PARIS — For die-hard global warming militants, there are few villains in the rogue’s gallery of “deniers” more hated than U.S. Senator James Inhofe (shown). As chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, a committee he has served on since coming to the Senate in 1994, the Oklahoma Republican has long been recognized as their leading nemesis in Congress.
At past UN climate change summits, Senator Inhofe has appeared in person as a “One-Man Truth Squad” to challenge the bogus “consensus” that “the science is settled,” and to warn of the horrendous economic, social, and environmental consequences that a global climate treaty would inflict on the world. In the lead-up to the current Paris summit, there was much speculation in the media as to whether or not he would show up to “crash” the UN party. As it turns out, Sen. Inhofe did show up in Paris, but not in person; instead he sent a video message, which was played at the alternative “Climate Realism” conference being held in Paris by the Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).
In his 8-minute video address, Senator Inhofe made a number of key points about both the politics and the science of global warming, among which are that President Obama has announced commitments that “the American people neither [want] nor can afford,” and that, Inhofe says, Congress is not going to let happen.
Inhofe noted that it is not only Republicans who oppose Obama’s new EPA-mandated “Clean Power Plan” — a centerpiece of the administration’s global warming scheme — but a bipartisan majority who will stop it. And, he noted further, the unconstitutional EPA mandate also faces lawsuits from dozens of states, as well as labor unions and companies.
Sen. Inhofe reported that one recent analysis shows that the president’s power plan will cost an astounding $292 billion, but “it would only reduce CO2 emissions by less than 0.2 percent; it would reduce global temperatures by less than .01 degree Farenheit; and reduce sea level rise by the thickness of two sheets of paper.”
In addition, Sen. Inhofe noted, under the proposed UN plan, China will continue to increase its emissions and India is calling for $2.5 trillion in climate “reparations” — to be paid for by the developed countries, meaning the United States and EU taxpayers.
As far as he is concerned, Inhofe said this is “not going to happen.” He called the administration’s Paris performance a “climate charade” and made it clear he intended to do everything in his power to see that it is never enacted into law, via legislation, treaty, or executive agreement.
Senator Inhofe cited convincing evidence to show that President Obama is going against the wishes of the American people by continuing his climate crusade. Besides recent opinion polls by the Washington Post, Gallup, and Fox News showing that global warming is last or near-last as a major concern of most voters, the president’s own party has failed to support these radical proposals in the past. On his committee website, Inhofe lists this concise history showing that the American people and Congress have spoken out against the federal government regulating carbon emissions through the following votes:
• July 25, 1997, the Senate passed the Byrd-Hagel resolution unanimously with a vote of 95-0 which stated that it was not the sense of the Senate that the United States should be a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol.
• Oct. 30, 2003, the Senate defeated S. 139, an effort to cap carbon emissions at the 2000 level, by a vote of 55 to 43.
• June 22, 2005, the Senate once again defeated S. 1151, another attempt to impose mandatory caps on carbon, by a vote of 46-38.
• June 6, 2008, the Senate defeated S. 3036, to cap carbon emissions at 63 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, by a vote of 48-36.
• In 2009, the Waxman-Markey Clean Energy and Security Act, which would have established a variant of an emissions trading plan, was never brought up for a vote under a Democrat-controlled Congress.
During his long career in the Senate, Sen. Inhofe has found himself on both the Majority and the Minority sides of the committee, as control of the Senate has shifted back and forth between Democrats and Republicans. But through it all, he has remained the most outspoken and stalwart opponent of the political agenda that would turn the alleged threat of global warming into an excuse for implementing a massive global regime of taxation and regulation. He chaired the committee during 2003-2007, and when the GOP retook the Senate in last year’s elections, he again took over as chair. Over the years, Inhofe has been responsible for publication of many important committee reports on all aspects of the science, economics, and politics of anthropogenic (human caused) global warming, or AGW.
When he resumed leadership of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee last year, leftwing bloggers and Hollywood AGW activists went wild. As The New American reported:
Singer/actress Barbra Streisand says the thought of Senator James Inhofe chairing an important Senate committee dealing with the environment and climate is “frightening.” “God help us! This man is going to head the Committee on the Environment in the U.S. Senate. Like giving a fox the keys to the chicken coop,” Streisand said in a December 2 tweet.
“This would be hilarious if it weren’t so frightening. I thank Sen Inhofe for singling me out as a voice against the perils of climate change,” she said in another tweet.
However, while the celebrity radicals and jet-set billionaires of the AGW alarmist lobby hiss and jeer at Senator Inhofe, the hardworking middle-class voters who pay the taxes (and are struggling to pay their families’ basic bills) have good reason to cheer him.
Photo of Senator James Inhofe: AP Images
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