Sen. James Inhofe is a Republican Senator from Oklahoma who won his first election in 1994. Inhofe served the United States Army from 1957 to 1958. He later attended the University of Tulsa, completing most of his undergraduate coursework in economics by 1959 but did not graduate until 1973. Before starting his career as a politician, Inhofe spent more than 30 years working as a businessman in a diverse range of fields, including insurance and real estate development. Inhofe was elected to the US Senate for the first time in 1994.
Inhofe sat as the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works from 2003-2007 and again from 2015-2017. He is famous for his denial of climate change; he co-sponsored a letter to President Trump along with 22 other senators urging withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
Inhofe is one of the most outspoken politicians against climate change and has firmly believes climate change is a hoax. He notoriously stated that “man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” During a speech in 2015, Inhofe said, “God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous”. Religion is a very controversial subject in politics because someone’s beliefs should not be a characteristic they are judged. At the same time, it cannot be a reason to ignore scientific evidence and the realities of the world we live in, such as climate change.
Another example of Inhofe ignoring scientific facts came in a statement released by Inhofe in 2017. He claimed, “First of all, the one degree Fahrenheit rise coincided with the greatest advancement of living standards, life expectancy, food production and human health in the history of our planet. So it is hard to argue that the global warming we experienced in the 20th century was somehow negative”.
Senator Inhofe also wrote The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, a 2012 book denying climate change.
For receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fossil fuel industry and consistently pushing big-oil legislation, Senator Inhofe has earned his reputation as a danger to the global climate and environmental advocates.
Since arriving in Washington, Inhofe has not been shy about receiving massive donations from oil and gas companies. From 2015-2020 Inhofe has accepted approximately $442,912 in donations from different oil and gas companies. His strong stance against Global Warming makes him an important ally for oil and gas companies in congress.
See Also: Sen. Cory Gardner
Climate of Denial