A historic oil platform off Santa Barbara turns into a rusty ghost ship
ISLA VISTA, Calif. - The morning swell off the Santa Barbara coast is running high as the crew boat churns away from the pier west of Haskell's Beach toward Platform Holly.
Nearly a dozen lawyers and engineers, dressed in fire-retardant coveralls, hard hats and fat orange life jackets, crowd the aft deck. Almost two years ago, Holly - one of 27 oil platforms along the California coast from Huntington Beach to Point Arguello - became property of the state after its owner, Venoco, filed for bankruptcy.
The future of the platform is in question, but all drilling has ceased and the wells will be sealed. The work, estimated to cost around $350 million, is expected to be completed no sooner than 2021.
Out on the water, the air is cool. Fog drifts up against the Santa Ynez Mountains, and filtered sunlight sparkles off the ocean. The Channel Islands begin to emerge from the haze.
Holly joins six other oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel scheduled to be permanently shut down and possibly removed, the result of aging oil fields and a changing political and economic environment that once supported the highest concentration of platforms in the state.
For nearly five decades, these ungainly structures have earned a nearly iconic, inescapable status in the California landscape. Legend has it that Holly, seen at night from the beach at Isla Vista, inspired the Doors singer Jim
