James Mountain Inhofe, usually known as Jim Inhofe is the Senior Senator for Oklahoma. He is a Republican and was first elected to the Senate in a 1994 special election.
[edit]Bio
Inhofe was born November 17, 1934 in Des Moines, Iowa and moved with his family to Tulsa when he was a child. He served in the United States Army from 1955 to 1956 (though some sources claim he served from 1957 to 1958) never rising above private and never leaving American shores. [1] (https://ausa.org/govaffairs/OnceASoldier.pdf)
In 1994, Boren, who had been serving in the Senate since 1979, was elected president of the University of Oklahoma and announced he would resign as soon as a successor was elected. Inhofe won the Republican nomination for the special election that November, and swept to victory amid a strong Republican tide that saw the Republicans take both houses of Congress, as well as elect a Republican to the governorship for only the second time ever. He took office on November 17 to serve the last two years of Boren's term and won the seat in his own right in 1996. He was handily reelected in 2002.
Inhofe outraged federal employees on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Muriel Building by stating on National television that there probably weren't very many casualties because federal employees wouldn't be at their desks at 9:00 instead they would be off having coffee somewhere. AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) responded that maybe that was how Inhofe ran his office....
Inhofe is one of the most conservative members of either house of Congress; among other political stances, he strongly opposes abortion and is a critic of gay rights. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, he was among the panelists questioning witnesses about the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. There he made news by claiming he was "outraged by the outrage" over the revelations of abuse, suggesting that shock at the crimes was more offensive than the crimes themselves. He has also criticized the Red Cross as a "bleeding heart." Against the wishes of the Bush administration, the Pentagon, and the American Petroleum Institute, Inhofe has persistently blocked American ratification of the international Convention on the Law of the Sea, claiming that the treaty would infringe on American sovereignty.
He is also known for being an ardent supporter of Israel. In March 2002, he made a speech before the U.S. Senate which included the explicit suggestion that the 9/11 attacks were a form of divine retribution against the U.S. for failing to defend Israel. In his words: "One of the reasons I believe the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our Government has been to ask the Israelis, and demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them." [3] (http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/news/020308c.asp)
Inhofe has been labeled as an anti-environmentalist for his views on environmental change. In 2003, he called "catastrophic global warming" a "hoax" and stated that "natural variability, not fossil fuel emissions, is the overwhelming factor influencing climate change" - an assertion allegedly supported by more than 17,000 scientists who are signatories to the Oregon Petition. Inhofe also states that, "satellite data, confirmed by NOAA balloon measurements, confirms that no meaningful warming has occurred over the last century" and claimed that his conclusion was supported by the "painstaking work of the nation's top climate scientists." [5] (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=206907).
Inhofe, citing the numerous uncertainties related to climate science and the adverse impact that mandatory emissions reductions would have on the U.S. economy, voted on June 22, 2005 to reject an amendment to an energy bill that would have forced reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases and created a mandatory emissions trading scheme. "Global warming is still considered to be a theory and has not come close to being sufficiently proven," he said.
Environmental Issues
Inhofe has a history of opposing environmental groups and global warming initiatives. There are several transcripts of Inhofe speeches on the Senate floor regarding this offered a documents by his official website:
July 28, 2003, "The Science of Climate Change (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/climate.htm)"
October 4, 2004, "Partisan Environmental Groups (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/epwgroups.htm)"
January 4, 2005, "Climate Change Update (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/climateupdate.htm)"
April 8, 2005, "First Four Pillars Speech (http://inhofe.senate.gov/pressreleases/pillar.htm)"
On April 28, 2004, Inhofe was honored for his "work in promoting science-based public policy" [6] (http://releases.usnewswire.com/printing.asp?id=28348) by the Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy, a think tank that disputes the scientific consensus on the causes and magnitude of global warming. (The think tank has received $658,575 from ExxonMobil since 1998). [7] (http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=13)
Asked in writing in 2004 by journalist Chris Mooney whether Inhofe agrees that he's at odds with the scientific mainstream, his committee staff retorted, "How do you define 'mainstream'? Scientists who accept the so-called 'consensus' about global warming? Galileo was not mainstream." [8] (http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=7603)
On September 28, 2005, The Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works held a hearing titled "The Role of Science in Environmental Policy-Making (http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=246814)". Inhofe, the committee's chairman opened the hearing stating that: "Today's hearing will focus on one of the three objectives I set out when I assumed the Chairmanship of the Committee – to ensure that regulatory decisions are based on sound science.Too often the environmental policy decisions made by EPA and other science-based agencies are driven by political or personal agendas. You see this in types of research that gets funded or the types of grants that get awarded. It is my hope this hearing will help shed some light on how science is used by policy-makers and that we can arrive at some concrete suggestions for making the process better." [9] (http://epw.senate.gov/hearing_statements.cfm?id=247208)
In 2003, the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that Inhofe "scored zero with the League of Conservation Voters since 1997, was the only senator to oppose Everglades restoration, and once compared the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo." [10] (http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/03spr/topdogs4.asp)
sourcewatch.org
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FACTSHEET: Sen. James Inhofe
DETAILS
U.S. Senator (R-OK)
Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Sen. Inhofe has fought to keep the US government from accepting the scientific consensus on climate change.
KEY DEEDS
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.
Source: "Earth Last," The American Prospect, 5/7/04
ORGANIZATIONS
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Source: "Earth Last," The American Prospect, 5/7/04
The Annapolis Center for Science-Based Public Policy
Source: Annapolis Center Press Release 4/2/04
Center for Security Policy
Source: Right Web profile, Center for Security Policy
Tech Central Science Foundation or Tech Central Station
Source: Tech Central- Glassman 12/03
Washington Legal Foundation
Source: WLF Press Release (2006)
exxonsecrets.org
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Earth Last
James Inhofe proves "flat Earth" doesn't refer to Oklahoma.
prospect.org |
