LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Armendariz also says that the EPA should behave as ancient Roman soldiers, who crucified random citizens in areas they conquered to ensure obedience.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor to draw attention to a video of Armendariz. According to Inhofe, Armendariz made a series of bold statements in the video that was shot in 2012.

"I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I'll go ahead and tell you what I said," Armendariz has been quoted as saying.

"It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They'd go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they'd find the first five guys they saw and they'd crucify them.

"Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years."

"It's a deterrent factor," Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA is following the Romans' philosophy for demoralizing conquered villages.

Armendariz then touted the EPA's "philosophy," Inhofe's office noted in advance of today's Senate speech.

"Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

"In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best - and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link."

Sen. Inhofe also said the video provides Americans with "a glimpse of the Obama administration's true agenda."

That agenda, Inhofe said, is to "incite fear" in the public with unsubstantiated claims and "intimidate" oil and gas companies with threats of unjustified fines and penalties - then, quietly backtrack once the public's perception has been firmly jaded against oil and natural gas.

© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.