Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) will endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign, he told the Tulsa Press Club Wednesday morning.
That marks a marriage of the U.S. Senate’s chief climate skeptic with one of the nomination fight’s most anti-climate science candidates.
From the Tulsa World:
Inhofe said he “likes Mitt Romney, but he’s a little mushy on environmental issues” and “Newt Gingrich, I always have this vision of him sitting on the couch holding hands with Nancy Pelosi,” but that he has no reservations about Perry.Inhofe said he also thinks Perry has the best chance of any Republican to defeat Democratic incumbent Barack Obama.
Inhofe is known for going to great lengths to criticize climate research as at best flawed and at worst completely made up.
Perry’s singing the same song on the campaign trail. In New Hampshire recently, Perry said that climate research is faked by scientists looking for more grant money.
Romney, on the other hand, has said that he agrees with the accepted science on climate change, though he’s not willing to take unilateral action to reduce emissions for fear that America will be economically limited against developing nations.
As for the Republican primary electorate, they’re probably more with Inhofe and Perry than they are with Romney. A Gallup poll from May showed Republicans were far more dubious than Democrats about climate change and its established effects.
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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