Trump executive order clears path for oil drilling off California coast as Newsom vows legal fight

Oil pumping operations are expected to begin imminently off the coast of California after President Trump issued an executive order Friday to resume oil drilling near Santa Barbara. Officials for Sable Offshore Corp. informed local fire officials of their intent to resume pumping operations within 24 hours of the announcement.

The move could add approximately 50,000 barrels of oil per day to the state's production, according to the Energy Department. An industry source with direct knowledge of the situation estimated that the figure represents about 10% of California's total crude oil production.

California consistently has the highest gasoline prices in the nation, running more than $2 per gallon above the national average. The executive order aims squarely at that problem.

A Facility With History Gets a Second Chance

The Santa Ynez offshore oil platform and pipeline were shuttered in 2015 after a spill released thousands of barrels of crude into the Pacific Ocean. The infrastructure sat idle for nearly a decade until Sable Offshore bought the system from ExxonMobil in 2024, according to Cal Matters.

Sable had been working to restart the pipeline, but a judge ruled against the company just weeks before Trump's executive order. The president's action effectively overrides that obstacle, and Sable wasted no time signaling its intentions to local authorities. The New York Post reported.

Fire Chief Garrett Huff provided a measured statement to The Post about the coordination:

"This coordination allows the department to maintain readiness for potential emergency response, including resource staging, personnel alerting, and collaboration with other agencies, in the event of any incident such as a leak, spill, or fire."

The fire department's focus, Huff noted, remains on first-response emergency services for incidents within Santa Barbara County. Professionals preparing for contingencies. That's how responsible energy production works.

The Energy Department's Rationale

The Energy Department framed the order in national security terms, stating it was meant "to address supply disruption risks caused by California policies that have left the region and U.S. military forces dependent on foreign oil."

That framing deserves attention. When a state's energy policies leave American military installations reliant on foreign crude, the problem has migrated well beyond the price at the pump. It has become a strategic vulnerability. California's political class spent years congratulating itself for restricting domestic production while quietly importing oil from overseas, an arrangement that does nothing for emissions and everything for foreign producers.

Newsom Reaches for the Courtroom

Governor Gavin Newsom responded with the predictability of a clock striking noon. He accused Trump of manipulating the war in Iran and a global crisis around surging gas prices, and said he intends to take the Trump administration to court to block the executive order.

"Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay."

Newsom also accused the president of wanting to "open California's coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches."

This is the same governor who presides over a state where families pay $2 more per gallon than the rest of the country. The same governor whose energy policies the federal government now identifies as a national security liability. His response to an attempt to lower gas prices for his own constituents is to sue.

Notice what's missing from Newsom's objection: any alternative plan to bring down costs. No proposal to expand refinery capacity. No acknowledgment that California's regulatory architecture is the primary driver of its price premium. Just litigation and rhetoric about poisoned beaches, as if a decade of safety improvements and modern oversight don't exist.

Republicans and Industry See an Opening

Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host who is running for governor, applauded the administration's move and said the state should go much further in expanding oil and gas production. Hilton said he met with federal officials on Friday and has previously written to oil industry leaders urging them not to abandon the California market.

"The main reason that gas prices are so high in California — $2 higher than the national average — is the refusal to produce oil and gas and importing it from around the world."

Hilton called the entire arrangement "totally insane," noting it doesn't help the climate at all. The logic is hard to argue with. California restricts its own production, then imports crude from countries with weaker environmental standards, shipped across oceans on diesel-burning tankers. The net effect on global emissions is zero or worse. The net effect on California wallets is devastating.

"All it does is cause pain to working Californians."

Meanwhile, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, also running for governor, had his campaign pan the federal order in a statement to The Post. The gubernatorial field is splitting along exactly the lines you'd expect: candidates who want to produce energy and candidates who want to produce press releases.

The Real California Energy Story

The broader picture here is one that California's leadership has refused to confront for years. The state sits on significant oil and gas reserves. It has the infrastructure, the workforce, and the demand. What it lacks is political will.

Every policy designed to restrict domestic production was sold as environmental stewardship. But the oil California refuses to pump doesn't stay in the ground. It gets pumped somewhere else, by someone else, under less rigorous standards, and shipped thousands of miles to the same California refineries. The only measurable outcome is higher prices for the people least able to afford them.

Hilton's summary cuts to the core of it:

"Given that we have abundant gas and oil reserves, it makes no sense to import from around the world."

Trump's executive order forces a question that Sacramento has dodged for a decade. If California won't produce its own energy, and its residents can't afford the alternative, who exactly are these policies serving?

Not the working families filling their tanks at $6 a gallon. Not the military bases dependent on foreign supply chains. Not the environment, which gains nothing from rerouting production overseas.

Newsom will file his lawsuit. The courts will deliberate. But somewhere off the coast of Santa Barbara, the rigs are warming up. And for California drivers, that's the first good news they've had in a long time.