SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors today voted 4-1 to prepare written findings to support denying transferring permits from ExxonMobil to Sable Offshore Corp. for an embattled onshore pipeline system that caused one of California’s worst oil spills. The board will hold a final vote on Dec. 16.

Sable purchased the wells, platforms and pipeline system collectively known as the Santa Ynez Unit from Exxon in February 2024. County permits for several onshore portions of the unit have not been transferred, and today’s vote is another setback for Sable’s attempt to restart offshore oil drilling at the unit.

In comments to the board, the Center for Biological Diversity and Wishtoyo Foundation emphasized Sable’s record of non-compliance and the fact that it has not posted any performance bonds to guarantee its obligation to decommission the facilities when production ceases.

“The board was right not to hand over these permits given that Sable hasn’t demonstrated it will operate responsibly and didn’t put up a single cent to guarantee it will stick around to decommission its facilities once the oil stops flowing,” said Rachel Mathews, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “A corporation that’s defied state agency orders and disregarded the sensitive coastal ecosystem has no business profiting from our coast.”

In October 2024 the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission voted 3-1 to transfer the permits. The Center and Wishtoyo Foundation appealed that vote, as did the Environmental Defense Center on behalf of itself, Get Oil Out! and Santa Barbara County Action Network.

After a February vote by the board of supervisors tied 2-2, Sable sued the county in May. In July the Environmental Defense Center intervened in that lawsuit on behalf of its clients. In mid-September a judge ruled that the board’s tie vote resulted in “no action,” and ordered the board to hold another hearing and vote to affirm, modify or reverse the planning commission.

The restart process for the failed pipeline has been highly controversial. Sable has been fined $18 million by the Coastal Commission, charged with criminal wrongdoing by the Santa Barbara district attorney and sued by the California attorney general for actions related to construction on the pipeline.

The May 19, 2015, oil spill at Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara ravaged 150 miles of the California coast. What is now estimated to be 450,000 gallons of oil polluted thousands of acres of shoreline and habitat and killed hundreds of marine mammals and birds, shutting down beaches and fisheries.

The Santa Ynez Unit had been shut down for 10 years since the pipeline failed. Sable purchased the unit in 2024 and has worked hastily to try to restart oil operations and resuscitate the failed pipeline. Sable announced in May that it had resumed oil production from one of three offshore platforms related to the pipeline and was storing that oil in onshore tanks while it sought a full restart.

The Center and Wishtoyo Foundation have sued the California Office of the State Fire Marshal for waiving safety rules for the pipeline. They have also filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of the Interior for failing to require updated development and production plans for oil drilling at the Santa Ynez Unit and for rubberstamping extension of the offshore leases despite shuttered production.