Friday, April 27, 2012

MAKE AN EXAMPLE?

An EPA official, Al Armendariz, made the following statement at a press conference, specifically referencing the oil and gas industries in America:

"I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff…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.

"And so you make examples out of people who are in this case not compliant with the law. 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, and there is a deterrent effect there. And, companies that are smart see that, they don’t want to play that game, and they decide at that point that it’s time to clean up. And, that won’t happen unless you have somebody out there making examples of people.

"So you go out, you look at an industry, you find people violating the law, you go aggressively after them. And we do have some pretty effective enforcement tools.

"Compliance can get very high, very, very quickly. That’s what these companies respond to is both their public image but also financial pressure. So you put some financial pressure on a company, you get other people in that industry to clean up very quickly."

“So, that’s our general philosophy,” he adds.

In light of recent litigation against oil, gas and coal producers, Mr. Armendariz’s remarks seem to be born out through the administration actions.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Armendariz is incorrect. That is not how Rome imposed its Pax Romana. That is how Temujin and the other Great Kh'ans imposed theirs though.
He knows the limitations of his audience - I'll give him that. The Yankee is far more familiar with the 'Romans' and the 'Turks' and 'crucifixions' than they are of true Machiavellian 'Rule by Fear' methods as exemplified by the mighty Mongols.

Anonymous said...

Why are y’all so upset with the Secret Service partaking of Ladies of the Evening? If I were the Prime Minister of the USA, I would want those who would be responsible for my protection to be fit and agile and be concentrating solely on their duties. I mean nothing slows a man down more, both physically and psychologically, than having to accommodate a pair of heavily-laden testicles while trying to stop a bullet.
Best they keep this particular burden to a minimum.
After all, boys will be boys anyway.

Lone Ranger said...

Liberals are always most revealing when they think no one else is listening. Thus, Obama can freely talk tp a San Fransisco audience about "bitter right-wingers who cling to their guns and religion," and Truther Van Jones can agree with Mao that "political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun."

Lone Ranger said...

Monday, 12:30 eastern. Armendariz resigns. HAH!