Two months after resigning his post at the Environmental Protection Agency, Al Armendariz, infamous for his pledge to “crucify” oil and gas companies as a regulatory tool, has taken a job at the Sierra Club environmental lobby.
Mr. Armendariz quit his post as EPA’s Region 6 administrator on April 30 amid growing furor over his doctrine of enforcement against the fossil fuels sector. He was caught on video at a 2010 town hall meeting in Texas bragging about how the agency planned to pick several oil and gas companies and publicly “crucify” them in order to set an example for the rest of the industry.
Congressional Republicans, led by Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said the statement was a clear indication of the Obama administration’s hostility toward oil, coal and natural gas.
The administration denies that, but Mr. Armendariz is now joining an organization in open opposition to those fuels. He’ll take a post with the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal Campaign,” designed to move states and the nation as a whole away from coal and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
“As a father and a scientist, I know how important it is to transition to cleaner sources of energy that don’t pollute the air that our children breathe, and I’m proud to be working on a campaign with a proven track record for success,” Mr. Armendariz said in a statement Friday.
