A coalition of groups filed new legal arguments supporting a state lawsuit against the federal government over a controversial Santa Barbara County oil project.
The fight centers on a 1950s-era law that allows Sable Oil Corporation to restart a pipeline that ruptured in 2015. The rupture caused a 140,000-gallon oil spill on the Gaviota Coast.
The Department of Energy invoked the Defense Production Act, a law that lets the federal government override local and state regulations to produce needed materials during a national emergency.
The state lawsuit claims the Department of Energy failed to show an emergency that justified using the law.
The Environmental Defense Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other groups filed a brief with arguments supporting the state’s lawsuit. The opponents contend the decades-old infrastructure could trigger another major spill.
Sable restarted the pipeline in March, and the company reports it’s now moving about 50,000 barrels of oil a day from Santa Barbara County.
