GOP candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner faces fraud charges.

[RandySF]

The Republican candidate running to join the Texas oil and gas regulatory agency has run afoul of state environmental rules and is embroiled in a series of lawsuits accusing him of fraud in the oil patch.

Jim Wright, owner of an oilfield waste services company, says he has done nothing wrong and that he’s the victim of a Democratic Party smear job.

If nothing else, South Texas court filings and public records showing more than $180,000 in state fines levied against Wright point to the fractiousness of the oilfield.

Wright, who lives on a ranch outside Orange Grove, 35 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, faces Democrat Chrysta Castañeda, a Dallas oil and gas attorney and engineer, in November for a spot on the three-member Texas Railroad Commission.

At the center of the disputes is DeWitt Recyclable Products, a company Wright started nearly a decade ago near Cuero to take oily muds and other drilling site byproducts and recycle them into crude oil, diesel fuel and cleaned-up dirt.

Wright sold the company in 2014 to out-of-state investors for more than $1 million, but he remained listed as president, according to court filings.

The Railroad Commission sent the facility a cease-and-desist letter and canceled permits in January 2017 after an inspector found waste stockpiled directly on the ground, waste material storage tanks leaking material into the soil and unpermitted stormwater ponds collecting around the machinery and the facility.





https://www.statesman.com/news/20200826/gop-candidate-for-state-oil-and-gas-regulatory-agency-faces-fraud-accusations

[MagickMuffin]

1. Ohhh, it's someone else's fault, typical republicon

Yeah, Chrysta doctored all the court filings about your company's misgivings.

I certainly hope Chrysta can pull this off and get rid of this corrupt is it SOB, or is it GOP (?) I guess they both are correct in this case.

[gratuitous]

2. Clicking through to the story

There are a couple of Republicans in the petroleum industry quoted as saying they won't vote for Wright! Not that they'll necessarily vote for his Democratic opponent, but how corrupt do you have to be to get Texas oilmen quoted as saying they won't vote for you, even though you are a Republican, and it's to be expected.

[blogslut]

3. I'll vote for Castenada

I wish Roberto Alonzo had won the democratic primary though.