EPA Regional Administrator Resigns After Outcry Over ‘Crucify’ Comments

[jaxx]

Apr 30, 2012 1:08pm
EPA Regional Administrator Resigns After Outcry Over ‘Crucify’ Comments
By Jake Tapper

Over the weekend, Environmental Protection Agency Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz resigned, following a conservative outcry after remarks he made in 2010 came to light, ones suggesting government officials should take lessons from ancient Romans and “crucify” people not complying with environmental laws.

<..> The 2010 video, publicized by frequent EPA foe Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla., showed Armendariz saying that he gave the following analogy to his staff about his “philosophy of enforcement,” which he acknowledged being crude and perhaps inappropriate, but shared anyway: “It is kind of like how the Romans used to conquer villages in the Mediterranean – they’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere and they’d find the first five guys they saw, they’d crucify ‘em, and that little town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

Armendariz continued: “And so, you make examples out of people who are, in this case, not complying with the law. You find people who are not complying with the law and you hit ‘em as hard as you can and you make examples out of them, there’s a deterrent effect there. And companies that are smart see that. They don’t want to play that game, and they decide at that point that it’s time to clean up. And that won’t happen unless you have somebody out there making examples.”

<..> “With an election on the horizon,” Inhofe said in a press release, “President Obama is pretending to be a friend of oil and natural gas, claiming he’s for an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach, but Administrator Armendariz’s comments reveal the true story: while President Obama has photo ops in front of pipelines in Oklahoma, his E.P.A. is working aggressively to ‘crucify’ oil and gas producers so they can end hydraulic fracturing, knowing full well that if you stop hydraulic fracturing, you kill domestic oil and gas production.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/201...-comments/

Pure politics. The RWNJ going after a word the religious right can scream about. My comment to J.Tapper's tweet: Looks like an Inhofe/GOP crusade to destroy the EPA.

[MilesColtrane]

*except when the perpetrator is a business corporation. then they howl like the dogs they are

[Willinois]

By Jake Tapper. How unsurprising. He's always one of the first to help the right wing bring their silly stories from the talk radio world out into the mainstream.

[jaxx]

Tapper is an ass. When he's called on in Jay Carney's briefings his questions are always snarky. I wouldn't call on him anymore.

[Ikonoklast]

Politicians like Inhofe are the reason this nation is in the predicament it finds itself.

He only cares for what happens in his own life, and refuses to look to the future of this nation.

OIL is NOT the future.

In 100 years, the vast oil fortunes will all be squandered.