James Inhofe

James M. Inhofe (Deceased)

Credentials

BA, Economics, University of Tulsa, 1973.¹ ²

Background

Senator James (Jim) Inhofe was the senior senator from Oklahoma and a member of the Republican Party. He was a ranking majority member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.³ ⁴ Inhofe resign e d on January 3, 2023. ⁵ He passed away on July 9, 2024.⁶

According to OpenSecrets.org, Inhofe received almost $2 million in political contributions from the coal and oil industry. Koch Industries was Inhofe’s top contributor, having contributed at least $105,150 since 1989. Murray Energy was the second-largest, at over $90,000.⁷

In 2003, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported Inhofe had scored zero with the League of Conservation Voters since 1997 and “was the only senator to oppose Everglades restoration, and once compared the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo.”⁸

Inhofe made regular speeches rejecting mainstream climate science, and consistently voted in favor of big oil companies on oil-related bills.⁹

Stance on Climate Change

December 8, 2016

In his speech at the “At the Crossroads III: Energy and Climate Policy Summit,” put on by the Heritage Foundation and Texas Public Policy Foundation, Inhofe declared:¹⁰

“One of the smartest things the other side did is when they got rid of, they quit talking about, global warming and started talking about climate change. Don’t get caught in that trap. I’ve had to say this on the senate floor many times: That climate is changing. I mean, look at archaeologically, spiritually, scientifically. Climate always changes. Don’t put yourself in a category where they disqualify you for that reason.”

March 31, 2015

“Who is the real embarrassment here?

“The debate on man-driven climate change is not over. Alarmists are distracting Americans from the pain the Obama administration’s regulations will inflict on our economy while failing to make a significant impact on climate change.

“Let’s not forget the words of MIT atmospheric physicist Richard Lindzen, who said carbon regulation is a bureaucrat’s dream because ‘if you control carbon, you control life’,” Inhofe wrote at USA Today.¹¹

2003

Inhofe said in a speech on the Senate floor in 2003: “Wake up, America. With all the hysteria, all the fear, all the phony science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? I believe it is.”¹²

“I have offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax. That conclusion is supported by the painstaking work of the nation’s top climate scientists.”¹³

The “scientists” Inhofe mentioned included: Fred Singer, Richard Lindzen, David Wojick, Roy Spencer, John Christy, Paul Reiter, David Legates, Willie Soon, Sallie Baliunas, Frederick Sietz, as well as the signatories of both the Heidelberg Appeal and the Oregon Petition.¹⁴

Key Quotes

February 2018

According to an article in The Western Journal written by Michael Bastasch, Inhofe described Trump’s proposed gas tax as “wishful thinking”:¹⁵

“I know the comments that were made after that meeting and I know who made them,” Inhofe said. “And there was, I have to say, a lot of wishful thinking in his comments.”

“And when the president says, ‘Yes, everything’s on the table,’ and that would include an increase in the gas tax, he didn’t say it in those words, but everything is on the table,” Inhofe said. “And then the interpretation that this person had was ‘Ah, the president now wants to have a gas tax increase.’”

June 1, 2017

In an interview with CBS News, speaking about Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, Inhofe pointed to climate change denier Richard Lindzen as an “authority” on climate science:¹⁶

“Richard Lindzen, who’s MIT, arguably the best authority in these circles, has said that all these things that they’re saying about the temperatures, these things, are not, are not accurate. The science is not real. And I think that the problem is that, you know, the scientists that are out there really concerned about doing the right thing are not being heard.”

December 8, 2016

Inhofe quoted prominent climate change denier Richard Lindzen during his speech at the ”At the Crossroads III: Energy and Climate Policy Summit”:

“I always use my favorite quote of Richard Lindzen, which is that ‘controlling carbon is a bureaucrat’s dream. If you control carbon, you control life.’ Control. That’s what they want.”¹⁷

“Keep in mind: the IPCC is the United Nations power plan. And it’s one that is – that’s where it all started. And It’s really important people understand that.“¹⁸

“Things came out like the 97% consensus, which is a joke and has been pretty much disproven.“¹⁹

“[The United Nations] have been behind the global warming movement since the 1970s. The 1970s. Stop and think about that.”²⁰

Speaking on the issue of climate change in the school system: “I can assure you, that’s one thing that, hand-in-hand, Scott Pruitt and I are going to try to do something to save our next generation.”²¹

September 1, 2016

Inhofe spoke against President Obama joining the UN‘s global warming treaty:²²

“History already shows that this Paris Agreement will fail. This latest announcement is the president attempting to once again give the international community the appearance that he can go around Congress in order to achieve his unpopular and widely rejected climate agenda for his legacy.”

July, 2016

Inhofe appeared on “The Eric Metaxas Show” where he warned that “our kids are being brainwashed” in school, RightWingWatch reported:

“My own granddaughter came home one day and said … ‘Popi, why is it you don’t understand global warming?’ I did some checking, and Eric, the stuff that they teach our kids nowadays, they are brainwash — you have to un-brainwash them when they get out,” Inhofe said in the audio.²³

April 2016

“[C]limate change policies come at a high economic cost while having no actual impact on the climate change,” Inhofe wrote at The Daily Signal.²⁴

February 2016

James Inhofe blamed the Flint water crisis on President Obama’s “global warming agenda”:²⁵

“As a result of misplaced priorities of President Obama, who has consistently failed to partner with the states to address our nation’s real needs, stories are emerging in East Los Angeles, Baltimore, communities across Ohio, and elsewhere about lead pipes and other infrastructure problems that put the health of our citizens at risk. In my leadership role on the EPW Committee, I have watched the Obama administration prioritize more than $120 billion for the president’s global warming agenda at the expense of real investment in critical infrastructure.”

August 2013

Inhofe appeared on Mike Huckabee’s Radio Show:

“You have to have CO2. It’s a form of fertilizer to grow things. It’s actually sought after in many cases,” Inhofe said.²⁶

Inhofe added some of his beliefs on climate change. HuffPost reported a few examples of Inhofe’s “bad science on global warming”:

“We go through these 30 year cycles.”²⁷

“We went into a leveling-out period about eight years ago.”²⁸

“You have to have CO2. It’s a form of fertilizer to grow things. It’s actually sought after in many cases.”²⁹

March 2012

In a radio interview with Voice of Christian Youth America, Inhofe said his belief that global warming is a hoax was inspired by the bible:³⁰

“Genesis 8:22 that I use [in The Greatest Hoax] is that as long as the Earth remains there will be springtime, harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night. My point is, God’s still up there, and the arrogance of people who think that we, human beings, would be able to change what he is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.”

February 2011

”[…] for the alarmists, global warming has nothing to do with science or scientific inquiry. Science is not about the inquiry to discover truth, but a mask to achieve an ideological agenda. For some, this issue has become a secular religion, pure and simple.”³¹

July 2010

On the subject of environmental groups: “To me it seems that it is more important to the leadership of these groups to turn their once laudable movement into a political machine by sending out their partisan snake-oil salesmen and misleading the American public regarding their purely politically partisan agenda under the guise of environmental protection.³²

“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.”³³

September 2008

DeSmog reported that Inhofe cited the Farmer’s Almanac as his “research” source for a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting:³⁴ ³⁵

“A few of the bills also address global warming. I would like to point out that according to the new Farmers’ Almanac released this week and its time-honored, complex calculations that it uses to predict weather, they predict we will be in for a colder than normal winter. In addition, they suggest that based on a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate that we will be in for a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.”

November 2007

“The Kyoto Protocol has no environmental benefits; natural variability, not fossil fuel emissions, is the overwhelming factor influencing climate change; satellite data, confirmed by NOAA balloon measurements, confirms that no meaningful warming has occurred over the last century; and climate models predicting dramatic temperature increases over the next 100 years are flawed and highly imperfect.”³⁶

“Thus far no one has seriously demonstrated any scientific proof that increased global temperatures would lead to the catastrophes predicted by alarmists. In fact, it appears that just the opposite is true: that increases in global temperatures may have a beneficial effect on how we live our lives.”³⁷

June 7, 2007

In his opening statement to “An Examination of the Views of Religious Organizations Regarding Global Warming,” Inhofe said:³⁸

“We should respect creation and be wise stewards, but we must be careful not to fall into the trap of secular environmentalists who believe that man is an afterthought on this Earth who is principally a polluter.

Rather, we are made in God’s image and should use the resources God has given us.”

Key Actions

December 12, 2022

After James Inhofe’s early retirement from the U.S. Senate in February 2022, a report by E&E News examined the large network of his former staffers, many of whom occupy influential positions in the energy industry and climate denial industry.³⁹

Inhofe’s network includes:

Andrew Wheeler– Former EPA administrator and senior adviser to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R)
Mike Catanzaro – President at CGCN Group
Marty Hall – Adviser at ClearPath, senior policy fellow at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum
Leacy Burke – Government relations manager at Milliken & Co.
Alex Hergott – President at the Permitting Institute
Marc Morano – Executive director of Climate Depot
Luke Holland – Former candidate for U.S. Senate
Susan Bodine – Partner at Earth & Water Law
Mandy Gunasekara – Principal at Section VII Strategies, candidate for Mississippi Public Service Commission
Devin Barrett – Vice president at Cassidy & Associates
David Holt – Mayor of Oklahoma City
Donelle Harder – Senior vice president at Pinkston
Matt Dempsey – Senior managing director at FTI Consulting
Byron Brown – Senior counsel at Crowell & Moring
Daisy Gordon – Federal government affairs adviser at FirstEnergy Corp.
Ryan Thompson – Senior adviser at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Frank Fannon – Managing director at Fannon Global Advisers
Brittany Bolen – Senior policy adviser at Sidley Austin
Kristina Baum – Senior vice president at Vision360 Partners
Louis Renjel – Senior vice president for external affairs at Duke Energy Corp.
Hilary Moffett – Vice president at Fortescue Future Industries
Anthony Lazarski – Principal at Cornerstone Government Affairs
George Sugiyama – Principal at Sugiyama Group
Dimitri Karakitsos – Partner at Holland & Knight
Anna Karakitsos – Principal at Bracewell
Mike Ference – Partner at S-3 Group
Annie Caputo – Commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
George David Banks – Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum
Steve Higley – Director of U.S. government affairs at Cenovus Energy
Ryan Jackson – Senior vice president of government and political affairs at the National Mining Association

March 31, 2020

Ihofe was included in a list by Rolling Stone in an article titled “Climate Enemies: The Men Who Sold the World.” According to the magazine, “bad actors are not only failing to address the crisis, they’re actively exacerbating it” and the list includes “America’s worst offenders, from fossil-fuel industry magnates, to investment gurus, to the president himself.”⁴⁰

“EPA head Andrew Wheeler used to work in Inhofe’s office, as did the agency’s chief of staff, Mandy Gunasekara, who encouraged Trump to leave the Paris Agreement. ‘It gives me comfort,’ Inhofe told The Washington Post of his former staffers who are now influencing Trump’s environmental policy,” the article notes. “What’s fueling Inhofe’s climate denial? In 2012, he cited the Book of Genesis, arguing that humans aren’t ‘able to change what [God] is doing in the climate.’ It could also be that he’s received more than $2 million in donations from fossil-fuel interests over the course of his congressional career, with his biggest donors being Koch Industries and Murray Energy.”

August 13, 2019

Inhofe appeared in a Nature Communications article that ranked 386 “climate change contrarians” based on media visibility. The article also ranked bona fide climate scientists and found that deniers had nearly 50% more visibility in the media than mainstream scientists.⁴¹

Inhofe was ranked #2 among other noted deniers, including Marc Morano (#1), Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Judith Curry, Freeman Dyson, Steven Hayward, Ross McKitrick, John Hinderaker, and Roy Spencer.⁴²

May 1, 2019

Inhofe attended a briefing on Capitol Hill put on by the CO2 Coalition to hear findings from their report titled “What Rising CO2 Means for Global Food Security.”⁴³

Craig Idso and Caleb Rossiter were the featured presenters, and other lawmakers in attendance included Sens. Roger Wicker (R–Miss.), Maria Cantwell (D–Wash.) and Rep. Gary Palmer (R–Ala.).⁴⁴

The Coalition’s report described carbon dioxide as “a non-polluting, non-toxic gas” and “a powerful plant food.”⁴⁵

The briefing suggested increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 would result in higher crop yields:

“The CO2 added to the air has already ‘greened’ the planet: since 1900, it has increased crop production on the order of 15 to 30 percent, and satellite imagery shows that deserts are even shrinking in places as new plants encroach on their edges. […] this effect will only improve as carbon dioxide continues to rise from four one-hundredths of one percent of the atmosphere today to, perhaps, six one-hundredths of one percent in 50 years.”⁴⁶

January 30, 2018

EcoWatch reported that an interchange between Inhofe and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt during a oversight hearing provided “a window into how ExxonMobil’s undue influence continues to block climate action.”⁴⁷

During the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing, Sen. Cory Booker cited the threat of flooding due to climate change for three dozen Superfund sites in his state and asked Pruitt if he was “taking into account the environmental burdens disproportionately impacting communities of color, indigenous communities and low-income communities.”⁴⁸

Inhofe contradicted Booker, citing testimony by Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, who has claimed that environmental protections are what harm low-income communities rather than climate change.⁴⁹

“I wanted to just remind you,” Inhofe told the committee, “that we had a guy I remember so well, Harry Alford. He was the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. He provided some of the most powerful testimony that I have ever heard when it comes to the effects of the Clean Power Plan and some of the other regulations … on black and Hispanic poverty, including job losses and increased energy costs.⁵⁰

“[Alford] was very emphatic as to who was paying the price on these, and I think sometimes that the previous administration forgot that there are already people out there who are paying all they can pay just to try to eat and keep their house warm.”⁵¹

EcoWatch concluded that the source for Inhofe’s assertion was an “A discredited, ExxonMobil-funded study by an Exxon-funded advocacy group that was based on discredited studies by other ExxonMobil-funded organizations.”⁵²

NBCC has also been unapologetic about accepting fossil fuel money, declaring that “it is only natural” on their website.⁵³

November 30, 2017

Inhofe spoke at the “At the Crossroads IV: Energy & Climate Policy Summit” co-hosted by The Heritage Foundation and Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).⁵⁴

“The bottom line is, we’ve won. We’ve actually won. You don’t hear that because the national media doesn’t like the idea,” Inhofe said to the audience, pointing to changes in polls from 2002 when global warming was the number one issue in America, to now as number fifteen. “The people have caught on. They know that the science is not definite, hasn’t been decided yet.”⁵⁵

In the Q&A period, answering a question on what actions might need to be pursued to handle extreme weather, Inhofe said “I’m not sure that we really need anything other than we have today.”

“We all know climate always changes. But it changes and is more severe in some areas. And all I can say is I don’t see that our effort right now is going to change from what we’re doing trying to provide the help that we can provide,” Inhofe said.

Another audience member asked Inhofe how, once opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling, he would prevent it being reversed. Inhofe responded:

“It’s not going to be reversed. And by the way, are you aware that with all these ads that you’re seeing on TV right now, talking about this beautiful area, I’ve been up there. It’s not that area. But 78% of the people who live there want it. I mean, in our infinite wisdom in Washington we’re telling them what they do and what they don’t want. Let them do their own thing.

[…] We’re convinced once we get this done it will be so overwhelming that I can’t think of any administration going to come along and undo it. In fact, even during the Obama Administration we only missed that by one vote. So that’s not going to happen.”

November 9, 2017

Inhofe gave a pre-recorded video address to the Heartland Institute’s “America First Energy Conference” at the Marriott Hotel in Houston, Texas.⁵⁶

The event description read as follows:⁵⁷

“At the America First Energy Conference, we plan to examine—one year and one day after Trump’s shocking Election Day victory—the following:

“Where does Trump’s America First Energy Plan stand?

“How much progress has been made in implementing it, and what remains to be done?

“What scientific and economic evidence is there that the plan is putting the nation on the right path for economic growth, environmental protection, or both?”

As reported at the Houston Chronicle, speakers notably included two Trump Administration officials: Richard W. Westerdale II of the State Department and Vincent DeVito of the Department of Interior. David Bernhardt, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, was also formerly listed as a Heartland conference speaker, but apparently withdrew.⁵⁸

Scott Pruitt also addressed the conference in a recorded video, personally thanking Heartland for “what you’re doing to advance energy” and “for what you’re doing to advance natural resources.⁵⁹

The Climate Investigations Center put up a parody of the America First Energy conference website, complete with profiles on the individual speakers and highlighting their corporate funding and ties to groups such as the Cooler Heads Coalition (CHC).⁶⁰

October 9, 2017

Former environment secretary Owen Paterson met with Inhofe and Myron Ebell during his tour to the US to promote a “special relationship” post-Brexit. In a tweet following his meeting with Inhofe and Ebell at the CEI, Paterson wrote: “Real opportunities to work more closely with the USA post-Brexit.”⁶¹

Great to meet a true conservative @JimInhofe with Myron Ebell @ceidotorg – Real opportunities to work more closely with the USA post-Brexit. pic.twitter.com/VbpEGyxINN

— Owen Paterson MP (@OwenPaterson) October 9, 2017

May 25, 2017

Inhofe is a signatory to a letter to President Trump, encouraging him to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.⁶²

“[W]e applaud you for your ongoing efforts to reduce overregulation in America,” the letter concludes. “To continue on this path, we urge you to make a clean exit from the Paris Agreement so that your Administration can follow through on its commitment to rescind the Clean Power Plan.”

Signatories included the following United States Senators:⁶³

James M. Inhofe
John Barrasso
Mitch McConnell
John Cornyn
Roy Blunt
Roger Wicker
Michael B. Enzi
Michael D. Crapo
Jim Risch
Thad Cochran

March 23, 2017

While James Inhofe was unable to attend the Heartland Institute‘s 12th ”International Conference on Climate Change” (ICCC 12), he did provide a pre-recorded message.⁶⁴

Addressing the crowd in his conclusion, Inhofe said the Heartland Institute was doing the “Lord’s work”:

“I look forward to working with President Trump […] to restore credibility and balance in the context of environmental policies.

But I’ll say to you, Heartland, the Liberal extremists are not going to give up. Obama has built a culture of radical alarmists and they’ll be back.

You and I and the American people have won a great victory, but the war goes on. Stay vigilant. You’re doing the Lord’s work.”

March 16, 2017

Approximately eight months after commenting that our children were being “brainwashed” into believing in human-caused climate change in schools, DeSmog noted that he doubled down on his statements while speaking to CNN‘s New Day. Inhofe said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was in the business of “brainwashing our kids” by releasing “propaganda” about climate change and the role that human beings are playing in the destruction of the planet.⁶⁵

Republican Senator @JimInhofe accuses the EPA of “brainwashing our kids” https://t.co/s5hq5fTJ5O

— New Day (@NewDay) March 16, 2017

Inhofe spoke on the program regarding the impending budget cuts for the EPA. As reported by The Hill, Inhofe said:⁶⁶

“We want to deliver the services. We ought to make things clean […] But we ought to take all this stuff that comes out of the EPA that’s brainwashing our kids, that is propaganda, things that aren’t true, allegations.”

December 8, 2016

Jim Inhofe was a speaker at the “At the Crossroads III Energy and Climate Summit,” an event co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). The event was billed as “the premier energy-and-climate policy event in America,” and attracted a range of prominent climate change deniers as well as a range of names connected to Donald Trump and his transition team.⁶⁷

Inhofe notes in his keynote that “All of my heroes from the old days” were on the program, pointing to prominent climate change deniers David Legates, and Roy Spencer. Richard Lindzen and Willie Soon were also on the program. “In fact, all but one of these have been a witness in the committee I chair,” Inhofe added. “You’ve got them all in one room.”

Doug Domenech, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s “Fueling Freedom” project, wrote about the proceedings at The Hill. Domenech outlined the common climate change denial message shared among the speakers: “Is climate change real? Yes, it has happened in the past and will happen in the future. Is man making an impact on the climate? Perhaps but in very small ways. But the overarching consensus remains the climate change we are experiencing is by no means catastrophic.” The full video is now listed as “private” on YouTube.⁶⁸

Some notable quotes below:

“All of my heroes are on the program.” [1:40]

“One of the smartest things the other side did is when they got rid of, they quit talking about, global warming and started talking about climate change. Don’t get caught in that trap. I’ve had to say this on the senate floor many times: That climate is changing. I mean, look at archaeologically, spiritually, scientifically. Climate always changes. Don’t put yourself in a category where they disqualify you for that reason.” [2:48]

“You may have forgotten about the fact that when this administration took office, our debt was 10.6 trillion dollars. Today it’s 20 trillion dollars. It’s doubled in the last 8 years.“ [4:00]

On rebuilding the military: “I’ve been kind of advising [Trump …] on the things that are of the military in nature. And we’ve got to do it.” [4:26]

“I actually like Barbara Boxer.” [6:01]

“The first person that I saw when I came in was Richard Lindzen down here [points to crowd]. He’s been my hero for a long time. […] Come back at three thirty and you’ve got all of my heroes from the old days back there: Spencer–Dr. Spencer–David Legates. In fact, all but one of these have been a witness in the committee I chair. You’ve got them all in one room.” [6:52]

“I was the bad guy back in the turn of the century. I mean, I was. Because after we studied this thing, I assumed like everybody else, way back when everybody was talking about global warming and all that, I assumed that that was probably right. Until I found out what it was going to cost. […] . The cost range is between 300 and 400 billion dollars a year. Now, if we were to give in to that, that would be the largest tax increase in the history of America. And so I started looking at it at that time. And I started talking to some of these scientists that you’re going to be seeing tonight, and I realized—and that’s when I used the nasty word ‘hoax’.” [7:32]

“The first thing that came up was the McCain-Lieberman bill. Remember that? That was 2003. Then again in 2005. And each time it’s come for a vote in the United States Senate, they have lost. And so our trend lines are good. We’re winning this thing. Very clearly.” [8:24]

“I always use my favourite quote of Richard Lindzen, which is that ‘controlling carbon is a bureaucrat’s dream. If you control carbon, you control life.’ Control. That’s what they want.” [8:41]

“Keep in mind: the IPCC is the United Nations power plan. And it’s one that is – that’s where it all started. And It’s really important people understand that.“ [10:24]

“Things came out like the 97% consensus, which is a joke and has been pretty much disproven.“ [11:29]

“[The United Nations] have been behind the global warming movement since the 1970s. The 1970s. Stop and think about that.” [11:43]

Speaking on the issue of climate change in the school system: “I can assure you, that’s one thing that, hand-in-hand, Scott Pruitt and I are going to try to do something to save our next generation.” [28:26]

Speakers included:

September 20, 2016

Senator Inhofe released a majority committee report on the EPA and Army Corps, contending they are overreaching their authority under the Clean Water Act with their changes to the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) definition.⁶⁹ ⁷⁰

According to the EPA, the rule will ensure “waters protected under the Clean Water Act are more precisely defined and predictably determined, making permitting less costly, easier, and faster for businesses and industry.” The rule is grounded in law and the latest science, and is shaped by public input.“⁷¹

“For the water in the rivers and lakes in our communities that flow to our drinking water to be clean, the streams and wetlands that feed them need to be clean too,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “Protecting our water sources is a critical component of adapting to climate change impacts like drought, sea level rise, stronger storms, and warmer temperatures – which is why EPA and the Army have finalized the Clean Water Rule to protect these important waters, so we can strengthen our economy and provide certainty to American businesses.”⁷²

September 1, 2016

Inhofe spoke against President Obama joining the UN‘s global warming treaty.⁷³ Inhofe’s full statement, published at the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, reproduced below:⁷⁴

“History already shows that this Paris Agreement will fail. Half of the countries that were legally bound to the Kyoto Protocol treaty failed to adhere to their pledges, and the host country of Japan even increased their carbon emissions. Now we find ourselves celebrating an agreement where the world’s largest carbon emitter, China, is permitted to increase their emissions until 2025 and to continue bringing a coal-fired power plant online every 10 days. We even turn a blind eye to the fact that China lied about its carbon emissions when it first came to the table with its pledge last year. It’s no wonder Americans will never support this deal, especially when our president promises unrealistic and economically harmful emission reductions of up to 28 percent that will send more jobs overseas and reduce our global competitiveness in the marketplace. This latest announcement is the president attempting to once again give the international community the appearance that he can go around Congress in order to achieve his unpopular and widely rejected climate agenda for his legacy. The Senate does not support the Paris Agreement, which is why his administration prefers to not call it a treaty, and the centerpiece of the president’s emission reduction commitments, the Clean Power Plan, is on shaky legal ground, which the United States Supreme Court recently affirmed. Furthermore, environmental groups and industry agree that the U.S. commitments made under the Paris Agreement cannot be met with regulations and would require legislation from Congress that will never pass.”

July 27, 2016

James Inhofe went on conservative talk radio where he told radio host Eric Metaxas that that schools were “brainwashing” children about climate change.⁷⁵

Right Wing Watch has the full audio available (listen below), but here is the line where Inhofe expresses his view:⁷⁶

“My own granddaughter came home one day and said … ‘Popi, why is it you don’t understand global warming?’ I did some checking, and Eric, the stuff that they teach our kids nowadays, they are brainwash — you have to un-brainwash them when they get out […]”

April 21, 2016

Under Senator Inhofe’s guidance, the EPW Majority released a white paper contending that the Paris climate agreement will fail (PDF).⁷⁷

On the same day, Inhofe published a piece in the New York Post Titled “Earth Day Marks the Composting of the Global Climate Deal.” Inhofe concludes:⁷⁸

“The Paris Agreement faces insurmountable problems ahead, with the most obvious being that the United States can’t follow through on President Obama’s commitment and may even withdraw its support with a new president come January.

The message could not be clearer to the international community: the Paris Agreement is not only misguided. It was also a waste of everyone’s time.”⁷⁹

December 7, 2015

Sen. James (Jim) Inhofe delivered a video keynote address at the Heartland/CEI/CFACT “Day of Examining the Data” climate science denial gathering in Paris during COP21. Other climate science deniers at the “Day of Examining the Data,” included: S. Fred Singer, Christopher Monckton, James Taylor, Patrick Moore, Wolfgang Müller, Robert Carter, Christopher Essex, and Willie Soon.⁸⁰ ⁸¹

In his address, Sen. Inhofe promised the assembled deniers that the United Nations COP21 summit would fail as prior international summit attempts had. (Days later, world leaders from nearly 200 nations agreed to the historic Paris climate agreement.)⁸²

“Past COPs have revealed that these meetings are not meant to produce anything substantive, and I promise you that the COP21 will follow suit. Nothing’s gonna happen.” [Video at 4:57-5:10]⁸³

June 11–12, 2015

James Inhofe was a speaker at the Heartland Institute’s Tenth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC10) in Washington, D.C.⁸⁴

View James Inhofe’s Opening Keynote presentation at the Heartland Institute’s ICCC10, below:⁸⁵

EcoWatch reports that Inhofe spoke against Pope Francis’s involvement in the climate change debate:⁸⁶

“Everyone is going to ride the Pope now. Isn’t that wonderful,” said Inhofe sarcastically. “The Pope ought to stay with his job, and we’ll stay with ours.”

“I am not going to talk about the Pope,” he said, immediately after doing so. “Let him run his shop, and we’ll run ours.”

March 2015

Senator James Inhofe brought a snowball onto the Senate floor as a prop to show that climate change isn’t occurring. As reported by ThinkProgress, the snowball brought some ridicule to the Senator, even from the Republican party.⁸⁷

Nicole Wallace, former communications chief and senior advisor for the McCain-Palin campaign under George Bush, spoke out against it: “The weather is changing…. It’s terrible for the Republican Party to look like we can’t acknowledge reality,” she said. “But it is moronic to throw snow in the Capitol and say, I don’t know, I don’t think anything is changing.”⁸⁸

August 19, 2013

Senator Inhofe called into Mike Huckabee’s radio show to discuss conspiracy theories on global warming.⁸⁹

According to the Huffington Post, Inhofe’s appearance was “mostly a chance for him to rehash bad science on global warming” including claims such as: (audio below).⁹⁰

“We go through these 30-year cycles.”
“We went into a leveling-out period about eight years ago.”
“You have to have CO2. It’s a form of fertilizer to grow things. It’s actually sought after in many cases.”

February 2012

Introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution proposing the elimination of the EPA‘s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants. Inhofe’s proposal was ultimately voted down in the Senate by a vote of 53 to 46.⁹¹ ⁹²

March 3, 2011

Introduced the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011, a bill designed to limit the authority of the EPA over industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. While the bill was introduced, it was not enacted.⁹³

Inhofe had also attended the February 9 hearing by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power to discuss the legislation. The Centre for American Progress Action Fund (CAP) provided a backgrounder on the hearing outlining how support in the Committee on Energy and Commerce had been funded by Koch Industries and partners.⁹⁴

ThinkProgress also reported on what it called the “Committee from Koch.”⁹⁵

June 30, 2011

Inhofe gave a Keynote Address at the Heartland Institute‘s Sixth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC6) in Washington, D.C.⁹⁶ Desmog has done in-depth research on the other speakers and sponsors from Heartland’s ICCC6.⁹⁷

January 2011

Jim Inhofe attended a closed door meeting with lobbyists from the energy industry, DeSmog and Politico reported.⁹⁸ ⁹⁹

According to the report from Politico, “The roster of those attending the invitation-only gathering is being kept under lock and key, though it is believed to include the American Petroleum Institute, National Mining Association, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, U.S.Chamber of Commerce, and others.”¹⁰⁰

December 2009

Inhofe appeared at the Third International Climate Conference on Copenhagen to spread the message that “Global warming is a hoax, and there’s no way the Senate is going to pass a cap-and-trade bill.”¹⁰¹

June 2009

James Inhofe was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s Third International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC3). View Inhofe’s speech, titled “Why Inside the Beltway Loves Cap-and-Trade and Why Main Street Rejects It,” below.¹⁰²

January 30, 2008

Inhofe was a witness,¹⁰³ along with “expert” J. Scott Armstrong, at a U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing to discuss the survival of polar bears.¹⁰⁴ In his statement, Inhofe claimed: “Listing the bear as a threatened species is not about protecting the bear but about using the ESA to achieve global warming policy that special interest groups can not otherwise achieve through the legislative process. These groups have made their agenda clear.”¹⁰⁵

Dec 20, 2007

Inhofe released a report claiming that over 400 scientists disputed man-made global warming.¹⁰⁶

Senator Inhofe’s list has since been debunked, and shown to include many individuals with no experience in climate science.¹⁰⁷

July 28, 2003

Made a floor speech titled “The Science of Climate Change.”¹⁰⁸

Inhofe was later criticized for misrepresenting the views of climatologist Stephen Schneider and meteorologist Tom Wigley in his speech.¹⁰⁹

Inhofe had claimed that calculations published by Schneider in the journal Nature “cast serious doubt” on the IPCC‘s upper-end projection of 5.8 degrees (Celsius) of warming by 2100.¹¹⁰

Schneider wrote, “It is misrepresenting my views to characterize them as even implying that IPCC has exaggerated or failed to describe the state of the science fairly.” McCain quoted this line to Inhofe on the Senate floor on October 29, 2003. Yet in response to the Prospect, Inhofe’s staff made no mention of Schneider’s thorough critique.¹¹¹

October 4, 2004

Inhofe made a floor Speech, titled “Partisan Environmental Groups” where he accused environmental groups of having “more interest in hyping apocalyptic environmental scenarios to raise money for raw political purposes rather than working together to improve our environment for the benefit of all Americans.”¹¹²

January 4, 2005

Made a floor speech titled “Climate Change Update.” He critiqued the Mann hockey stick graph, saying how it had “severely underestimated past climate variability… . In other words, in obliterating the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age, Mann’s hockey stick just doesn’t pass muster.”¹¹³

Inhofe also quotes George Taylor, “has shown, Arctic temperatures are actually slightly cooler today than they were in the 1930s.”¹¹⁴

April 8, 2005

Made a floor speech, titled ”First ‘Four Pillars’.” Inhofe describes the four pillars as:¹¹⁵

“1) the 2001 National Academy of Sciences NAS report summarizing the latest science of climate change, requested by the Bush Administration;

2) the scientific work of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, most especially its Third Assessment Report, released in 2001;

3) the recent report of the international Arctic Climate Impact Assessment;

and 4) the data produced by climate models.”

Inhofe claims that he will prove that “none of these pillars support the consensus view.”¹¹⁶

December 2009

Jim Inhofe vowed to crash the UN Climate Change Conference with a three man “truth squad” consisting of himself and two fellow Senators. He was unsuccessful in securing a single meeting with conference delegates.¹¹⁷

Politico reported that Inhofe received a cool reception when he flew to Denmark ahead of the international climate conference. Inhofe did manage to talk to a small group of reporters:¹¹⁸

“We in the United States owe it to the 191 countries to be well-informed and know what the intentions of the United States are. The United States is not going to pass a cap and trade,” he said to reporters. “It’s just not going to happen.”

A reporter asked: “If there’s a hoax, then who’s putting on this hoax, and what’s the motive?”

“It started in the United Nations,” Inhofe said, “and the ones in the United States who really grab ahold of this is the Hollywood elite.”

A reporter asked Inhofe if he was referring to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A reporter from Der Spiegel told the senator: “You’re ridiculous.”¹¹⁹

June 2008

In the Senate floor, Inhofe claimed that “everything” in former Vice President Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has “been refuted many times” by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).¹²⁰ ¹²¹

“Now Al Gore’s done his movie, almost everything that’s been in his movie, in fact everything has been refuted. And interestingly enough the IPCC on sea levels and other things, scare tactics, used in that science-fiction movie have been totally refuted and been refuted many times by the — by the IPCC,” Inhofe claimed. View video below.¹²²

March 2007

During Al Gore’s testimony on Capitol Hill, at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Chair Barbara Boxer had to cut off Inhofe after he interrupted Gore’s response. Video below:¹²³

September 2006

HuffPost reported that Inhofe gave a speech criticizing the media’s coverage of climate change:¹²⁴

“I want to challenge the news media to reverse course and report on the objective science of climate change, stop ignoring legitimate voices in this scientific debate, and stop being used by the hysterical left,” said Inhofe. “Breaking the cycles of media hysteria will not be easy since hysteria sells and it is very profitable, but I really believe the issue is getting worn out.”

Inhofe also criticized Al Gore’s work on climate change and An Inconvenient Truth:¹²⁵

In May, our nation was exposed to perhaps one of the slickest science propaganda films of all time — former Vice President Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’” said Inhofe. “In addition to having the backing of Paramount Pictures to market this film, it had the full backing of the media, and leading the cheerleading charge was none other than the Associated Press, and of course they had the elitists, from Hollywood.”¹²⁶

Finally, on the Kyoto protocol:¹²⁷

“During the past year, the American people have been served up an unprecedented parade of environmental alarmism by the media and entertainment industry, which links every possible weather event to global warming. I firmly believe that when the history of our era is written, future generations will look back with puzzlement and wonder why we spent so much time and effort on global warming fears and pointless solutions, such as the Kyoto Protocol.”

September 28, 2005

Inhofe introduced a Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works hearing titled “The Role of Science in Environmental Policy-Making.”¹²⁸

In his opening statement, Inhofe states that “Too often the environmental policy decisions made by EPA and other science-based agencies are driven by political or personal agendas.”¹²⁹

April 28, 2004

Inhofe was honored for his “work in promoting science-based public policy” by the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, a think-tank that disputes man-made global warming.¹³⁰

The Annapolis Center has received $1,048,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998.¹³¹

2000

Inhofe was a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2000, trying to bar the distribution or use of the National Assessment, which analyzed potential impacts of climate change on the U.S. The Bush administration settled the lawsuit with a statement saying that the report didn’t represent official government policy.¹³²

March 25, 1999

Inhofe and Jeff Sessions introduced the bill S. 724,¹³³ calling for the U.S. EPA to exempt enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act“¹³⁴ as it related to to hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). The bill’s language eventually became a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, known now as the “Halliburton Loophole”¹³⁵ because the company’s ex-CEO and then-Vice President Dick Cheney headed Energy Policy Task Force which helped pen the bill’s language.¹³⁶

@JimInhofe on Twitter

Affiliations

Funding

According to data from OpenSecrets, James M. Inhofe has accepted nearly $2 million in contributions from the oil industry in his career, with top contributors including Murray Energy, Koch Industries, Devon Energy, and OGE Energy.¹⁴²

View top contributors below, or see the attached spreadsheet for a complete listing of Jim Inhofe’s Oil & Gas campaign contributions since 1999 (.xslx).

Company Name	Oil Funding	Coal Funding	Grand Total
Murray Energy	$0	$95,000	$95,000
Koch Industries	$77,550	$0	$77,550
Devon Energy	$58,650	$0	$58,650
OGE Energy	$0	$49,550	$49,550
Anadarko Petroleum	$40,500	$0	$40,500
Chesapeake Energy	$37,800	$0	$37,800
ConocoPhillips	$36,700	$0	$36,700
National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn	$0	$36,444	$36,444
Exxon Mobil	$35,000	$0	$35,000
FirstEnergy Corp	$0	$35,000	$35,000
Oil & Gas Producer	$32,850	$0	$32,850
Williams Companies	$30,250	$0	$30,250
Chevron Corp	$29,200	$0	$29,200
Valero Energy	$27,500	$0	$27,500
Southern Co	$0	$26,000	$26,000
Occidental Petroleum	$26,000	$0	$26,000
American Electric Power	$0	$24,750	$24,750
Ward Petroleum	$24,250	$0	$24,250
Alliance Resource Partners	$0	$24,200	$24,200
National Assn of Truck Stop Operators	$23,000	$0	$23,000
Halliburton Co	$22,500	$0	$22,500
Xcel Energy	$0	$22,000	$22,000
Dominion Resources	$0	$19,500	$19,500
Duke Energy	$0	$19,500	$19,500
BP	$19,300	$0	$19,300
Kirby Corp	$19,000	$0	$19,000
Newfield Exploration Co	$18,800	$0	$18,800
ONEOK Inc	$18,450	$0	$18,450
Pinnacle West Capital	$0	$17,850	$17,850
Kinder Morgan Inc	$17,000	$0	$17,000
National Propane Gas Assn	$16,898	$0	$16,898
Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers	$16,500	$0	$16,500
Marathon Oil	$16,500	$0	$16,500
Petroleum Marketers Assn	$15,500	$0	$15,500
Peabody Energy	$0	$15,500	$15,500
Exelon Corp	$0	$15,500	$15,500
Oil & Gas Exploration	$15,500	$0	$15,500
NiSource Inc	$0	$15,500	$15,500
Entergy Corp	$0	$15,250	$15,250
Sunoco Inc	$15,000	$0	$15,000
Lyondellbasell	$14,500	$0	$14,500
Sinclair Oil	$13,500	$0	$13,500
Independent Petroleum Assn of America	$13,500	$0	$13,500
Arrow Oil & Gas	$12,600	$0	$12,600
Wpx Energy	$12,500	$0	$12,500
American Gas Assn	$12,500	$0	$12,500
Jma Energy	$12,400	$0	$12,400
Magnum Drilling Services	$12,100	$0	$12,100
Arch Coal	$0	$12,000	$12,000