Writing for The Heritage Foundation’s blog, Lachlan Markay reports, “Explosive video of a top official at the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his enforcement philosophy against oil and gas companies to Roman crucifixions was removed on Thursday by the environmental activist who had uploaded it. ‘This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by David McFatridge,’ reads a message on the video’s YouTube page. . . . The YouTube video’s owner appears to be the same David McFatridge listed as an activist for the radical environmental group the Sierra Club. McFatridge has been active in a number of anti-hydraulic fracturing campaigns. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who spotlighted the video on Wednesday in a speech on the Senate floor, drew connections from Armendariz’s comments to the EPA’s campaign against hydraulic fracturing, and branded the agency’s efforts a ‘war on fossil fuels.’”

In an editorial today, The Wall Street Journal blasts the EPA for these comments: “It’s no secret that the bosses at the Environmental Protection Agency hate fossil fuels. But few are as candid as Al Armendariz, the regional administrator who says the agency’s ‘general philosophy’ is to ‘crucify’ oil and gas producers. That’s how EPA chief Lisa Jackson’s point man for Texas, Oklahoma and other south-central states put it in 2010 lecture. Mr. Armendariz explains that his staff’s ‘philosophy of enforcement’ is ‘like how 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.’ The point is to ‘make examples’ of alleged lawbreakers. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe released video of the speech on Wednesday as part of his investigation into the EPA’s now-discredited claims of water contamination due to hydraulic fracturing, including in Parker County, Texas. In that case Mr. Armendariz’s shop targeted Range Resources, a driller that has since been exonerated, and his remarks about executions raise questions not only about his own work but the EPA’s larger impartiality and judgment.”

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