US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday took action against two of the Trump administration’s main opponents: the oil supply disruption caused by the war in Iran and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Wrighthe gave the orderto pave the way for a company operating off the coast of California to restart an oil pipeline that government officials have kept offline since 2015. The Energy Department pitched it as a way to ease dependence on oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, a major waterway for tanker traffic that has been choked by war.
“Today, more than 60 percent of the oil refined in California comes from overseas, with much of it traveling through the Strait of Hormuz — presenting serious national security threats,” the department wrote in its announcement. Wright said in a statement that the move “will strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system critical to our nation’s security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy necessary for military readiness.”
Wright’s directive led to the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that gives the president broad powers over domestic industry in the interest of national defense. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier Friday that delegated some of his powers under the law to the energy secretary, opening the door to Wright’s move.
Newsom was quick to push back against the legitimacy of the Trump administration.
“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would raise gas prices nationwide, told Americans it was a small price to pay, and now he’s using this crisis of his own to try to do what he’s wanted to do for years: open up the California coast to his friends in the oil industry so they can poison our beaches,” Newsom said in a statement. He called the attempt to restart the pipeline illegal and said that it “wouldn’t lower the price by a cent” due to the fact that oil prices are set on the international market.
In overturning California’s authority over a pipeline system that connects three offshore platforms off the coast of California, Wright is also bringing the federal government’s full authority to bear against California in the growing dispute over whether oil producers should be allowed to expand drilling off the coast of the Golden State.
The pipeline’s owner, Texas-based Sable Offshore Corp., appealed last year to Trump’s National Energy Administration for help in getting federal permits to bring its oil to market in a bid to circumvent state regulators, who have raised environmental concerns.
Bringing Sable oil to market won’t come close to solving the supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran, according to Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
While nearby oil will provide a more profitable supply to Golden State refiners, “we shouldn’t expect it to flow through to consumers in any meaningful way in California, and certainly not in the United States,” Cummings said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has already sued the US Department of Transportation over its December move to impose jurisdiction over the Sable pipeline. Wright’s order sets the stage for further legal disputes between California and the White House.
“California will not stand by while the Trump administration tries to take away our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy,” Newsom said. “The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them again in court.”
Wright’s order is a boost to Sable, a company whose stock price plummeted late last year amid a flurry of regulatory hurdles. Its stock rose sharply after a Justice Department opinion last week suggested the company could benefit from the president’s intervention. Company representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Sable pipeline system has been shut down since it was involved in the 2015 oil spill in Santa Barbara County, while it is owned by a different company. Sable bought three offshore platforms, pipelines and an offshore processing facility in 2024 and has been working to restart operations since then.
But the company has run afoul of state and local agencies in the process. The California Coastal Commission fined the company $18 million, accusing it of defying orders to stop construction. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Sable in October alleging water discharge violations, and the Santa Barbara County District Attorney filed criminal charges against the company in September alleging environmental violations.
In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Division of Pipeline Regulation and Hazardous Materials Safety took over oversight of Sable’s pipelines from the California Fire Department and approved a plan to restart the company. California Attorney General Rob Bonta then sued the state’s pipeline regulator, challenging the move in a lawsuit that is still ongoing.
A California judge last month ruled that Sable still needed to be released from the state fire brigade before restarting the pipeline, issuing a federal consent decree after the 2015 spill.
