Scott Angelle

Angelle was elected at the age of twenty-five to the St. Martin Parish Police Jury, the local governing body known as the county commission in most other states. From 2000 to 2004, Angelle was the first parish president of St. Martin Parish and the vice president from 1998 to 2000 of the Huval Companies in Lafayette, Louisiana. Earlier, he worked as a petroleum land manager in Lafayette.

From 2004 to 2012, with the exception of his six months as lieutenant governor, Angelle was the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources under Governors Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and then Bobby Jindal.[4] He replaced Jack Caldwell.[5] Angelle resigned on August 8, 2012, and he was replaced by Stephen Chustz.[6] As Angelle resigned from the Natural Resources position, Jindal nominated him to represent Louisiana's 3rd congressional district on the Board of Supervisors of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.[7]

As part of the interim appointment as lieutenant governor, Angelle agreed not to seek the position in the special election held in November 2010. The vacancy occurred when Mitch Landrieu resigned to become the mayor of New Orleans. Angelle was a Democrat until he switched to the Republican affiliation on October 26, 2010.[8][9] Both parties had attempted to recruit Angelle to run for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district in the 2010 elections to succeed Democrat Charlie Melancon, who ran instead for the U. S. Senate in 2010 against Republican David Vitter, whom Angelle also opposed in the 2015 gubernatorial race. Earlier, Angelle had declined the overtures from both parties to run for Congress.[10]

Angelle officially began the duties of lieutenant governor on May 17, 2010. He temporarily relinquished the job of secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to Robert Harper but continued to serve as the governor's lobbyist to the legislature.[11] Angelle returned to his position in Natural Resources after his time as lieutenant governor ended.[12]

Scott Angelle speaking at the Cajundome in Lafayette, La in July 2010 demanding the federal government to end the drilling moratorium.[13]

On July 21, 2010, Angelle led a rally of over 12,000 citizens in Lafayette's Cajundome demanding the federal government to "Lift the Moratorium Now!" President Barack Obama had imposed the 2010 United States deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[14] There, Angelle notably said, "This moratorium is not hurting the stock holders of BP, or Exxon or Chevron; this moratorium is hurting the Cheramies, and the Calais, and the Dupuis, and the Robins and the Boudreauxs, and the Thibodeauxs," referring to the negative effect on the local economy that the moratorium may have.[15] The moratorium was lifted in October 2010, a move considered a pivotal point in Angelle's political career.

On August 3, 2012, the discovery of the Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana was the result of a collapsed salt dome operated by the Texas Brine Company.[16] This collapse allowed oil and gases to escape and surface.[17] Angelle has received criticism for leaving his Department of Natural Resources position five days after the disaster began, however, it was later discovered that the sinkhole was due to months of seismic activity that The Texas Brine Company ignored.[18] As of October 2014, the sinkhole is still ongoing while local residents continue a legal battle with the Texas Brine Company.[19] On September 25, 2015, Assumption Parish President, Martin Triche, stated "To suggest that Scott Angelle abandoned Bayou Corne and Assumption Parish is nothing short of completely false. Senator Vitter was not there for our residents when Scott was."[20] Ryan Cross, Angelle's gubernatorial campaign manager said, "Scott had already made the decision he was going to run for PSC. He jumpstarted the response and coordinated it on the ground. He was one of the first people down at the sinkhole site." [21]

In the 2012 PSC race, Angelle, with 213,485 votes (57.2 percent), won all thirteen parishes in District 2 to claim the seat vacated by Jimmy Field, a Baton Rouge attorney. The Democrat Forest Wright finished second in the balloting with 76,336 votes (20.5 percent), and Republican State Representative Erich Ponti of Baton Rouge, trailed in third place with 43,287 ballots (11.6 percent). Two other contenders, a Republican and a No Party contender, shared the remaining 11 percent of the vote.[22]

Angelle lost by a relatively narrow margin in the primary to his fellow Republican, U.S. Senator David Vitter, who took on Democrat John Bel Edwards of Tangipahoa Parish in the November 21 general election. Another of Angelle's opponents in the governor's race was his elected successor as lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne of Baton Rouge, who finished in fourth place in the contest.[23]

Dardenne quickly endorsed Edwards for the November 21 runoff election against Vitter. Angelle remained silent on the race and refused to endorse either candidate.[24] State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, a 2004 Democratic opponent of Vitter, called upon Angelle to join him in endorsing Vitter. Remaining silent, said Kennedy, is the equivalent of an endorsement of Edwards.[25] Angelle spokesman Ryan Cross responded to Kennedy's accusations saying "John Kennedy is confused. He is the eternal president of the RINO club. He endorsed John Kerry for President [in 2004], who fought to kill the Keystone Pipeline; he's run statewide as a liberal Democrat twice; and he's been all over the map on issues like the minimum wage, abortion, and tax increases."[26]

On March 3, 2016, Angelle announced his candidacy for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, which is being vacated by Charles Boustany.[27] Angelle polled 44 percent in the runoff contest against former St. Landry Parish sheriff's deputy Clay Higgins, having run best in the Lake Charles area.

On May 23, 2017, the United States Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, made Angelle the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's fourth Director.[28] That year, the Gulf of Mexico produced $2.8 billion in lease and royalty payments to the federal government.[15] Angelle has frequently traveled to Texas and Louisiana to meet with industry executives and has encouraged them to directly call his cellphone to avoid disclosure in public records requests.[15][29][30] Angelle's rule changes are forecast to save the oil and gas industry over $1.3 billion in regulatory compliance costs over the next decade.[15]

In 2017, the Interior Department withdrew its sole liability bonding requirement on rig owners, which had required offshore drillers to post guarantees that they would pay for the ultimate removal of their rigs.[31] The change was lobbied for by Trent Lott and John Breaux, and will save the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.[15] Drillers have posted $2.9 billion of the estimated $40 billion in removal costs.[15] In July 2017, the Interior Department reduced the royalty rates drillers must pay the government to drill on the Gulf's Outer Continental Shelf from 18.75% to 12.5%.[32]

In June 2017, Angelle doubled the time drillers are given to remove unproductive or damaged platforms.[33] In October 2017, the Bureau responded to a 672,000 gallon oil leak from a pipeline fracture southeast of Venice, Louisiana in the largest accident since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[34]

In December 2017, Angelle reduced maintenance requirements on offshore platforms.[35] That month, Angelle proposed to relax the well-control rule, which had been implemented in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion.[15] Angelle's proposal would reduce blowout preventer inspection requirements, allow operations to continue while liftboats approach, and would save the industry $986 million in the next decade.[15]