U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today issued the following statement after comments surfaced by Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Al Almendariz, whose region includes Texas, in which he likened the EPA’s “philosophy of enforcement” for oil and gas producers to Roman crucifixion:
“The EPA has systematically targeted Texas through burdensome regulatory overreach, putting politics ahead of facts and due process. Now we know they intend to crucify energy producers in our state. It is time for the Obama Administration to get its boot off the neck of Texas job creators and either lead, follow, or just get out of the way.”
Texas is in Region 6. Almendariz, according to former Shell Oil Chairman John Hofmeister, came into his new position stating that his mission was to "undo" all the environmental damage done by the previous administration. What environmental damage? Almendariz is of the same ilk as Secretary of the Interior Salazar who is determined to destroy the domestic oil and gas energy to satisfy their own politically ideological philosophies. Hofmeister was at the helm of Shell Oil during the Bush administration and took that remark as a personal insult.
Here is what Almendariz said in 2010:
“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement,” Armendariz said during a meeting in 2010. “It’s kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean: They’d go into little Turkish towns somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they’d run into, and they’d crucify them and then, you know, that town was really easy to manage over the next few years.”
Nice talk, right? He knew it was wrong to say and yet didn't have the maturity to avoid repeating it.
Senator Inhofe, (R-OK) isn't having it.
Inhofe announced he would be launching an investigation through the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works into the EPA’s actions against natural gas producers in Parker County, Texas, Pavilion, Wyoming, and Dimock, Pennsylvania.
“Against the backdrop of recent events, and Administrator Armendariz’s admission that EPA is out to crucify natural gas companies, it’s clear that EPA did not base these three studies on sound science or engage in the proper scientific process,” Inhofe said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The agency has been using questionable authorities while usurping the rightful regulatory authority of states. EPA clearly went through with these investigations based on preconceived conclusions with the explicit goal of tying potential environmental harms to hydraulic fracturing.”
Armendariz should be fired. This is not the kind of public servant that the American taxpayer deserves. Big government ideologues hamper businesses across the country and do nothing to inspire employers to hire.
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