Lawsuit Challenges Outdated Plans for Aging Oil Platforms Off California Coast

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2025 — The Center for Biological Diversity and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation filed a lawsuit today against the Trump administration over the federal failure to require updated development and production plans for oil drilling at the Santa Ynez Unit off the California coast.

The unit’s three platforms have been shut down since May 2015, when a corroded onshore pipeline ruptured and released what is believed to be about 450,000 gallons of oil near Refugio State Beach north of Santa Barbara. The oil spill killed hundreds of birds and marine mammals, including dolphins and sea lions.

Sable Offshore Corp., the pipeline’s new owner, is attempting to restart production at the Santa Ynez Unit under outdated plans originally approved in the 1970s and 1980s. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has not required Sable to revise or supplement the plans to address the harms from restarting production and did not respond to a notice identifying the violation.

“I’m appalled that Trump officials would even consider allowing these offshore oil platforms to come back from the dead under plans approved decades ago,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Any potentially dangerous infrastructure, especially if it hasn’t been used in a decade, should get close scrutiny, but that’s not happening here. Without updated plans, coastal residents will be left in the dark about the full scope of harms from restarting oil production. It’s incredibly frustrating that even after a disastrous spill, we have to sue to get the attention of federal officials.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and on his first day in office, President Trump issued an illegal executive order to revoke former President Biden’s withdrawal of vulnerable ocean areas from future oil-and-gas leasing. These at-risk waters include areas in the Pacific off California. Several groups are part of a lawsuit challenging that order.

Today’s lawsuit says BOEM’s failure to require Sable to update the plans for the Santa Ynez Unit violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and Administrative Procedure Act. The agency is ignoring numerous harms from offshore oil and gas activity, including air pollution, risk of oil spills and contributing to climate change.

The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Los Angeles.


Photo: Off Shore Oil Rigs | Southern California. Camarillo | Santa Barbara | Aerial Photography by Drew Bird Photography Copyright ©2015 Drew Bird


The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-outdated-plans-for-aging-oil-platforms-off-california-coast-2025-04-02/