Railroad Commission whistleblower sues agency for wrongful firing by TXSHARON, August 18, 2013, Bluedaze
An engineer who worked for the Texas Railroad Commission and was actually trying to do his job, claims he was fired because he filed a whistleblower complaint against his supervisor. Frederick Wright was promoted several times during his six-year tenure at the RRC but he insisted operators “comply with rules, regulations, and applicable law.” Wright claims he was met with hostility as a result. … In our report, Breaking All the Rules, we showed that Texas does not enforce oil and gas regulations. “…failure to enforce oil and gas regulations means that Texas is not seeking, documenting, sanctioning, deterring, and cleaning up problems associated with irresponsible oil and gas operations such as chemical spills, equipment failure, accidents, and discharges into drinking water supplies.”
Thank you for trying Mr. Wright. I will be watching your case and hoping it goes well. But the good-old-boy crony system has permeated Texas at all levels so I don’t expect much from the court system.
Former Railroad Commission engineer sues agency by Deon Daugherty, August 16, 2013, Houston Business Journal
The commission regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry. Wright had worked for the agency since October 2007 and had been promoted several times, according to the complaint. At the time of his termination in June 2013, he was an Engineering Specialist IV. Wright alleges in the complaint, filed in a Harris County court, that he was repeatedly subjected to hostility from his supervisor and the assistant district director, “because (Wright) required operators to comply with rules, regulations, and applicable law.” A month before he was terminated, Wright said he was given a reprimand stemming from unsolicited complaints about him, allegedly being told “that he needed to improve his relationships with operators.” Wright said the agency refused to provide examples of the complaints, and when he was terminated, he was given no reason for the action. The operators weren’t named in the lawsuit. [Emphasis added]