000-gallon oil spill.
Sable then turned to the federal government. The Trump Administration used a 1950s-era law to allow the pipeline’s restart. The Defense Production Act allows the federal government to cut through traditional regulations in the event of a national emergency.
In March, the pipeline resumed operation. The three offshore oil platforms that feed it are also operational again.
But Sable and the federal government face multiple lawsuits from the state and environmental groups challenging the legality of the restart. One lawsuit contends the federal government failed to show a national emergency justifying the use of law to restart the pipeline.
Opponents say the Hunt Amendment is an effort to skirt some of those lawsuits by seizing the property to allow the oil production to continue.
The pipeline restart has drawn fire from environmental groups and some government agencies, who worry the decades-old system could rupture and cause another major spill.
Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara, along with several of his Democratic colleagues and the state's two U.S. Senators, jointly called for the amendment to be removed from the spending package.
