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When the corroded pipeline burst in 2015, inky crude spread along the Southern California coast, becoming the states worst oil spill in decades. More than 140,000 gallons (3,300 barrels) of oil gushed out, blackening beaches for 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, polluting a biologically rich habitat for endangered whales and sea turtles, killing scores of pelicans, seals, and dolphins, and decimating the fishing industry. Plains All American Pipeline in 2022 agreed to a $230 million settlement with fishers and coastal property owners without admitting liability. Federal inspectors found that the Houston-based company failed to quickly detect the rupture and responded too slowly. It faced an uphill battle to build a new pipeline. Three decades-old drilling platforms were subsequently shuttered, but another Texas-based fossil fuel company supported by the Trump administration purchased the operation and is intent on pumping oil through the pipeline again. Sable Offshore Corp., headquartered in Houston, is facing a slew of legal challenges but is determined to restart production, even if that means confining it to federal waters, where state regulators have virtually no say. California controls the 3 miles (5 kilometers) nearest to shore. The platforms are 5 to 9 miles (8 to 14 kilometers) offshore. The Trump administration has hailed Sables plans as the kind of project the president wants to increase U.S. energy production as the federal government removes regulatory barriers. President Donald Trump has directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to undo his predecessors ban on future offshore oil drilling on the East and West coasts. Environmentalists sue to stop the project “This project risks another environmental disaster in California at a time when demand for oil is going down and the climate crisis is escalating,” said Alex Katz, executive director of Environmental Defense Center, the Santa Barbara group formed in response to a massive spill in 1969. The environmental organization is among several suing Sable. Our concern is that there is no way to make this pipeline safe and that this company has proven that it cannot be trusted to operate safely, responsibly or even legally, he said. Actor and activist Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who lives in the area, has implored officials to stop Sable, saying at a March protest: I can smell a rat. And this project is a rat. The California Coastal Commission fined Sable a record $18 million for ignoring cease-and-desist orders over repair work it says was done without permits. Sable said it has permits from the previous owner, Exxon Mobil, and sued the commission while work continued on the pipeline. In June, a state judge ordered it to stop while the case proceeds through the court. The commission and Sable are due back in court Wednesday. This fly-by-night oil company has repeatedly abused the publics trust, racking up millions of dollars in fines and causing environmental damage along the treasured Gaviota Coast, a state park south of Santa Barbara, said Joshua Smith, the commissions spokesman. Sable keeps moving forward So far, Sable is undeterred. The California Attorney Generals office sued Sable this month, saying it illegally discharged waste into waterways, and disregarded state law requiring permits before work along the pipeline route that crosses sensitive wildlife habitat. Sable placed profits over environmental protection in its rush to get oil on the market, the agency said in its lawsuit. Last month, the Santa Barbara District Attorney filed felony criminal charges against Sable, also accusing it of polluting waterways and harming wildlife. Sable said it has fully cooperated with local and state agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and called the district attorney’s allegation inflammatory and extremely misleading. It said a biologist and state fire marshal officials oversaw the work, and no wildlife was harmed. The company is seeking $347 million for the delays, and says if the state blocks it from restarting the onshore pipeline system, it will use a floating facility that would keep its entire operation in federal waters and use tankers to transport the oil to markets outside California. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, the company updated its plan to include the option. Fulfilling the president’s energy promise The U.S. Interior Departments Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in July it was working with Sable to bring a second rig online. President Trump made it clear that American energy should come from American resources, the agencys deputy director Kenny Stevens said in a statement then, heralding the “comeback story for Pacific production. The agency said there are an estimated 190 million barrels (6 billion gallons) of recoverable oil reserves in the area, nearly 80% of residual Pacific reserves. It noted advancements in preventing and preparing for oil spills and said the failed pipeline has been rigorously tested. Continuous monitoring and improved technology significantly reduce the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future, the agency said. CEO says project could lower gas prices On May 19 the 10th anniversary of the disaster CEO Jim Flores announced that Sable is proud to have safely and responsibly achieved first production at the Santa Ynez Unit which includes three rigs in federal waters, offshore and onshore pipelines, and the Las Flores Canyon Processing Facility. State officials countered that the company had only conducted testing and not commercial production. Sable’s stock price dropped and some investors sued, alleging they were misled. Sable purchased the Santa Ynez Unit from Exxon Mobil in 2024 for nearly $650 million primarily with a loan from Exxon. Exxon sold the shuttered operation after losing a court battle in 2023 to truck the crude through central California while the pipeline system was rebuilt or repaired. Flores said well tests at the Platform Harmony rig indicate there is much oil to be extracted and that it will relieve California’s gas prices among the nation’s highest by stabilizing supplies. Sable is very concerned about the crumbling energy complex in California,” Flores said in a statement to The Associated Press. With the exit of two refineries last year and more shuttering soon, Californias economy cannot survive without the strong energy infrastructure it enjoyed for the last 150 years. California has been reducing the states production of fossil fuels in favor of clean energy for years. The movement has ben spearheaded partly by Santa Barbara County, where elected officials voted in May to begin taking steps to phase out onshore oil and gas operations. Julie Watson, Associated Press Associated Press writer Matthew Brown contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Shares of stocks linked to agriculture, soybeans and cooking oil are are up on Wednesday after President Donald Trump said that the U.S. was considering “terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil and other elements of Trade” as retribution against Beijing for refusing to buy American soybeans. Pinnacle Food Group Limited (PFAI) shares were up over 77%, Sadot Group Inc. (SDOT) was up over 87%, and Australian Oilseeds Holdings Limited (COOT) rose over 260% at the time of this writing in midday trading on Wednesday. Pinnacle Food Group Limited sells smart farming solution services, Sadot Group is a Texas-based global food supply chain company, and Australian Oilseeds Holdings has grown to be the largest cold pressing oil plant in Australia, pressing GMO-free conventional and organic oilseeds. This marks the latest chapter, and second week, in Trump’s ongoing trade and tariff war with China, which reignited October 9 with restrictions on rare earth mineral exports, vital for U.S. chipmakers and the tech and defense industries. Last week, Trump said he was putting 100% tariffs on Chinese goods after Beijing added five American subsidiaries of a South Korean shipping company to its sanctions list. “I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act,” Trump said Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social. “We can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we dont need to purchase it from China.” China responded that its position on tariffs remains the same: A trade war is in neither country’s interest. The latest row comes ahead of Trump’s scheduled meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month.
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E-Commerce
Robotaxi pioneer Waymo plans to expand to London next year, marking the companys latest step in rolling out its driverless ride service internationally. Waymo said Wednesday that it will start testing its self-driving cars on London streets in the coming weekswith a human safety driver behind the wheelas it seeks to win government approval for its services. In a blog post, Waymo said it will lay the groundwork for its London service in the coming months. The company said it will continue to engage with local and national leaders to secure the necessary permissions for our commercial ride-hailing service. Waymos self-driving taxis have been operating in the United States for years, and currently serve the cities of Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin. This year, the company made its first moves to expand internationally by teaming up with local partners in Japan for testing, though no launch date has been set for commercial service there. The company began as a secret project within Google and was then spun out from the tech giant. Waymo will have to follow new U.K. regulations on self-driving cars that pave the way for autonomous vehicles to take to the country’s roads. They require self-driving cars to have a safety level at least as high as careful and competent human drivers and meet rigorous safety checks. The company will be able to take part in a pilot program for small-scale” self-driving taxi and bus services that the government plans for spring 2026. Waymo will also have to stick to rules from Transport for London, the city’s transport authority, which oversees licensing for its famous traditional black cabs as well as other taxi operators like Uber.
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E-Commerce
U.S. quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum has struck a deal with a company called Swiss Quantum Technology (SQT) to bring D-Waves Advantage2 quantum computer to Europe. The deal, which amounts to 10 million ($11.63 million), will see D-Waves quantum computer deployed in Italy, where it will play a role in supporting the Italians efforts toward large-scale digital transformation, D-Wave announced on Wednesday. It will be part of a joint effortcollectively called the Q-Alliance”between D-Wave and IonQ, another American quantum computing company. In its announcement on Wednesday, D-Wave said little about what SQT does, and scant information about the company is accessible online. When contacted for comment by Fast Company, a rep for D-Wave described it as “a Swiss company that has been established to focus on quantum hybrid applications and research.” Shares of Palo Alto, California-based D-Wave rose after the announcement and were up around 1.29% in early afternoon trading. The stock has had an astounding run since last year, growing more than 4,235% over the last 12 months as excitement around quantum computersseen by many experts as a transformative technologyhas hit fever pitch. “A very important day” D-Waves CEO, Alan Baratz, said during a short livestreamed announcement on Wednesday morning that it’s “a very important day for Italy, for the Q-Alliance, and for D-Wave as we are now bringing one of the worlds largest quantum computers to the region.” The announcement comes after D-Wave made waves earlier this year by announcing that it had achieved quantum supremacy, by knocking out computations that would have taken roughly 1 million years to solve on a classical computer. Accordingly, Baratz said that D-Waves Advantage2 is the only quantum computer in the world thats been able to solve an important, useful, real-world problem that could not be solved classicallyreferring to the quantum supremacy announcement, which involved D-Waves quantum computer simulating the properties of magnetic materials. This is what everybody [in the quantum industry] has been aspiring to, he said, and thats been achieved. D-Waves quantum computing technology is already being used in other parts of the world. A police department in Wales, for instance, is using it to predict and analyze police force deployments. Ford Otosan, a Turkey-based auto manufacturer representing a joint effort between Ford and Koç Holding, is using D-Wave tech as a part of its assembly process. And in Japan, a cellphone carrier is using it to improve its network performance. D-Wave announced the general availability of its Advantage2 in May of this year. News that it is bringing one to Italy may be seen as more evidence that the quantum industry is set for a breakoutdespite skepticism from some tech leaders who have contended that practical use cases are still years away.
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E-Commerce
Elon Musk‘s lawyers will urge the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to restore his $56 billion pay package from Tesla, as one of the biggest corporate legal battles enters its final stage nearly two years after a lower court judge rescinded the Tesla CEO’s record compensation. The outcome could have substantial consequences for the state of Delaware, its widely used corporate law, and its Court of Chancery, a once-favored venue for business disputes that has recently been accused of hostility towards powerful entrepreneurs. The January 2024 Court of Chancery ruling striking down Musk’s pay has become a rallying cry for Delaware critics. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the Tesla board lacked independence from Musk when it approved the pay package in 2018 and that shareholders lacked key information when they voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. As a result, she applied a demanding legal standard and found the pay unfair to investors. The defendants, current and former Tesla directors, denied wrongdoing and said McCormick misinterpreted the facts and the law. Musk is not expected to attend. Companies switch legal homes After the Musk pay ruling, large companies, including Tesla, Dropbox, and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, switched their legal homes to Texas or Nevada, where courts are friendlier toward directors. Delaware lawmakers responded to the corporate departures, a trend known as “Dexit,” by overhauling its corporate law. If Musk loses the appeal, he will still reap tens of billions of dollars in stock from the electric vehicle company, which agreed in August to a replacement deal if his 2018 plan is not restored. The company said the replacement award was meant to retain and focus Musk, who said earlier this year he was forming a new U.S. political party, on transitioning Tesla to robotics and automated driving. Tesla is now incorporated in Texas, where it is far more difficult for a shareholder to challenge board decisions. Tesla’s board last month proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan, highlighting confidence in Musk’s ability to steer the company in a new direction, even as Tesla loses ground to Chinese rivals in key markets amid softening EV demand. The five justices on Delaware’s high court will consider the appeal of the pay ruling as well as the $345 million legal fee that McCormick ordered Tesla to pay to the attorneys for Richard Tornetta, who held just nine Tesla shares when he sued to block the pay deal. The court typically takes months to rule. Tesla estimated in 2018 that the stock options plan would be worth $56 billion if the company met operational and financial goals, which it did. Because the stock continued to appreciate, the options are currently worth closer to $120 billion, by far the largest executive compensation ever. Musk is the world’s richest person with a fortune of around $480 billion, according to Forbes. The defendants have argued that McCormick erred in finding social and business ties to Musk compromised their independence and said Tesla shareholders were informed of the economic terms of the pay deal before they approved the plan. The directors said she should have reviewed the pay package under the “business judgment” standard, which protects directors from second-guessing by courts. The directors have long argued the pay package performed as hoped – it focused the attention of Musk, a serial entrepreneur, and he transformed Tesla from a startup into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Several months after McCormick’s ruling, Tesla received shareholder approval a second time for the plan, which McCormick rejected as legally invalid. Tesla is also appealing that decision. Tom Hals, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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