California May Just Ignore Trump’s Opposition to Stricter Pipeline Rules

A new bill strengthening restrictions was introduced on the 50th anniversary of a catastrophic oil spill.

halbergman/Getty

This story was originally published by HuffPostIt appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the devastating Santa Barbara oil spill, California state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D) introduced a bill Monday that would bulk up rules governing the construction of oil pipelines.

The bill, which comes in the face of reported plans by President Donald Trump to limit states’ abilities to block pipelines, would require all pipelines in the state be operated according to California laws, preventing operators from shirking those in favor of following less rigid federal ones.

It would also require pipeline operators to provide inspection-related records to the state fire marshal upon request, something Jackson said many operators have failed to do so on time in the past.

Jackson announced the bill exactly five decades from the date the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill first broke, smothering beaches in oil and creating generations of consequences for local wildlife. The biggest disaster of its kind at the time, the highly publicized crisis was regarded as a seminal event in the development of the modern conservationist movement and a catastrophe that triggered some of today’s most sweeping environmental protection policy decisions, including the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency.

“The Santa Barbara Oil Spill was devastating to our community,” Jackson, whose district includes all of Santa Barbara County and western Ventura County, said in a statement to the press Monday. “It damaged our wildlife, marine ecology, and coastal economy. In the spill’s aftermath, a robust environmental movement raised public awareness about the harms poised by offshore oil and we passed significant legislation to protect our coastline.”

The 1969 spill led to new restrictions on offshore drilling that Trump is attempting to loosen. Currently, his Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is working to establish a five-year plan that would significantly increase offshore drilling in federally controlled waters—including those off Santa Barbara’s coast.

Monday’s bill could be a foil to that by ensuring “oil companies are not able to sidestep California’s stringent pipeline safety laws,” Jackson said, which include requirements for more frequent inspections, the use of the best available pipeline safety technology and more thorough documentation of pipeline safety test results.

California’s strict pipeline rules include a slate of laws former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed in 2015 after a spill in Santa Barbara dumped around 20,000 gallons of oil onto shores there. Those included a mandate for the state fire marshal to inspect all intrastate pipelines every year and requirements that oil pipelines in environmentally sensitive areas be equipped with remote leak detectors and automatic shut-off valves.

More recently, Brown signed legislation in September blocking new leases for offshore drilling projects along the state’s coastline and banning any new systems to transport gas or oil, including pipelines—marking a major blow to the Trump administration’s plans to sell six drilling rights permits off the California coast.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate