Trump rollbacks target offshore rules ‘written with human blood’
Struggling energy firms with history of environmental, safety issues are top beneficiaries of administration’s thirst for oil in Gulf
Adozen miles off the coast, on a rusty, aging platform, workers in hard hats and overalls spend their days extracting oil and gas from the ocean floor before retreating at night into tiny weather-beaten steel cubes that act as dorms.
The platform, owned by a Houston-based energy company that until recently was bankrupt, has none of the grandeur — or profits — of the deep-sea structures over 100 miles offshore that are operated by international giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
But the company, Energy XXI, and other struggling operators in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico are beneficiaries of the Trump administration’s efforts to increase offshore production here — in large part by upending financial, environmental and safety regulations that the companies oppose.
While attention has been focused on President Donald Trump’s disputed decision in January to reverse drilling restrictions in nearly all U.S. coastal waters, the administration has also pursued a rollback of Obama-era regulations in the Gulf. Those rules include safety measures put in place after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010, a disaster that killed 11 people and resulted in the largest marine oil spill in drilling history.
Smaller oil and gas companies, many backed by Wall Street and private equity firms, say they need the relief to survive financially, and the top safety official at the Interior Department appointed by Trump has appeared to be an enthusiastic ally.
“Help is on the way, help is on the way,” the official, Scott Angelle, said in September at a gathering in Lafayette, La., of oil and gas executives from socalled independent companies, which focus on drilling alone rather than the extended drilling-to-gas-station operations of bigger competitors. Poor maintenance, death
But an analysis of federal inspection data by The New York Times found that several of the independent companies seeking the rollback, including Energy XXI, had been cited for workplace safety violations in recent years at a rate much higher than the industry average. Their offshore platforms suffer in some cases from years of poor maintenance, as well as equipment failures or metal fatigue on aging devices, records show.
In addition, there was a string of serious environmental and safety episodes in the last six months involving independent operators, including the death in February of a worker who was removing firefighting equipment from a platform about 30 miles offshore, and an oil spill in October that is considered the largest since the Deepwater Horizon episode, according to Interior Department records.
“These regulations were written with human blood,” said Lillian Espinoza-Gala, a former offshore worker who now serves as an industry safety consultant and opposes easing protections. “The only way we can honor those who lost their lives is for us to learn how to do this in the correct way.”
But Angelle has close personal and recent ties to the oil and gas industry, particularly the smaller companies seeking his intervention.
Now he is the top official at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, a division created under President Barack Obama to toughen safety standards and enforcement in offshore drilling because of problems exposed by the Deepwater Horizon accident.
Angelle declined to be interviewed for this article. But in a written statement, he disputed that his agency had backed off its commitment to safety. “We must never have another Deepwater Horizon or anything close to it,” Angelle said.
An agency spokeswoman said that all Americans benefited from his efforts.
“The work we are doing in BSEE benefits the entire nation, and we are supporting the president’s objective of safely achieving energy dominance in order to contribute to national security, economic security and energy security,” said Eileen Angelico, the spokeswoman.
The agency is starting an enforcement effort that will focus inspectors on platforms with the most frequent problems, reducing paperwork requirements so they can spend more time on checking equipment. $1.3 billion in savings
But agency documents suggest moves he has already made could save the industry more than $1.3 billion in compliance costs over the next decade.
The Interior Department has joined the effort more broadly. Last year, the department suspended a requirement imposed on Gulf rig owners, a change that will save them hundreds of millions of dollars. The rule required owners to buy additional bonds or provide other assurance that they could cover the costs of removing rigs once they stopped producing.
Separately, the administration has reduced the royalties independent companies pay when drilling on new leases on the continental shelf, the shallow area of the Gulf before the ocean floor drops more than a mile deep.
Representatives from Energy XXI declined repeated requests for comment.
Oil and gas companies pushed to unravel a major safety requirement known as the wellcontrol rule, which regulates methods used to drill new oil and gas wells — and prevent explosions.
It took six years after the Deepwater Horizon accident to enact the rule, which took effect in July 2016.
At a meeting Angelle called in September, industry officials detailed their objections while members of staff — some of whom helped write the rule — sat taking notes.
In late December, Angelle sent the White House a proposal to overhaul the well-control rule, estimating that oil companies would save $986 million in the coming decade. The proposal included many changes requested by the industry.
Though the proposal is undergoing a review before the revisions are made public, the White House has made clear that it welcomes the effort. A White House spokeswoman declined to comment.
To some longtime residents and activists, the changes are not worth the possible trade-offs in safety and environmental protections.
“It’s always the workers who pay,” said Scott Eustis of the Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental group.