For the second time in a week , a judge has sided with environmental groups who are challenging an offshore oil operation along Santa Barbara County’s coastline by granting a temporary restraining order against the company.
On Tuesday, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Donna Geck ordered Sable Offshore Corp. and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to halt restart efforts on the operation’s onshore pipeline system, which suffered a major rupture and spill in 2015.
Sable has been working to reactivate the so-called Santa Ynez Unit — a complex of three offshore platforms, processing facilities and pipelines — that was shuttered after the spill. The fire marshal regulates oil and gas pipelines across the state, and must approve the pipelines’ full restart, which is key to th