Ex-EPA Official Who'd 'Crucify' CO2 Polluters Joins Sierra Club

Lump coal for export to England from Indonesia. The Sierra Club is campaigning to move US electrical generation away from coal. Photographer: Gillianne Tedder via Bloomberg

Al Armendariz, who resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency after comments surfaced in which he joked he wanted to crucify corporate polluters, has a new job with the Sierra Club.

The San Francisco-based environmental group said today Armendariz will be a senior campaign representative in Austin, Texas, for its “Beyond Coal” campaign.

The effort seeks to push U.S. electrical generation away from coal, a major contributor to the industrial carbon dioxide emissions that are driving climate change, and toward cleaner sources of power.

“This is an exciting day for clean energy and public health supporters in Texas,” said Bruce Nilles, Senior Campaign Director for Beyond Coal campaign, in an e mailed statement.

Nilles said Armendariz has “worked closely” with the group previously as an environmental scientist and professor.

In the videotaped remarks from a meeting in Dish, Texas, Armendariz told staff members enforcing environmental laws to follow the example of the Romans, who would subdue Turkish towns by crucifying the first five people they ran across.

“And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years,” he said.

Armendariz, who apologized for the comments, said he tried to use the same approach to get companies to obey environmental laws.

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