Oklahoma senator plans to rain on climate talks

[TomCADem]

Source: USA Today

COPENHAGEN — The final week of the United Nations climate change summit boils down to a battle between President Obama and the self-described "skunk at the picnic."

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who has called global warming a "hoax," plans to travel this week to Copenhagen. He'll stay just long enough — as few as three hours, he says — to tell heads of state that the Senate will not pass an energy bill that would limit greenhouse gas emissions.

"We know (the bill) is never going to go to a vote," Inhofe said in a recent interview. "It's dead. It's gone … I'm not going to allow them to think America is going to do something it's not."

Delegates from other countries say that without Congress' support, Obama won't be able to keep whatever promises he makes when he arrives here Friday to try to seal a deal on capping emissions. Without the full cooperation of the world's second-biggest emitter behind China, any broad agreement to address global warming by the 192 nations gathered in Copenhagen will simply fall apart, they say.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-12-13-copenhagen_N.htm

[PDJane]

1. I'd like someone to rain on inhofe.

preferably hard enough to wash him out to sea.

How this man gets elected is beyond me.

[sharesunited]

2. EPA will do it without Congress.

Inhofe will need to try to get a law passed which keeps the EPA from regulating CO2, but the President will veto it, and that veto will not be overridden.

[JonQ]

3. Hmm

I don't disagree with his sentiment, we should vote to veto that. But he's wrong to go out and try to affect foreign policy in opposition to the president.

[TomCADem]

4. You Agree That Global Warming Is A Hoax?

[MH1]

7. Don't be so surprised, apparently that is one right-wing nutjob position that is accepted here.

Or maybe the mods just haven't gotten around to taking out all the trash yet. There seems to have been an influx while I was on quasi-hiatus.

[JonQ]

9. Science isn't

right/left wing.

And you shouldn't lament that not everyone is as pro-censorship as you. Hearing different ideas can be a good thing, even if all it does is strengthen your own viewpoint.

But I didn't comment to argue the validity of MMGW. Merely to point out that he was wrong in his way of expressing his opinion, given his status as a public servant.

So I won't discuss my views on the subject here, that's not what the threat is about.

[MH1]

11. So you'd be ok with holocaust deniers converging on DU as well?

Or posters writing anti-gay or racist screeds? (Is history right/left wing?)

You are right, science is not right/left wing, but a failure to accept science is definitely a trait indicative of a right wing ideology.

Censorship: I'm not a fan of it when discussion is genuine. But I've just seen way too much b.s. being posted here recently on the subject of GW that is clearly trolling. I'm not familiar with your posts enough to know that you didn't agree with Inhofe that GW is a "hoax". It is a relief that at least you aren't willing to go that far.

[JonQ]

15. Like I said

I'm not going to discuss it's merits here. I think my statement was quite clear.


And I would hardly call the holocaust a scientific theory.

[timeforpeace]

20. Science is also not emotional. Calm down. The data will either confirm or refute the claims.

[JonQ]

8. I agree that copenhagen

will do nothing to affect it either way, and will be a major blow to the US economy at a time when really really don't need that.

[MaineYooper]

18. the "blow to the US economy" is a canard

Several economists, including our most recent Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman have pointed out fairly frequently that a conversion to a more environmentally friendly energy policy does not have to damage our economy. It certainly has the potential to damage the income of the fossil fuel industry, of course, which is why they have fought the idea so vehemently.

"Hearing all voices" is a lovely idea in theory, however, it's also the common cry of the ID/creationist crowd. I am not a climate scientist, but I am a working biologist, so I feel I understand the frustration of the scientists in that field. With ID crowd, long after their arguments have been debunked, they keep coming back clamoring for "equal time" and "open discussion."

As Bill Maher so nicely put it in one of his "New Rules": you don't have to give both sides of an argument if one side is utter bullsh*t.

[JonQ]

25. Thing is, if it's a money making venture it would have been done already

by private enterprises, by people who want to make money off it.

We didn't need to encourage companies to capitalize on oil as an energy source, they figured that one out on their own because it was profitable.

[dysfunctional press]

23. "a major blow to the US economy at a time when really really don't need that..."

unfortunately, we can't pick and choose when/if unavoidable issues will arise.

if your house was on fire, but you didn't have any money in the household budget for extra water this month- would you let the house(it's uninsured) burn to the ground rather than turn on the hose?

[MH1]

5. brings new meaning to the expression "Ugly American" doesn't he?

Meanwhile McConnell's been dragging feet as much as he can to keep guys like Kerry from going to Copenhagen.

[pscot]

19. Actually, Inhof 's picture is in the urban dictionary

next to the word "asshole".

[mbperrin]

6. Guess he missed out on the Dust Bowl, when manmade changes

to the landscape blew the topsoil away and my granddad into Texas.

Strange, cause the rest of the Okies got going on planting windbreaks and other measures.

Course, a dumbfuck is a dumbfuck, no matter where they're from.

[Goldstein1984]

13. Climate change is a complicated subject

and the best most of us can do is read popular articles and decide whether or not we believe the process of science is working.

I believe climate change is happening. And I think the evidence says that humans are contributing to it.

However, I'm not sure the short-term fixes are the solution. I think we need a short-term solution to deal with the effects of climate change that are going to happen no matter what we do, and a long-term solution focusing on sustainable energy sources with a small carbon footprint.

I'm not sure carbon taxes and cap-and-trade are really going to accomplish that much.

The developing nations and NGOs have stolen the Copenhagen show with demands for reparations from industrialized nations.

It's become a circus.

And Inhofe is just plain stupid and in the pocket of his Oklahoma oil industry puppet masters. If he's good, they let him drive the limo and get the coffee.

[jwirr]

17. Very good point.

[fl_dem]

10. this man is a fucking idiot

his state just cut 17 million in medicaid funds and hes going to waste tax payers money to fly to Copenhagen for 3 hours to metaphorically spit at our President.

Where is the outraged Okies that he supposedly represents...If he would stay put and shut his closed minded mouth, the money he would save from not flying round trip could probably pay the annual health care premiums for several families, feed hundreds of hungry people, house countless homeless people till spring...etc. I am appalled.

[jwirr]

12. Is it legal for him to go over there and speak as if he represents the

Senate?

[tonysam]

14. Is he going to pee from the balcony? n/t

[Kerrytravelers]

16. So, he is flying on taxpayers money to speak against a sitting president on foreign soil?

[SoapBox]

21. re: So, he is flying on taxpayers money...LET'S All Ask Him! (his contact info is HERE)

...let's ask Senator Skunk that very question!

Email Contact page:
http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

Office Locations, Phone and FAX numbers page:
http://inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.OfficeLocations

Washington, DC Office:
453 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 -3603
Main: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

[groundloop]

22. Have him take Lieberman, Snowe, and Nelson with him...

Then vote on healtcare when they're gone.

[tomg]

24. Now that I like. nt