UPDATE: The Colorado Observer‘s Mark Stricherz reports that Congressman Cory Gardner wants the EPA bureaucrat to testify before Congress on his remarks.

Readers of this site might remember Congressman Gardner’s YouTube moment last year when another EPA bureaucrat testified before Congress. If the “crucify” bureaucrat testifies, we expect it will be a lively and enlightening hearing.
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When people say the Obama administration is killing domestic energy development they aren't being hyperbolic, they're just employing the same language as the administration. A bureaucrat in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was caught on tape recently saying the EPA likes to "crucify" oil and gas companies like the Romans did to their foes.

Check it out here:

Reports the Heritage Foundation's Scribe blog:

A video surfaced on Wednesday showing a regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency comparing his agency’s philosophy with respect to regulation of oil and gas companies to brutal tactics employed by the ancient Roman army to intimidate its foes into submission.

EPA’s “philosophy of enforcement,” said EPA’s Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, is “kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean: they’d go into little Turkish towns somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they’d run into, and they’d crucify them.”

“That town was really easy to manage for the next few years,” Armendariz added.

As Weasel Zippers snarkily noted, "Who needs fossil fuel when there's algae and spinach?

With gas prices still at astronomically high levels, it is probably not helpful to Obama's re-election campaign to have members of his administration talking about their enjoyment of "crucifying" oil and gas production. Add that to Energy Secretary Steven Chu's comments in 2008 that he wants to see gas prices rise to $8/gallon and you have a damning narrative on gas prices that could "crucify" Obama's campaign.  

Speaking of campaign rhetoric, we’d love to hear what Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has to say about the EPA bureaucrat’s shocking honesty. After all, he recently called opponents of Obama’s energy policy “flat earthers” who believe in “fairy tales.”

Do our ears deceive us or did that bureaucrat say the administration “crucifies” those that produce the energy that heats the homes of Americans and powers their cars? Expecting gas prices to drop when you are killing those that produce the gas is the real energy fairy tale.