The regional Environmental Protection Agency executive who told an audience his "philosophy of enforcement" was to "crucify" and "make examples of" energy companies has quit.
It a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson over the weekend, Al Armendariz, the former top environmental official in the South and Southwest Region, said he regretted the comments but boasted of his "integrity and hard work."
"As I have expressed publicly, and to you directly, I regret comments I made several years ago that do not in any way reflect my work as regional administrator," he wrote. "As importantly, they do not represent the work you have overseen as EPA administrator."
He continued, "I take great pride in having built a career based on integrity and hard work. These are the principles that guide me personally as well. While I feel there is much work that remains to be done for the people of this country in the region that I serve, after a great deal of thought and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that my continued service will distract you and the agency from its important work."
It's the inside story on global warming, in "The Greatest Hoax"
His words came in a Texas meeting in 2010.
"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. And then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years," he said.
He later apologized.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., called for an investigation into the agency after highlighting Armendariz's comments last week.
Inhofe's "The Greatest Hoax," describes how Americans are over-regulated and over-taxed.
Inhofe unveils the reasons behind those perpetuating the hoax of global warming, who is benefitting from the general acceptance of the hoax and why the premise statements are blatantly and categorically false.
The author of another new book, "Eco-Tyranny: How the Left's Green Agenda will Dismantle America," says the EPA officials words were telling.
In an exclusive interview with WND, Brian Sussman asked, "Would the EPA official have apologized for his contemptuous crucifixion declaration if he had not been caught on tape? Of course not. His statement is a perfect representation of eco-tyranny."
In his explosive new book of that title, Sussman contends "green authoritarianism" was inevitable from the beginning. He explains that President Richard Nixon, who "wanted to be liked," according to one of his well-known former advisers, created the Environmental Protection Agency as an olive branch to the hard left. As Sussman jokes, "Needless to say, it was not returned."
According to Sussman, the EPA and the legislation that empowered it, notably the Clean Air Act, "[were] flatly unconstitutional." Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives the federal government the power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
But Sussman notes that "somehow this turned into the ability for Congress to regulate the conduct of individual businesses, the output of specific industrial processes, and the makeup of the atmosphere itself. And as we've seen, they can't wait to shut down businesses they don't like."
"Eco-Tyranny" also exposes what Sussman calls the Obama administration's "war" on oil and gas production. He notes that the Obama administration imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, costing an estimated 137,000 jobs and $400 million to the state of Louisiana.
Furthermore, Obama also suspended exploratory drilling in Alaska, with his Department of Interior stonewalling any applications.
According to Fox News, Inhofe says the resignation will make no difference in the investigation he wants.
"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," he said in the report.
See the Armendariz rant:
The result, Sussman charges, "is a deliberate effort to keep our country dependent on oil imports from the hostile nations of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). If our president would simply unleash American industry, OPEC would soil their tunics."
Instead, Sussman states: "As I explain in 'Eco-Tyranny,' the green agenda is sworn to punish any individual, business or corporation who attempts to garner a profit through the sale of a natural resource. The oil and natural gas industry provides Americans with a product vital to the pursuit of happiness, presents a valuable investment for its shareholders and directly employs 3.3 million people in the U.S. alone. The EPA has become an official government-sponsored Gestapo operation."
Special offers:
Eco-Tyranny: How the Left's Green Agenda will Dismantle America
Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam