A Texas Republican muscled an amendment into the House’s defense policy bill this week that would allow the federal government to secure land along a contested pipeline in California.
The amendment from Rep. Wesley Hunt got added to the House’s National Defense Authorization Act. It could put an end to California’s long-running fight against Sable Offshore’s Santa Ynez pipeline system by allowing the Pentagon to take land along the pipeline route to ensure crude flows to refineries that supply military installations, among other needs.
Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) said Sable was “asking its friends in Congress to rig the system in [its] favor, seize California lands and issue an irrevocable operating permit.”
Carbajal said that “these are friends from another state” and noted the pipeline caused a spill off the coast of his Santa Barbara district in 2015.
