Jim Inhofe: “first of all, I will be introducing a bill in a minute called S. 3053, but as a predicate to that, let me talk again…”

“first of all, I will be introducing a bill in a minute called S. 3053, but as a predicate to that, let me talk again about my ongoing investigation of the overreach of the Environmental Protection Agency. Certainly the Washington Post is right-on with their editorial. On May 3, the Washington Post editorial board penned an editorial entitled ``The EPA is earning a reputation for abuse.'' In this editorial, they discussed how former region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz's ``philosophy of enforcement'' has severely hurt the EPA. To refresh your memory, it was a couple of weeks ago at this very podium that I read the quotes I am about to quote again today. While the Washington Post doesn't agree with me all the time, I was pleased to read that they saw that the ``crucify'' policy Mr. Armendariz purported in his visit to Dish, TX, clearly showed that he ``preferred to extract harsh punishments on an arbitrary number of firms to scare others into cooperating.'' Further, the Washington Post editorial board saw this attitude as both unjust and threatening to investors in energy projects. While Armendariz has resigned--he is gone now--his statements have undermined the legitimacy of the EPA's regulatory authorities. We know that the policy of extracting harsh punishment on arbitrary individuals in order to scare others into cooperation was not just an inflated rhetoric. Mr.…”