A yearslong influence campaign targeting the Trump administration, launched by golfer Phil Mickelson and some of his oil investor buddies, appeared to pay off last week when the Energy Department ordered the resumption of a controversial offshore drilling project on the California coast.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright used an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Friday to demand that drilling company Sable Offshore start pumping oil off the coast of California, where work has been suspended for years following one of the biggest oil spills in state history. Wright linked the move to Trump’s invocation of the Defense Production Act to increase oil production, as his war with Iran and the resultant closure of the Strait of Hormuz drive up oil prices.
Experts have said Trump’s push to ramp up offshore drilling will face numerous hurdles and won’t bring down high gas prices. Wright said Sunday there are “no guarantees” that oil prices will fall anytime soon.
As you may recall, Trump reportedly vowed in 2024 to give oil executives essentially everything they want in exchange for their support for his presidential bid. Wright’s assistance to Sable on Friday shows just one way the war has enriched supporters of the president.
In fact, the lobbying efforts around the Sable Offshore project predate the Iran conflict. My colleague Erum Salam wrote last November, long before Trump launched his war with Iran, about the administration’s efforts to overrule California’s offshore drilling restrictions. And in January, California sued over the administration’s plans to restart Sable Offshore’s operations.
My post referenced Hunterbrook Media’s reporting on a group chat in which Sable Offshore investors, including Mickelson, discussed plans to boost the company’s stock price and woo Trump administration officials who might overrule California’s restrictions. The report references messages in which participants in the chat discussed ties to the Trump administration and some of the ways they could win over its members, such as offering up a round of golf with Mickelson and a proposal to rename the Pacific Ocean “Ocean America.”
In the October post below, Mickelson openly courts Interior Secretary Doug Burgam to help the company.
“What are you prepared to do?” Mickelson asked.
In a statement on Friday, Newsom’s office condemned the Trump administration’s demand that Sable start drilling and vowed to fight it in court.
Per the statement:
Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay. Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches. This wouldn’t lower prices by a cent. This is an attempt to illegally restart a pipeline whose operators are facing criminal charges and prohibited by multiple court orders from restarting.
California’s Natural Resource Agency this week told Sable that it will have to remove a pipeline that crosses a state park unless the company confirms that it’s not using it, Bloomberg reported.
It is extremely easy to follow the sequence of events of this boondoggle, in which the administration appears to be engaging in crony capitalism:
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California suspended operations at a Santa Barbara refinery following an oil spill in 2015. Sable Offshore subsequently bought the infrastructure and has been working to reopen it. Recent lawsuits by the state and others have put that on hold. Meanwhile, a local Santa Barbara district attorney brought criminal charges against the company, which has called the case “inflammatory” and “politically motivated.”
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Mickelson and other Sable Offshore stakeholders plotted to woo Trump officials to use the federal government to restart the project.
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Trump launched a war with Iran, allowing industry allies take advantage of the downstream effects to restart the Sable Offshore project.
“Sable said it began shipping oil soon after the directive was issued. It plans to begin its first sales by April 1 at a rate of 50,000 barrels a day,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, noting that the company’s stock price was up 7%.
The developments provide fodder to anyone who would argue that the war is being used to line the pockets of the president’s allies.
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