California AG Bonta Says Sable Restart Won’t Lower Oil Prices

The restart of some 50,000 barrels a day of oil production off the coast of California will have have “no impact” on oil prices, the state’s Attorney General said in an interview on Bloomberg Televison.

Houston-based oil driller Sable Offshore Corp. has spent years attempting to restart production at a cluster of platforms off the Santa Barbara coast, facing local opposition tied to an onshore pipeline that spilled more than 2,000 barrels of oil onto California beaches when owned by Plains All American Pipeline. Earlier this month, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright instructed Sable to restart the pipeline system under an executive order invoking emergency powers from President Donald Trump, leading to a lawsuit from California AG Rob Bonta.

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“The amount of oil that moves through that pipeline is negligible,” Bonta said Tuesday in the interview. “We don’t have a national energy emergency despite the claims of the president.”

Top photo: California Attorney General Rob Bonta Photographer: Jason Henry/Bloomberg.