As a result of his outrageous comments over “crucifying” oil and gas companies, Al Armendariz has resigned his post as regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Now it’s time for his boss, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, to accept responsibility as well.
Armendariz’s comments at a Dish, Texas meeting in 2010, where he spoke of “making an example” of oil and gas producers by treating them with the same rough justice the Romans applied in conquered territories, were released by the office of Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, one of the states regulated by Armendariz’s regional office.
Armendariz’s comments, however, are not just an indication of the immaturity and bad judgment of one high-ranking official at the EPA. They reflect a tyrannical and authoritarian mindset that permeates the agency. For a regional director of the EPA to speak as Armendariz did, stating that he intended to round up a number of respected American business leaders and crucify them, is a shocking violation of the trust that the American people put in government.
It would be interesting to know if Lisa Jackson was aware of Armendariz’s comments before they became widely known. If Ms. Jackson had prior knowledge of the videotaped remarks and decided to suppress them, that in and of itself should be grounds of her dismissal. But regardless of how much she knew and when she knew it, her support for Armendariz as regional EPA director is grounds enough. Even now, after Armendariz has resigned in disgrace, Jackson is expressing appreciation for his work at the agency and “respect” for his decision to resign.
In fact, Armendariz should never have been hired in the first place. Clearly, he was not a suitable candidate if one sought a director to approach oil and gas production in a fair and even-handed manner. That, however, is not what Ms. Jackson or President Obama sought. According to his own web page, Armendariz worked for years as an environmental activist, publishing one op-ed after another in support of regulation, seemingly without concern for the interests of energy companies or for the public which relies on those companies to supply its needs.
“Regulation” is when the government tells people and businesses what they cannot do. “Tyranny” is when the government tells people and businesses what they *must* do.
The purpose of the first is to protect the power of the people. The purpose of the second is to expand the power of the government.
Armendariz , like so many other Administration officials all the way up to the top levels, is a tyrant.
For many years JunkScience has featured articles about Lisa Jackson’s testimony before Congress. From memory I recall last September she testified that regulations Mercury and Air Toxic Standards and Cross-State Air Pollution Rule would reduce particulates from power plants that would be equivalent to a cure for cancer. This would mean the small amount of soot removal would save 527,00o lives annually or one-fourth of all annual U. S deaths. Give the EPA a free hand and no one would die in the U. S.
Another time she said the removal of mercury from power plant emissions would save 19,000 lives per year. Since the most mercury utilities could put into the atmosphere is 50 tons out of more than 8000 tons annually from other sourcds, one could infer maybe 3 million die annually from mercury emissions.
Another report from JunkScience is EPA conducted human experiments using soot called PM2.5 that exceeded by many factors the level EPA called lethal for human exposure. If EPA believed in its reported danger levels of exposure to PM2.5, these experiments could be likened to fatal human experiments conducted by Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele in the early 1940s or possibly the syphillus experiments carried out at ‘Tuskegee from 1930s to 1950s.
All of these accusations against Lisa Jackson are extremely serious and far worse than allegations she believed in terrorizing energy industries to insure servitude for EPA rulings. These allegations show poor science by EPA, utter disregard for welfare and economic considerations for our citizens, and possible perjury before Congress. Lisa Jackson should be fired from the EPA or be forced to resign. In addition, her actions should be reviewed for possible indictment
I cannot disagree. While the accusations and suspicions of bias are serious, the perjury accusation is infinitely worse.
Right now Senator James Inhofe is the only Senator with the will to take on EPA and its overextension of the law. If others had any backbone it might be possible to do the bidding of the American people; get rid of Lisa Bootjackson.
Whitetop,
I agree with you 100%, now if we could only get our house to see the same picture.
I feel the House Republicans are afraid of their own shadow-WHAT A DISGRACE!!!