# James Inhofe James Inhofe was a Republican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2023 and the most prominent climate-change denier in the history of the chamber. As chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, he held the gavel over the very jurisdiction responsible for climate and environmental law, and he used it to obstruct action and amplify contrarian voices. ## "The Greatest Hoax" Inhofe famously declared on the Senate floor in 2003 that catastrophic anthropogenic global warming was "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and he expanded the claim into a 2012 book, *The Greatest Hoax*. His best-remembered moment came in February 2015, when he brought a snowball onto the Senate floor and tossed it to argue that cold weather disproved global warming — a stunt that became the textbook illustration of the weather-versus-climate confusion that [[Attribution Science]] exists to clear up. Inhofe framed his denial partly in religious terms, arguing that the belief humans could alter the climate God created was itself arrogant. ## Fossil Fuel Ties Inhofe's politics were inseparable from his state's oil and gas economy and from the donors it produced. He was among the largest congressional recipients of fossil-fuel industry contributions and a reliable conduit for the talking points generated by the broader [[The Climate Denial Machine]] — the think tanks, funded contrarians, and messaging operations documented on [[Fossil Fuel Industry and Climate]]. His protégé [[Scott Pruitt]], another Oklahoman, carried the same agenda into the EPA. Inhofe's career demonstrates how the messaging strategy that [[Frank Luntz]] designed — emphasize uncertainty, prevent the public from concluding the science is settled — was operationalized at the highest level of the Senate for nearly three decades. He died in 2025. ## Connections Inhofe is a flagship figure of [[Climate Change Denialism]] and [[The Climate Denial Machine]], tied to [[Fossil Fuel Industry and Climate]] and to fellow Oklahoman [[Scott Pruitt]]. For the field overview, see [[Climate Science]].