Inhofe painted as out of touch

WASHINGTON — A key senator delivered a blunt rebuke on Monday to Sen. Jim Inhofe's lengthy lecture last week against the threat of global warming. Inhofe's Democratic opponent in the 2008 Senate race also criticized Inhofe's speech.

What she said

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, painted Inhofe, R-Tulsa, as part of an out-of-touch fringe group that is ignoring the advice of the world's leading scientists and experts on climate change.

"There are always people who will say HIV doesn't cause AIDS,” Boxer said. "There are always those who will say cigarette smoking doesn't cause cancer ... You can come down to this (Senate) floor and say everything is beautiful, but you're not in touch with reality.”

Background

Boxer is chairman of the committee Inhofe led until Democrats took over the Senate in January. Boxer and the Oklahoma senator are polar opposites on global warming, and have used the committee, which oversees the issue of climate change, in different ways.

Under Inhofe's leadership, the committee held hearings highlighting the testimony of people skeptical about whether the emission of greenhouse gases is warming the earth. Boxer has focused on the effects of global warming, and she invited former Vice President Al Gore, who recently shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the issue, to testify.

What's next

Boxer now is pushing bipartisan legislation to impose mandatory caps on greenhouse gases.

Boxer noted that Inhofe had invited popular writer Michael Crichton to testify in 2005 after he wrote a book called "State of Fear” that sought to debunk scientific conclusions about global warming.

"In the past, we've had science fiction writers testify before our committee,” Boxer said.

"Those days are over.”

State Sen. Andrew Rice, an Oklahoma City Democrat who plans to run against Inhofe next year, said Inhofe, rather than "always posturing as the obstacle to change,” could "help Oklahoma by leading the charge for conversion to clean-burning energy.” Rice said, "In addition to our rich deposits of natural gas, Oklahoma has an abundance of wind, switch grass, animal fats and other natural resources that can be converted to renewable fuels.”

In a relatively brief response on Monday to Boxer's speech, Inhofe said proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Kyoto Treaty, can hurt economic activity but have little effect in limiting emissions. Inhofe also said many of today's weather-related disasters — including droughts and wildfires — are wrongly attributed to global warming. He said a story in the Los Angeles Times last week cited experts rejecting any correlation between the Southern California wildfires and global warming.