If President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency proceeds with plans to bypass Congress and restrict carbon emissions through regulation, it will be even more costly to Americans than “cap and trade” legislation, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. predicted in an interview with the Washington Examiner this week.
Back in 2003, Inhofe stirred controversy when he declared, “With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.” Ever since, he’s been one of the most recognizable and dedicated skeptics of global warming.
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This week, he released a new book, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. It is part triumphalism, and part warning. On the one hand, he declares that cap and trade legislation is dead and proponents of global warming theory have been exposed. But at the same time, he says he decided to write the book because he fears that President Obama will work around Congress and attempt to curb carbon emissions through the regulatory process.
“(W)e won, they lost, and (are) not going to have any kind of cap and trade,” Inhofe said. But at the same time, he said, Obama’s EPA is still intent on using the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon, and is putting the wheels in motion.
“That would be much more dangerous and costly to Americans than if we had done it through legislation,” he said.
Though “cap and trade” would cost $300 billion to $400 billion, he said, regulations would have wider ranging impact and would apply to hospitals, churches and “almost everyone.”
Inhofe traces the origins of the effort back to the United Nations’ 1987 promotion of the idea of “sustainable development.”
He argues that “science is mixed” on global warming, but liberals have made exaggerated claims about rising temperatures, increases in hurricanes, and changes in the sea levels.
“They pick and choose their science to make it seem as though the world is coming to an end,” he said. “Keep in mind, this is the same group that in 1975 were saying that the world was coming to an end, but it’s another ice age.”
I asked Inhofe about NASA’s website, which says that, “All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years.”
He recalled that NASA once reported that 1998 was the hottest year on record in the United States, but later had to issue a correction saying it was really 1934.
At the time, the agency said 1998 was still tied with 2005 for the hottest year in terms of global temperature.
“It’s been changing continuously,” Inhofe said of the climate.
He said that from 1895 to 1925, there was a cold spell, which was followed by a warming trend through 1945, before another cold spell kicked in through 1975.
Inhofe said the turning point in the global warming debate was the “ClimateGate” scandal involving leaked emails from leading global warming theorists.
Even if America adopted drastic carbon restrictions, Inhofe argues, it wouldn’t make a difference because it would be negated by China and other countries.
Yet he thinks there’s a threat Obama will go ahead with implementing such regulations through the EPA.
“They are planning to do this,” he said. “This comes straight from Obama. They wanted to do it with legislation. We rejected it. So now he’s going to do it through the regulation.”
He also said he wouldn’t be deterred by the fact that it’s an election year.
“They’ve got to get their base generated with some enthusiasm, because the base doesn’t have much to talk about,” he said. “They only thing they’ve thrown at their base is to try and keep America from being self-sufficient on fossil fuels.”
