Platform Esther was first in-built 1965 and is situated 1.5 miles off the coast of Seal Seashore. It was rebuilt within the ’80s after sustaining main injury from a winter storm in 1983. Manufacturing formally ceased in August 2025.
New leases for oil drilling off the coast haven’t been authorised since 1984, and previous Republican presidents have labored with Democrats in defending California’s waters from drilling.
However conservation efforts have confronted new threats beneath the present and previous Trump administrations, which just lately revealed a proposal to dramatically ramp up oil drilling off California’s coast to extend the nation’s power independence.
That plan will seemingly meet a barrage of obstacles within the type of native and state environmental laws, with officers already expressing sturdy opposition.
However these looming threats weren’t sufficient to dampen the keenness at Platform Esther’s retirement occasion.
“It’s actually nice to see businesses just like the State Lands Fee taking daring steps like this to close down oil operations in state waters,” stated Brady Bradshaw, a senior oceans campaigner with the Middle. “We’re hoping to see the state proceed to battle in opposition to proposals like what’s coming with the Trump administration.”
