Armednariz apologized last week, calling his comments “an offensive and inaccurate way to portray our efforts to address potential violations of our nation’s environmental laws.”
In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson sent Sunday, Al Armendariz says he regrets his words and stresses that they do not reflect his work as administrator of the five-state region including Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
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Today in Washington, D.C. - April 26, 2012:
Senate resumed consideration of S. 1925, the bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. The Senate will also consider and vote on ation of two Texas district court nominees.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 62-37 to pass S. 1789, the postal reform bill, with the Lieberman-Collins substitute amendment. Prior to final passage the Senate voted down 5 amendments to the bill.
Yesterday the House passed (312 - 111) H.R. 3336 — "To ensure the exclusion of small lenders from certain regulations of the Dodd-Frank Act." The also passed by voice vote, H.R. 2146 — "To amend title 31, United States Code, to require accountability and transparency in Federal spending, and for other purposes." They passed (421 - 1) H.R. 1038 — "To authorize the conveyance of two small parcels of land within the boundaries of the Coconino National Forest containing private improvements that were developed based upon the reliance of the landowners in an erroneous survey conducted in May 1960."
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| EPA Region 6 Director Al Armendariz on video advocating abusing businesses and people using the Roman crucifixion approach |
“The apology came several hours after Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a vocal critic of the EPA, released a 2010 video in which Armendariz stressed the importance of ‘making examples’ out of companies that violate environmental laws. He compared his enforcement philosophy to that of Roman soldiers who crucified villagers in towns they wanted to conquer. ‘I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement. And I think it was probably a little crude, and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’m going to tell you what I said,’ Armendariz says in the video. ‘It is kind of like how the Romans used to conquer the villages in the Mediterranean, they’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere and they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them. Then that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.’ . . .”
“Inhofe highlighted the comments Wednesday during a Senate floor speech. ‘His comments give us a rare glimpse into the Obama administration's true agenda; no matter how much President Obama may pretend to be a friend of oil and natural gas, his green team constantly betrays the truth that the Obama administration is fully engaged in an all out war on hydraulic fracturing, and indeed all fossil fuels,’ Inhofe said.”
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said of the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would create, “I am not going to help in any way I can,” adding, “The president feels that way. I do, too.” And on Tuesday Interior Secretary Ken Salazar accused Republicans of supporting “fairy tale” energy policies.
It’s amazing the extent to which the Obama administration and Democrat leaders in Congress are impeding American energy development. As said recently by Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnel, “For years, Washington Democrats have had the same rigid opposition to expanding domestic energy exploration. The only people they seem to listen to are extremists. . . . [W]ith gas prices at about $4 a gallon, it’s time somebody called them out on it. Ten years ago . . . Democrats voted down a bill to open up a tiny area in Alaska known as ANWR to drilling. They relied on the non-argument that it would ‘take too long’ to get the oil to market. Every Democrat who was asked about it said the same thing; that it would take too long to get the oil to market. I’ve got two pages of quotes from Democrats saying it would take at least seven to 10 years to get the oil to market. Well, here we are, 10 years later. In some places gas now costs three times what it did in April of 2002. The U.S. still imports half its oil. ANWR is still off-limits. And if you ask Democrats why they oppose more domestic exploration, they’ll tell you the same thing they did 10 years ago.”
The revealing comments from Obama’s EPA official, his Interior Secretary, and his ally in the Senate, Harry Reid tell an important part of the story as to why Washington still can’t approve a commonsense project like the Keystone pipeline, even with Americans paying ever-higher gas prices. It’s long past time for the Democrat status quo on energy to change. America needs both the jobs and the oil!
Tags: Washington, D.C., Obama administration, energy policy, US Senate, postal reform bill, U.S. House, EPA, Region 6, Al Armendariz, video, abusing businesses, people, Roman crucifixion To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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