Senator Inhofe on Global Warming

[Nicholas Carey]

Courtesy of Grist.org at http://grist.org/climate-skeptics/in...ly-to-be-real/

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), former chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment, speaking to Rachel Maddow on global warming (with video goodness):

But there was one remarkable admission from the former chair of the Senate Environment Committee:

I was actually on your side of this issue when I was chairing that committee and I first heard about this. I thought it must be true until I found out what it cost.

In short, learning about the (supposed) high cost of the solution is what turned him from a believer in climate science to a denier.

Yes, you always have to take what Inhofe says with a grain of (smelling) salt, but this admission confirms what many of us have been saying for years. As The New York Times explained about a 2008 denial conference, “The one thing all the attendees seem to share is a deep dislike for mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gases.” If you can’t abide the cure, you’re much more likely to deny the disease.

The journalist Michael Kinsley famously said, “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”

[Norman Bernstein]

I was actually on your side of this issue when I was chairing that committee and I first heard about this. I thought it must be true until I found out what it cost.

If you can’t abide the cure, you’re much more likely to deny the disease.

I'd have a great deal more respect for these guys if they'd simply admit that it's not the science, it's the economic implications. The ruse of 'denying the science' is what pisses me off.

[Flying Orca]

I'd have a lot more respect for the guy if he prefaced his remarks by admitting that he's received more brib-- er, lobbying petrodollars than any other senator.