Texans React to Resignation of EPA's Armendariz
Days after a 2010 video surfaced in which EPA official Al Armendariz described a push to "crucify" major violators in the oil and gas business, he has resigned, causing regret among environmentalists and relief in the oil and gas industry.
Armendariz served as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 6, which is based in Dallas. His resignation, confirmed to The Texas Tribune by the EPA, comes less than a week after the video clip surfaced. In the clip, he compared the way Romans tamed Turkish towns to the way the EPA could carry out enforcement actions.
"While ...
Comments (8)
Luis Vela Guevara via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Very disappointed that Dr. Armendariz decided to resign. I guess the right-wing nut jobs got their trophy.
think
With all the outrageous comments coming out of Perry, Bush , Limbaugh, etc you would have figured those guys would have resigned.
Armendariz should NOT have RESIGNED. How could he just cave in to the pressure. Republicans have stacked agencies with the worst irresponsible aggressive pro pollutor's who have no qualms with destroying people for profits and they don't so much as bat an eye.
If his comments had come out of the republican side (which it does frequently) those comments would have been met with cheers.
gypsy314 ne
Good bye to Obama's puppet.
Anyone but democrats for office!
Albert Marten
Dr. Armendariz, regretfully, made a public statement of commitment to protecting people from the depredations of the oil and gas industry that they pounced on. The tactic is one everyone in a government position should be familiar with, and Dr. Armendariz had a significant lapse in judgement. The media loves these kinds of stories because it is conflict that they can use to induce people to watch or read and therefore the media sells more advertising.
Today's corporate culture eliminates genuine ethical behavior. If regulations, designed to protect humans from pollution, reduce the bottom line for shareholders, corporate ethics demand opposition to those regulations, making the ethics of corporations immoral. Morality and the ethics based on them should protect people not injure them. Unfortunately, in Texas we live in a make your money now and to hell with the future mentality that should have disappeared along with raw sewage and poisonous chemicals in our waterways. And, of course, if I have 300 acres in Eagle Ford and my family is struggling, it's difficult to side with gummint regulators if I stand to make a fortune on my oil/gas lease. It IS possible to make a ton of money and protect people from poison. It's just that more money can be made without protecting people. Hey, if I make enough money I can move to the Dominion and live behind a gate and have my drinking water delivered to my kitchen.
D Miller
L Jackson's days on the job are numbered too...
David Spratt
The most famous " Flaming Sink " incident which cost Ranger a lot of money , time, and headache was ultimately proven false. Where are all the proven well contamination's? All the Chicken Little's run around crying foul and claiming the end is near ,,, but there is no proof. Good riddance,,, he should get in his coal powered electric car and ride off into the sunset and take up the cause on behalf of the bird population and crusade against the bird blenders so popular with this administration.
Christine Lund
Why should anyone resign for stating the truth? I am for (theoretically) crucifying anyone who knowingly pollutes our world for profit. I can't say whether all the oil tycoons are truly unaware or if some of them are too ignorant to care, we need people like this to fight the fight against their limitless money. Everytime gas goes up one penny a gallon, they get richer and richer and we get poorer and poorer. I now spend more on gas than on food. I'm thinking of getting a motorcycle because my Ford Focus gulps gas. The only way to fight this is education and yet and look, see, how they have amassed global fortunes and they cry foul when we want to take subsidies away that they never should have gotten in the first place.
Governor Perry is making sure our children have no education so he can have all the minimum wage workers necessary to provide the wealthy with cheap help. The great state of Texas has been bought and paid for.
heath mcmurray
There needs to be a senate investigation on what happened in the epa between 2005 and 2008 when ASARCO and the prior administration sent a strong message to industry that even Asarco could go through a bankruptcy without being held responsible for any liability at all from nearly a decade of what the federal doj and epa had admitted was illegal activity. . . this 'witch hunt' over armendariz's comments two years ago seems strangely timed. Is this witchhunt by the republicans -- trying to make examples of Ms Jackson and other EPA people in light of this terrible remark by one administrator --- is this witch hunt any different than what they accuse the EPA of doing ---- making punitive examples to make the rest fall in line?