Santa Barbara County practically triples Sable Offshore’s coastal payment

Sable Offshore is again pumping oil — and now it’s going to price the corporate extra to do enterprise alongside the Santa Barbara coast.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday to just about triple the annual coastal mitigation payment tied to Sable’s Santa Ynez Unit, elevating it from $132,750 to $318,600.

Supervisor Joan Hartmann recused herself over a possible battle as a result of the corporate’s pipelines run close to her property.

The payment hike comes after Sable restarted partial oil manufacturing from its offshore platforms round March, following its 2024 takeover of the Santa Ynez Unit’s platforms, processing facility and pipelines.

County officers mentioned the upper payment will probably be retroactive to the restart of operations.

The charges have been imposed on offshore oil operators for the reason that Eighties, with the cash later awarded to nonprofits and different teams for coastal tasks — from climbing trails and restoration efforts to the Cabrillo Excessive Faculty Aquarium in Lompoc.

The county calculated Sable’s new invoice utilizing the identical variety of “factors” assigned to the Santa Ynez Unit when it was working earlier than the 2015 Refugio oil spill, although inflation has pushed the greenback quantity larger.

Sable had requested the county to not make the rise retroactive.

Steve Rusch, the corporate’s vice chairman of environmental and authorities affairs, submitted a letter requesting that the upper payment take impact solely after Tuesday’s vote.

The payment query additionally uncovered a clumsy wrinkle within the county’s ongoing authorized and regulatory combat with Sable.

As a result of the county by no means accepted transferring the outdated permits from Exxon to Sable — a call upheld by a federal decide — Supervisor Bob Nelson requested who really will get the invoice.

The county sends it to each corporations. Sable, nevertheless, is the one which pays it.

“We do acknowledge the conundrum we’re speaking about so we do copy each events,” Errin Briggs, deputy director of the county’s Power, Minerals and Compliance Division, mentioned.

Nelson recommended the county merely invoice Exxon and let the previous operator go the cost alongside.

However Supervisor Steve Lavagnino backed the retroactive hike after asking whether or not the county had the authority to impose it.

“It’s form of the identical factor right here, besides now they restarted and we’re gathering more cash,” Briggs mentioned, in keeping with Noozhawk.

“It’s gotta be truthful each methods and it’s, so I respect that,” Lavagnino mentioned.

The payment combat is simply the newest twist in Sable’s more and more bitter battle with California regulators over its return to offshore oil manufacturing.

The county, California Coastal Fee and environmental teams have challenged the restart by way of varied lawsuits, whereas the federal authorities has backed Sable’s operations.

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