PACE Blasts EPA Politics in Houston Chronicle

The Houston Chronicle yesterday published an opinion piece from PACE entitled “Time for the EPA to Stop Putting Politics Before Facts.” An excerpt from that piece appears below.

It’s not too often that a government agency compares its own tactics to that of the ancient Romans – especially when it comes to the practice of crucifying several residents of a village in order to gain control over its entire population. Yet that is exactly how Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Al Armendariz described his agency’s strategy of targeting oil and gas producers.

Armendariz, who resigned Monday, was the head of the Dallas-based region 6 offices, which is in charge of EPA oversight in Texas and surrounding states. In a discussion two years ago with colleagues that recently surfaced, Armendariz said, “The Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them. And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

Armendariz’s rhetoric is not only shocking, it clearly validates what the EPA’s critics have been saying all along about the agency’s attitude toward energy companies.

In fact, in 2009 Armendariz told his colleagues to “find people who are not compliant with the law and you hit them as hard as you can and you make examples out of them.”

It’s time for the agency to stop invoking strategies of the Roman Empire and start working on policies that are appropriate for the 21st century.

Click here to read the full piece in the Houston Chronicle.