Another Inhofe Stunt

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe continued his surreal anti-environment antics this week by supporting a Republican boycott of a committee considering a climate change bill.

Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, threw his fit because he wants a cost analysis of the bill, according to media reports. This analysis has already been conducted on a bill that was 90 percent similar to the one now under consideration, but that fact hasn’t stopped Inhofe from complaining. He, and other Republicans, simply didn’t show up for work when they didn’t get their way.

Inhofe will not vote for the bill anyway, no matter how much the bill is analyzed.

The committee needs at least two Republicans present to get the bill through markup and only one Republican member showed up Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the committee chair, has told reporters she might find a way to get around the boycott, but she didn’t offer specifics. She also said another cost analysis at this point in the legislative process would be a waste of taxpayers’ money and that another study could come later.

According to Josh Nelson, who blogs at EnviroKnow.com, Inhofe actions are “pathetic.” Nelson recently wrote:

This is nothing more than a shameless attempt to obstruct and delay clean energy legislation. Both on the EPW Committee, and in the full Senate, the numbers are on the side of passage. Senator Inhofe knows this, so he is throwing one last hail-mary in an attempt to stall the process. I don’t expect better from him, but it is still pretty pathetic.

Inhofe, who has called global warming a hoax, has become a political spectacle to a majority of the country and world. He may have strong support in Oklahoma and especially among energy companies tied to fossil fuels, but the damage he has done to the state’s image through the years is incalculable. He continues to make Oklahoma seem like a backwards place. Is this what the state’s political and business leaders want?

Global warming caused by human activity is a reality accepted by leading international scientists. Inhofe is not a scientist. He’s simply a shill for the oil and gas industry as the nation and the world turn to renewable and clean energy sources.