Skip to content Skip to footer

Texas Oil Regulators Fired for Trying to Actually Regulate

What happens to energy regulators that dare to do their jobs and try to actually regulate energy companies? They get fired.

What happens to energy regulators that dare to do their jobs and try to actually regulate energy companies? They get fired.

That’s the news according to a pair of Texas inspectors that monitored oil and gas operations in the state. Though each man worked separately, counties apart, their stories of being abruptly fired for following their job descriptions are troubling to say the least. Here are the stories that InsideClimate News turned up.

Fred Wright, a well inspector, was sacked 17 months ago. Multiple promotions and raises over his years as an employee indicated a job well done, as did his regularly solid performance reviews. The only slightly negative comments he received on these reviews seemed to reflect more poorly on the regulatory industry. Wright was cited twice for not understanding that there should be “exceptions” to the rules he was set to enforce. He also was formally chided for not having better relationships with the gas companies he was evaluating, as if being chummy would improve his job performance.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit, Wright alleges he was directed by superiors to approve of unsafe wells that weren’t up to regulation with the hope and understanding that the companies would fix the faulty wells down the road. Wright didn’t feel right signing off on this sort of thing, and as a result multiple companies filed complaints that Wright was difficult to handle. In other words, “He’s actually trying to regulate us!”

While the other regulator, Morris Kocurek, is not filing a lawsuit, he is willing to share the troubling things he witnessed during his time on the job. Though he was never explicitly told to go easy on the oil companies, it was easy for him to read between the lines based on responses to his work. “Go through the motions, but don’t really do your job,” Kocurek said. “That’s what everybody wanted.”

He watched the commission intentionally delay the delivery of violation reports, and then sent some of the more “lenient” employees to do the follow-ups on these violations. In one particularly egregious incident where toxic sludge was left sitting in the open, Kocurek filed multiple reports to do something about it, to no avail. When this mess started killing local birds, he called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to intervene. Even though his employers were doing nothing to address the situation, they obviously were unhappy with him having the matter taken out of their hands. Shortly thereafter, with good job evaluations in his file, Kocurek was terminated without an explanation.

Sadly, these frightening stories don’t seem unusual for Texas. When Denton, Texas voted to ban fracking in its city limits last month, one of the chief regulators of the oil and gas industry in the state said she would continue to issue permits for drilling in Denton anyway. Clearly, the regulators seem to think they’re on the same team as the energy companies.

It’s a problem that’s not unique to Texas or the energy sector. Two months ago, a whistleblower made similar allegations about the Fed for being too lenient with Wall Street companies. Time and time again, we see regulators willfully ignoring the wrongdoing of the richest corporations. If the regulators aren’t actually keeping an eye on these entities, who is?

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.

At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.

Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.

You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.