Environmentalists Celebrate ‘Retirement’ of Platform Esther, a SoCal Oil Rig

Environmental activists partied outside the San Francisco Ferry Building on Friday to celebrate the decommission of a Southern California oil rig.

The Center for Biological Diversity called the event a “retirement party” for Platform Esther, a soon-to-be decommissioned oil rig off the coast of Orange County.

Activists donned party hats and performed their own rendition of Kool & the Gang’s Celebration, renamed Decommission. They danced with a giant inflatable whale, and tore into a blue-iced cake decorated with a paper cutout of an oil rig.

Inside the Ferry Building, the California State Lands Commission officially finalized the decommission at a hearing.

“This is actually a historic win. This platform is being retired about fifteen years ahead of the official end of its useful life,” said Ilonka Zlatar, an organizer with Oil and Gas Action Network. “We want to thank the State Lands Commission and the agencies that are standing up and helping us to transition into the clean energy economy that we need.”

Platform Esther was first built in 1965 and is located 1.5 miles off the coast of Seal Beach. It was rebuilt in the ’80s after sustaining major damage from a winter storm in 1983. Production officially ceased in August 2025.

New leases for oil drilling off the coast haven’t been approved since 1984, and past Republican presidents have worked with Democrats in protecting California’s waters from drilling.

But conservation efforts have faced new threats under the current and past Trump administrations, which recently revealed a proposal to dramatically ramp up oil drilling off California’s coast to increase the country’s energy independence.

That plan will likely meet a barrage of obstacles in the form of local and state environmental regulations, with officials already expressing strong opposition.

But those looming threats weren’t enough to dampen the enthusiasm at Platform Esther’s retirement party.

“It’s really great to see agencies like the State Lands Commission taking bold steps like this to shut down oil operations in state waters,” said Brady Bradshaw, a senior oceans campaigner with the Center. “We’re hoping to see the state continue to fight against proposals like what’s coming with the Trump administration.”