Oiled brown pelican courtesy Office of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
April 7, 2026 – OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a comment letter opposing the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)’s consideration of Sable Offshore Corp. (Sable)’s request for a special permit to waive a safety regulation and transport oil through Lines CA-324 and CA-325 in Santa Barbara and Kern counties. PHSMA illegally purports to assert exclusive federal jurisdiction over the onshore Lines CA-324 and CA-325 by reclassifying them as “interstate,” and issued Sable an emergency permit waiving compliance with its own safety regulation requiring evaluation and remediation of pipeline corrosion. That emergency permit recently expired and is being challenged in ongoing litigation by the California Department of Justice, as is PHMSA’s reclassification of the pipelines as interstate. In the comment letter, Attorney General Bonta argues that PHMSA is without jurisdiction to issue any special permit because the pipelines are intrastate, and therefore subject to state regulation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) rather than PHMSA.
Related: California Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration to Stop Executive Overreach Purporting to Authorize Illegal Oil Transportation in Sable Pipelines in Santa Barbara…