EPA is Like Fire

Current Event

According to FoxNews/AP; April 30, 2012

Top EPA official resigns after ‘crucify’ comment

A top EPA official has resigned after coming under scrutiny for 2010 remarks in which he compared the agency’s enforcement strategy to Roman crucifixion.

Al Armendariz, the top environmental official in the oil-rich South and Southwest region, resigned in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Sunday, saying he did not want to be a distraction for the agency. The resignation is effective Monday.

Armendariz made the original remarks at a local Texas government meeting in 2010. He relayed to the audience what he described as a “crude” analogy he once told his staff about his “philosophy of enforcement.”

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean,” he said. “They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they’d crucify them.

“And then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years,” he said.

Armendariz went on to say that “you make examples out of people who are, in this case, not complying with the law … and you hit them as hard as you can” — to act as a “deterrent” to others.

Several disputed contamination cases in Texas have helped stoke environmental concerns over fracking.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) said Monday that the resignation would not stop the ongoing investigation into EPA policies.

“We will continue our investigation into the situations surrounding EPA’s apparent crucifixion victims: the American people deserve to know why, in at least three separate cases, EPA tarnished the reputation of companies by accusing them of water contamination; then when the results of their study did not turn out the way they hoped, and they had no definitive evidence to make that link, they quietly walked back their accusations. We will get to the bottom of this — and we will continue looking into EPA’s actions on hydraulic fracturing beyond these three cases as well,” he said in a statement.

VS

The Administration vs. The private economy and the Constitution

Founding Document

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” (George Washington)

The US Constitution: Tenth amendment

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” (Usually attributed to  Thomas Jefferson.)

We the People:

Note the contrast in how Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Armendariz’s referred to the people.  Armendariz obviously the wants people to fear the government.  The Administration’s mask was off during this exchange.  As author Maya Angelou once said, “If, someone shows you who they are, believe them”.  Whenever we allow the government outside of its Constitutional bounds, we are playing with fire.