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Subscribe to RSSSaying he had become a distraction, a senior Environmental Protection Agency official who used the word "crucify" to describe how the EPA enforced laws in the oil industry resigned on Monday.
"My continued service will distract you and the agency," Al Armendariz said in his resignation letter to EPA chief Lisa Jackson.
"I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator," Armendariz said in his letter.
Armendariz, who was head of the EPA's South Central office, came under fire from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who was informed of the two-year-old video last week and launched an inquiry.
Inhofe on Monday welcomed the resignation but said the EPA's "crucifixion philosophy" continues.
"His choice of words revealed the truth about the war that EPA has been waging on American energy producers under President Obama," Inhofe said in a statement.
The EPA, in response to a request from msnbc.com, said that Jackson had accepted the resignation. "I respect the difficult decision he made and his wish to avoid distracting from the important work of the agency," Jackson said in a statement.
In the video, Armendariz answers a question about enforcement policies. In the Middle Ages, he told the audience, the Romans conquered a village by taking "the first five guys they saw and they'd crucify them."
He added that the EPA, similarly, makes "examples out of people who are not complying with the law ... you make examples out of them, use it as a deterrent method.
"Companies that are smart see that and they don't want to play that, and they decide at that point that it's time to clean up," he added.
Armendariz had been speaking to residents of Dish, Texas, a town where some are concerned about potential environmental impacts from a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
A senior Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, told The Associated Press that Armendariz has received death threats since the video surfaced.
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I wonder what liberals will use as garbage bags once plastics are outlawed?
Liberals want petroleum used to make plastics. Instead we burn it. Short sighted at best.
Yeah, what will they put themselves in anyway? Paper? Bring your own?
Musician, Liberals want all of us to make cotton, reusable bags and produce no garbage at all. I know, they live NW of Denver in Boulder, Colorado ... sorry, I meant the People's Republic of Boulder (their name for themselves, not mine)
The Pea Party and whatever is left of the far right will scream and complain no matter what our president or his staff does. were someone to eliminate heart disease the right would fight it- why-take money away from surgons and hospitals. never mind the countless lifes it would save.
:(
Obumacare is what takes money away from surgeons and hospitals, you idiot. And he's not our president, he's yours. I would never vote for that POS.
Obamas health care is not about saving lives or resonable work for surgeons, YOUR presidents health care is all about high paying JOBS to more of his UNION cronies pushing papaers that will take you 12 hours to be treated in the ER, & 12 months to get through the SEIU secretary to get a lousy appointment with your overworked medical professional. God Help Us !
This is news worthy in what way again? This guy offended who and by what words? I am not getting it at all. BFD. So he resigned for using an appropriate analogy to describe the EPA's actual M.O.
I promise you, no Christians were offended by this analogy.
It is commion knowledge in EPA Region 6 {among oil co. execs and employees dealing with AL A.} that this guy walked into meetings 'knowing everything' and forever having a pre-ordained outcome in his playbook. Over 50% of all complaints regarding Regional Heads, concerned this gent, since his installation.
What is Positively Perfect about this is that his own flagrant Hubris took him down. His own actions and words were his downfall.
Laws are purportedly supposed to be applied evenly with no malice. This Dee Bag announced to the world that insofar as HE WAS Concerned, this was not to be. Kinda like his Big Boss,Barry Ohhh! As is so often repeated; The Fish Rots from The Head. Buh-Bye, Al !!! {Next stop, wherever George Soros decides to send you.]
Obama s re election comittee took this guy out because of preceived anti Christianity slur. IMHO it really has ziltch to do with him or how he performed, it won t set well with anti Rev Wright diatribes!
And the other regions of EPA I am sure have similarly thinking people in high places. They just are not stupid or arrogant enough to verbalize their intentions in a way that even a caveman couldn't possibly misunderstand. The EPA is a rats nest that needs cleaning out from the Regional Administrator and upwards level. And let's not even get into the insensitive religious language used. Was this hate speech? I am sure had he said oil companies should be stoned them to death there would be furor coming from cultures where stoning people to death is the norm. Had he said burn them at the stake, either Wickans or Hugenots would be up in arms.
OK, let me try to introduce you to reality. Oil companies kill. Their oil spills dump toxins into your water, & the exhaust gases poison your air. They also encourage you to buy vehicles which can travel too fast for the average human's reaction time. So nearly 40,000 Americans are going to die on the roads this year.
Oil companies commit treason. You know, as you read this, billions of our dollars are going to Middle East oil despots, & their pet terrorists.
LIke cartoon or comic book villains, they're threatening their own species with extinction. They know extinctions are caused by changes in the environment, & you do too.
If a "liberal" did any of this, you'd be screaming for his execution. But it's OK to be a murdering, treasonous genocide if it's profitable. Right?
YAWN.....
Musician, Detroit encourages you to buy vehicles which can travel too fast, the same Union Detroit 2/3 bailed out by the Gov. Nearly 40,000 Americans die on the roads, mostly because they are too stupid to slow down or not drink and drive or not drive and text .....
Billions of our tax dollarts go to the Middle East and their pet terrorists.
If oil companies are threatening us with extinction, what are the Chinese doing?
Oil companies save lives. The more we use, the longer our life expectancy grows.
You lefties just can't stomach when the actual TRUE obozo agenda and lies are exposed. Where's your skank nancy pelosi and why isn't she blaming obozo for the HIGHEST GAS prices ever?
Clinton expanded drilling-exploration on Fed leaseholds. oboz has CUT THEM BY 50% even thought the contracts were already negotiated-signed; obozo and his secy of the "inferior" placed a 6mo. moratorium on deep water drilling after the LARGEST ECLOGICAL CATASTRPHE IN US HISTORY happened under HIS watch and under the Dir. of MMS who obozo appointed personally.
You ecofanatics and demoslugs have blocked the building of any new oil refineries for nearly 40years! It is so blatantly obvious that this is also obozo's agenda.
The emporer's "new clothes" are the same as the old ones. This lying, inexperienced community organizing CLOWN is going down and out in Nov.
Give us your address, & we'll start constructing a refinery in your backyard tomorrow.
Musician666....We guess you do not use any gasoline or electricity. Right?
Musician, I already have a refinery, several oil wells and a prison in my back yard, but the BBQs are wonderful!
To me a comment made by a GOP congressman that under President Obama more drilling has occurred on private lands but not on government lands is DISGUSTING. The Oil Backed GOP wants to take over all the government lands to use for oil drilling. They do not care about clean air or water as long as they make a PROFIT. This libertarian ideology is not right for this country and the rest of us who enjoy the parks and other natural wonders throughout this country. They hate the EPA because they feel they have a right to do whatever they want including polluting the air and water and making people sick. In some cases people have died from their actions. There needs to be a balance especially since much of the drilled oil is for export not used domestically. In fact, Paul Ryan wrote into his budget plan a way for him to be taxed exempt for the lands he owns which are leased at for drilling. So this is all about PROFIT and aiding the wealthy in acquiring more wealth.
Has no one here done or said anything that they regreted? Are the people attacking this man really doing it for a good reason? This guy quit his job so his coworkers can focus on doing their jobs! The person I am unhappy with is the politician who I am sure has said and done things he regrets, but who could not stand being under the same microscope of public opinion. I think you people who have made nasty comments on this man are doing it to attack O'Bama. I don't believe you are so numb or so arrogant that you feel that you have never made a mistake. No. I think this is all a political statement. Just like I feel this politician attacked this man for the same reason. I too do not wish O'Bama to be re-elected but then I don't want Romney either! I don't see how attacking this man serves any purpose!
I call upon all veterans to become active in politics and those who can, to run for political office. Due to politicians the safeguards that were won by WWII veerans have been recently taken away. Veterans no longer have job secrity when they come home, they find they have been fired and can not get their jobs back! We need people in political office who know what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck. We need people who understand the sacrifice that military people make. We need to have a majority of military veterans in the leadership roles of our country. These idiot politicians, many of who are millionaires, do not understand any of this. We need to vote them out of office and put some real working class people in.
As a staunch conservative, I agree with what this guy said.
Right, the Obama administration feels that the Truth is to big a distraction during an election year. Further, anyone else caught revealing the Truth, will also be asked to resign.
I thnk it was the death threats. Not that a corporation would ever kill someone for profit.
more BS and bloviating from the ecoterrorists...maybe obozo and his weather underground terrrorist buddy bill ayres should just go out and bomb the remaining oil rigs and refineries. He's such a dipstick, he'd probably blow himself up...no loss in that case.
While I harbor no ill will for Mr. Armendariz, I wish him well if he can find a job in the private sector and see what it is like to be on the receiving end of onerous governmental regulation. Nonetheless, the culture at the EPA is exactly as he stated and if anything, is probably far more tyrannical than when he made his statements two years ago. As long as federal agencies are allowed to go around congress and do as they please, we will continue to see abuses.
When he resigns, does he lose his job or just go to a different division at the same pay scale? He has to have a gift job coming, otherwise he is not resigning for something so petty and this is petty!
To the writer of this article...no where does he say the Middle Ages. I don't like the EPA....but I really didn't have problems with his analogy. Was it harsh..ya...so what. The Romans were harsh people...and obviously the EPA acts in a 21st cent version of that. But whatever.. we all live in Obama's socialist world now.
Just like a lib say something stupid and get out of town
Yea PAUL, we're not manly men like so obviously are. I'll be you look just like the Marlboro Man, riding tall in the saddle, fighting off hordes of Commies with your lever action Winchester. LOL
I listened to the entire video clip that landed this EPA official in trouble, and he _clearly— referred only to petroleum companies whose intentional law breaking caused "life loss" -- that is a quote.
Who would _not— want to "crucify" a petroleum company that caused loss of life by intentionally breaking the law???
So, how many of the employees of the oil company that caused "life loss" need to die to appease the EPA? That is what crucify means, you know.
It stands to reason that a Republican oil company bretheran would try make a political issue of this.
So, someone can loose his job for something he said two years ago. But its a 'high crime', according to the GOP if Romney's past statements are used against him now. For a example the OBL statement he made a few years back, been used against him in an Obama's Ad.
Romney? Check the crap out of Obuma's mouth for 4 years.
There is nothing wrong with what this guy said, nor anything remotely wrong with the procedure he described - that's what enforcement, including law enforcement, is about.
Yeah right, nothing wrong with what this Nut said. Explain that to the 9.2 million fellow Americans who are employed by the Oil and Gas Industry and whose jobs are under attack daily from the EPA. Know your subject or keep your poorly formed thoughts to yourself.
YetAnotherRick, crucifixion ends in death. So what he, and you, are proposing is to kill all the employees of the oil company? Not sure the EPA has that power ... yet.
Oil production and the pollution that derives from it is ruining our environment. Destroy the environment and we all die! My answer to what those oil production workers can do, look for another job, a better one! What? So in your opinion we should worry about these people's jobs, more than we should worry about our own health and that of our children and grandchildren? Yeah, I guess in your opinion I am a liberal. China is making huge strides in Alternative Energy and there is this guy now deceased (Howard Johnson (like the motel)) who invented a generator that doesn't need fuel. Actualy saw it on youtube.
Will we ever get off the oil tit? I doubt it, the salaries of multi-trillionaires depend on us remaining on that tit. And the politcians, the oil managers and business types down to the lowly oil field worker are firmly glued onto the multi-trillionaires tit! So no. We will never be free of oil production in this country. We will still be at risk for oil spills, for bad air and water, and for other types of pollution due to our embrace of oil! However; having a government agency that at least tries to reduce the overwhelming effect of the use of oil, is actually a good thing. Yes. It is!
Bear, nobody's job is threatened by insisting that the oil industry clean up their act. In fact, doing so may create jobs,
Neal, do you really take everything literally?
The EPA should be Crucified & Dismantled. This single Federal Government Agency has done more damage to destroy American Job's and Business's than all the other Agencies of Government combined. They play on fear like a bad fairy tale. One of the EPA prolific missions is to stop the loss and decimation of endangered species. How the HELL do you do that ???? We are all finite species to this rock called Earth. Down with the EPA.
MIKE: Sure buddy. How dare they keep the air that we breath clean and the water that we drink pure. Can it get any worse?
BTW Mikey, you do know who started that "Big Government" bureaucracy don't you? None other than than infamouse pinko Commie by the name of Richard Nixon. You see, there actually was a time when Republicans cared out our enviornment as well. That is, before your entire party turned crazy.
I now live in Ohio. Before I moved here one of their rivers caught on fire due to pollution. A paper manufacturing company turned a river brown with noxious chemicals. In the 80's (in a different part of the USA)there was the "Love Canal" where kids had died from cancer and not to forget the movie "Erin Brokovich" which was about a real person and a real situation. Yeah. The EPA costs jobs. Have you any idea how much money our grandchildren and great great grandchildren will have to pay to clean up the environment, just so they can get by? Maybe the EPA needs some tweaking but I want them to exist, I want that our environment be cleaned up and remain clean for future generations. Greedy business people certainly could care less what happens to future generations, even to their own kin. All they care about is money. Are you sure you want to leave the USA open to whatever these money maniacs wish to do?
Ozzie Boy & Dave, do you guy's have Government subsidised employment? The rest of the Country needs work and we all can not sell coffee. I was in Cleveland when the River burned. It was the best thing that could of ever happened. The mess was true but the wildlife and river turned for the better after the event. If for years we capitalized on manufacturing and production to energize our Country, pollution was certainly the curse for it. I believe that anyone who purchases a home next too or on top of an old industrial site is not wise nor are the dirty politicians who allow it to happen. In Cleveland that would be Democrats. Government Agencies have an obligation to the tax payers to solve problems. This does not include shutting down employers and streeting the employees. We shall see how this matter is dealt with. The country needs help and we can not all be sheep farmers.
Please respond to this, I don't wish to have the last word.
Look, though I sympathize with you and those people who are out of work, I am unwilling to breathe polluted air, drink polluted water, and briefly to suffer in any way from the pollution and the accidents that the pursuit of oil or anything else causes. I was made aware of tanker trucks spilling hazardous chemicals in remote places like forests and reservations, as disposing of those chemicals properly would have cost lots of money. Of course cleaning up the chemicals cost all of us even more money! This was in the 1980's. Yes. I am very much aware of what it is like to be out of a job. I was forced out of the USN due to a disability that they rated at 10% at that time (to save the USA money) with no care of the consequences for me and my family, a wife, a disabled child, and a toddler who caught a dangerous disease in the hospital which they did not pay for, I was billed. I had no job for three years! However; taking a job with a polluter or putting a gun to my head were two choices I was unwilling to make. I know what it is like, therefore; to be out of work and under a huge amount of stress. Even so; let's look at the BP oil spill, it still isn't cleaned up! Our great greast grandchildren will be still be paying to have it cleaned up! If it were a simple process to clean up the lakes, the rivers, the air, the land and were inexpensive to do so, I'd be right there behind you. But it isn't easy. It isn't cheap. And even the clean up doesn't clean up everything! So yah, I don't care. I really really don't. You see there just isn't anywhere else that people can live, other than on this here planet and destroying it, will kill us all off. This isn't hype. It is reality. Maybe we can't all be sheep farmers. My son is handicapped and is unable to find work. He has tried but even in good times, the disabled are the last to be hired and the first to be fired (a quote from someone who I don't recall). Yet. I do not want him working for a polluter. If we all went green. If alternative energy became the mainstream instead of the alternative for the eccentric; then there would be jobs. Jobs to install and repair those items. The air would be cleaner and maybe we could work on those other areas. But to say that we should allow polluters, the oil companies and others to destroy our country because we need jobs is stupid. There is no other way to say this. I know of no metaphor that would be equal to explaining this to you. You have to breath this air that we all breath, drink the water we all drink and live on the land that we all live on. Your children, if you have any, or your relatives children must do the same. To have no regulation of the polluters would be equal to putting a time bomb in the crib of every living baby on this planet. There is no justification for doing that. There are soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters and tent cities, go find one. Why should I and others have to live in filth so that a few people can make a decent salary and a very few others can make millions, multimillions and billions? Maybe the EPA isn't perfect. Maybe it has become draconian. If so we can fix that. Abolish it? That would be stupid. That would be like saying to people that we would save money if we didn't have any law enforcement officers or correctional facilities. That would be like handing a two year old a lit cigarette. I am against your way of thinking and the possible eventual need for people to wear gas masks and wear environmental suits. That's it.
I, John Q. Public, do not owe the petroleum industry a thing. I oppose environmental earthslaughter for profit. I want my government to know that and act accordingly. If crucifying violators of the earth by lot or by grand jury indictment stops the rape and pillaging of the planet, I'm for it. I'm sorry this poor truth-teller had to resign. I'm proud of Mr. Obama's careful consideration of our land and our future rather than running with the Republican program of slash and burn so they can get richer.
This guy was a political appointee who spoke the truth as he knows it and participated in it. He and his supervisors should be fired!
BARRY, fired for what???????? Holding companies like BP accountable for destroying the Gulf of Mexico?
Ozzie, you are really losing it. Better take a nap!
Sliding 6, you must be a complete moron? To think that this guy tells something close to the truth, and of course the right has to blow it out of proportion. OIL companies are BAD! I dont give a damn what you think! They are killing us off, and you stupid righties stand idly by, and watch. How stupid is that? Thats about as stupid as that John Bonehead as speaker!
OIL co.'s want proffit, proffit, proffit, not caring one little bit about our environment. What a bunch of morons! And what a bunch of morons that back them! I say, crucify the piss out of them, till they get it right! Any one person who will put proffit above their own lives, is a complete idiot!
Clean up your act, BIG OIL!!!!
I presume you are using a completely bio-degradable computer powered only with green energy to post here?
Obama's energy chief has said we should have the same gas prices as Europe. So folks get ready for $8.00 a gallon gas! Just think how good that will be for the environment when no one can afford to drive their car.
It was a big mistake to resign.
The oil companies SHOULD BR CRUCIFIED!!!
Allowing himself to be intimidated my some demagogue Republican was his second mistake.
The someone in office needs to be brave and call the oil oligarchys what they are : organized criminals guilty of price fixing, fraud and the enemy of environemental progress and alternative energy technology.
They should be taxed, peanalized and they should be subject to price controls.
Then they should crucify the oil speculators on wall street!!
Get rid of the EPA and all its regulators. Just read where wind generators are now contributing to global warming. Enough of this nanny state. Good bye EPA.
www.theblaze.com/stories/those-green-wind-farms-may-actually-be-causing-local-warming/
MRWSR,
See the part of the article in your link that says that, contrary to your statement of such, that wind farms do not contribute to global warming. Global warming is not local weather!
MRWSR: Sure, no problem. It's night like oil companies have inflicted huge harm on our country, right?
Been to the Gulf of Mexico recently??? Talk to the fisherman who rely on the Gulf for their living and ask them how the oil spill has ruined their businesses and their lives.
And I'll repeat for the feeble minded like yourself. That "Nanny State" organization was created by RICHARD NIXON.
Ozzy
Always enjoy your post. But live in Texas and the gulf states are doing good. Fishing levels where back to normal before Christmas. It's the department of interior they are mad at. Tell's them when and where they can fish. You don't get those memo's in lefty land. Plus, the foundation of the EPA is a very needed and solid effort help us be stewards of the land. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with what it has become, as should you. Its the truth.
MR: Have to respectfully disagree. Many studies have shown just the opposite, that there is much mutation of fish and most of the oil has sunk down near the ocean floor.
I'd also remind you that it was that monster, President Obama who forced the BP's hand, and made them set up a trust with Twenty Billion dollars. And, Obama was criticized by nutcase GOP congressman WHO ACTUALLY APOLOGIZED TO BP. You tell me, who is bought and paid for by lobbyists?
Fieldguy,
Thanks I thought that it was global. Seems that is the mantra, never heard that localized was not incorporated. You should tell you friends, you could end the whole global conspiracy.
Ozzie, the Gulf States have recovered, according to them. I don't care who instituted the EPA, it has done some good and an immense amount of bad. Reform it or replace it, but certainly do not employ people who think killing people is the answer to polluters.
My next-door neighbors are true liberals. ACLU members. They had an autographed picture of Hillary and Bill above their fireplace for eight years. No Obama and Michelle picture though. They wanted to make a statement to the oil companies, so they replaced their oil heater with all electric heating. Electricity is clean, they tell me. I don't see a windmill or solar panels in their backyard :)
Tell them that the EPA is driving up the price of electricity as well since they are shutting down the coal industry. Bottom line is that they an Obama are doing whatever their environmentalist lobby tells them to d despite that it is driving prices of essentials and crucifying the poor! Obama is no fool. He is going o leave this office a multi-millionaire without having produced a single thing of value in his lifetime. He is going to be part of that 1% that he claims to hate so.
MOON: Oh yea, that's rich, the "Enviornmental Lobby" is so powerful. They have way more influence than Exxon/Mobil ever did. Pleazzzzzzzzzze, your statement is laughable. Think about what you posted. Absurd.
The environmental lobby is very powerful as long as there is Obama in office.
Ozzie, you do realize that the EPA has the power to regulate CO2 emissions, that does include all of us exhaling.