Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor today to draw
attention to a video of a top EPA official saying the EPA’s “philosophy”
is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies - just as
the Romans crucified random citizens in areas they conquered to ensure
obedience.
Inhofe quoted a little-watched video from 2010 of Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz,
admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make
examples” of oil and gas companies.
In the video, Administrator Armendariz says:
“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’ll go ahead and tell you what I
said:
“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.
“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”
“It’s a deterrent factor,” Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA
is following the Romans’ philosophy for subjugating conquered villages.
Soon after Armendariz touted the EPA’s “philosophy,” the EPA began
smear campaigns against natural gas producers, Inhofe’s office noted in
advance of today’s Senate speech:
“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010,
EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and
Wyoming.
“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing
statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of
hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water
contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best –
and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find
any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”
In his Senate speech, Sen. Inhofe said the video provides Americans with “a glimpse of the Obama administration’s true agenda.”
That agenda, Inhofe said, is to “incite fear” in the public with
unsubstantiated claims and “intimidate” oil and gas companies with
threats of unjustified fines and penalties – then, quietly backtrack
once the public’s perception has been firmly jaded against oil and
natural gas.
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