ASSOCIATED PRESS • April 18, 2020
Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling in deeper and deeper waters, where payoffs can be huge but risks are greater than ever. Industry leaders and government officials say they’re determined to prevent a repeat of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, which spilled 134 million gallons of oil that killed hundreds of thousands of marine animals, and devastated the tourist economy. Yet safety rules adopted in the spill’s aftermath have been eased as part of President Trump’s drive to boost U.S. oil production.