On February 4, 2025, the City Council of Goleta, California unanimously passed a resolution to oppose Sable Offshore Corp. restart of the Las Flores pipeline. The council then sent the resolution opposing “Oil Transport by Pipeline” to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. The resolution is not legally binding.
The resolution states that Goleta “opposes re-commissioning the oil transport pipeline” and “calls upon the County Board of Supervisors to uphold its long-standing template of opposition to the transport of oil product by truck or the Gaviota Coast pipeline.”
“We are in opposition because we feel that it is not safe to restart this failed pipeline,” Goleta Councilmember Luz Reyes-Martín said, according to KCBX. “It would present a huge environmental risk to our area and to our city.”
“When you look at the likelihood and the consequences of a spill and the disruption that it would cause, it's not worth the amount of oil that would be generated from it,” Vice Mayor Stuart Kasdin said, according to KEYT. “So it's not a good idea for us to do this in our city.”
The 2015 Refugio oil spill on the Gaviota Coast, in Santa Barbara County, spread oil on the coastline between Gaviota and Goleta to the south.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will vote on February 25, 2025 on whether to allow the transfer of oil pipeline and offshore platforms permits from ExxonMobil to Sable Offshore Corp.
