Inhofe Urges Executives To Resist Siren Song Of Climate Action - The Hill

Facing the loss of the committee gavel he used to block global warming legislation, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) urged corporate executives late last month to keep up the fight against greenhouse gas emission limits. “In 2007, there will likely be many bills introduced, hearings held, and floor debates on the issue of climate change,” the Senate’s leading global warming skeptic wrote to “several dozen” CEOs in a three-page letter that challenged dire climate forecasts and estimated greenhouse gas emissions would carry a heavy economic cost. He warned executives that “Wall Street will not reward” companies that “are positioning themselves in the hope for specific climate proposals.”

Whether Inhofe’s marketplace advice proves worthwhile remains to be seen. But his political prognostication seems spot-on. In just the third week of the 110th Congress, bills that seek to curb global warming are among the hottest on the Hill. Presidential candidates are among the supporters, including the favorite to win the Republican nomination, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Environmental groups are increasingly optimistic that a measure might reach the president’s desk.

“It is becoming nearly a full-time job just tracking various global warming plans in our nation’s capital,” Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch wrote in an e-mail yesterday that listed a few of the proposals. There was even a rumor that President Bush was among the converts and that he planned to support a greenhouse gas emissions cap in his State of the Union address. But Tony Snow, his press secretary, put that to rest on Tuesday, saying it wasn’t true.

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nhofe, now the ranking member on EPW, will remain a critic of all four approaches. In his letter, he said the science was not settled. Even if it were true that humans are causing global warming, he added, efforts in the United States to curb greenhouse gas emissions would be fruitless unless China, India and other developing countries follow suit. China builds a coal plant every three days, Inhofe said, and will overtake the United States as the largest greenhouse gas emitter in 2009.

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http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/TheExecutive/011807_globalwarming.html

What an ass.