Inhofe Takes Command Of EPW Committee
Jim Inhofe is a small-plane-flying, global-warming-denying senator. And now he’s got a gavel.
By Ben Terris
At the end of last year, with most of his colleagues stuck in Washington for an important Senate session on a Saturday, Sen. James M. Inhofe was in Tulsa getting spurs fastened onto a pair of boots.
“They’re ostrich,” said Inhofe (R-Okla.), the country’s most prominent climate-change denier, referring to his footwear. “Probably some endangered species; I have a reputation to maintain.”
Inhofe could have been wearing Birkenstocks and it wouldn’t have put a dent in his notoriety. The senator cemented his status as public enemy No. 1 for environmentalists long ago, topping it off with his 2012 book on climate change, “The Greatest Hoax.” This year he takes over the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — the panel most associated with climate policy oversight — and says he plans to continue his role as a “one-man truth squad” on the issue.
Spurs on, Inhofe mounted a spotted horse named Speck and prepared to join the Tulsa Christmas parade. He may be 80, but he looked the part of a cowboy, with his leathery face and glacial blue eyes. He even speaks with a gravely Midwestern twang, as if Clint Eastwood were hosting “A Prairie Home Companion.” Inhofe hadn’t ridden in this parade since before 2010, when, in a nod to inclusiveness, the city changed the name of the event to the Parade of Lights. “If Jesus isn’t invited, then I’m not coming either,” he sniffed. This wasn’t a joke to him. Since the 1980s, his faith has affected nearly every aspect of his life, including how he does his job.
After years of public pressure, the parade organizers changed the name back in 2014. Inhofe returned to ride through the streets of Tulsa as the conquering hero, missing a couple dozen votes — including a big one to fund the government — in the process. “I won,” he said. “Jesus won.”