JUST POSTED: A NYT journey into the shallow waters of Gulf of Mexico, where decades-old oil and gas platforms pose an environmental/safety threat-but the owners have joined with Team Trump & Interior to rollback post Deepwater Horizon rules. nytimes.com/2018/03/10/bus…
We chartered a boat to go out into the Gulf of Mexico and visit these platforms--after the oil and gas companies declined requests to make the visit with their permission. It was a grand journey. Thanks NYT readers, for supporting this work. Read along to see what we found. 
Most of the world focuses on deepwater-where the continental shelf drops off a cliff. But most of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms are in the shallow waters and a lot of the safety issues are here, Interior safety records FOIAed by NYT show. A worker died in February here.
FOIAed records show that some of the companies pushing hardest to rollback certain rules have troubled safety records, and are financially challenged themselves. And who have they hired as their lobbyist? Former Sen. Majority Leader Trent Lott and his team.
The industry has turned to a former Louisiana state official and oil/gas industry executive who spent years lobbying Obama administration to challenge post Deepwater Horizon measures. What's his job now: Trump admin named him the top offshore safety regulator for United States.
FOIA records obtained by NYT show Scott Angelle--who now leads Interior's Bureau of Safety and Envior Enforcement--lobbying the agency in 2010 and 2013. He is now the boss of the same officials he lobbied, emails show, pressing them to ease up on industry. From advocate to boss.
Scott Angelle gives out his personal cellphone number to oil/gas industry executives--and at times tells them to call him personally/not email text, reminding them that written communication is subject to FOIA. I heard him do this myself after walking into a closed door session.
Will continue this in a bit. Stick with me. Have to pause.
The oil and gas industry was pleased to see Scott Angelle as new head of BSSE, as the agency is known. Previous top official was a retired coast guard admiral. Previous also a former US prosecutor. Now industry in Trump era had a friend. Emails show immediate efforts. 1st DAY!
We got via FOIA copy of Angelle's schedule since he started at BSEE. Dozens of meetings in private settings w oil/gas officials. Often at corporate headquarters of the companies. Exxon, Fieldwood, Anadarko, Shell. All in 1 day. Entire calendar is here
documentcloud.org/documents/4405…
documentcloud.org/documents/4405…
Industry officials passed Angelle draft copies of regulations they wanted Team Trump to write into federal law. Fascinating to see. Here is lobbyist for Fieldwood, Energy XXI, Renaissance, Talos--who hate rule forcing them to take out more bonds to cover cost of decommissioning.
The biggest target of all: the Well Control Rule. Angelle invited industry officials to a forum in Houston, and then was given detailed requests for changes in this rule, single most important post Deepwater Horizon safety measure. This from Stone Energy.
Extraordinary to see first hand just how massive the oil and gas infrastructure is just off the coast in Louisiana. Spent three days in Port Fourchon, a moon-base outpost for the industry. Clearly hurting from decline in jobs as fracking on land overtaken offshore.
This offers a picture of just how much is out there. Never understood until I saw it myself, how the oil and gas industry has overtaken this coast. Look at this. More than 2,000 platforms and 27,000 miles of pipeline. Hundreds of those platforms rundown, decades old
I collected several thousand documents for this story from FOIA requests, Here are some of the best finds all in one place, including full draft of the proposed new well control rule, which had been confidential, UNTIL NOW. documentcloud.org/documents/4405…
And please read the story, and share it. A lot of NYT resources went into this. Thank you New York Times subscribers for supporting this kind of expensive, time-consuming work. nytimes.com/2018/03/10/bus…
