EPA official resigns over 'crucify' comment

The regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency in Texas and several other southwestern states, Al Armendariz, has resigned following a controversy over his videotaped comments in 2010 that the EPA should "crucify" oil and gas companies that violated environmental laws, the Dallas Morning News reported.

"This was not something that was asked of me by Administrator [Lisa] Jackson or the White House," Armendariz said in a letter he sent to EPA headquarters on Sunday.  "It is a decision I made myself. I had become too much of a distraction, and no one person is more important than the incredible work being done by the rest of the team at EPA."