Inhofe Joins Skeptics’ Conference

Published May 22, 2009

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe—who has warned Congress that the threat of catastrophic global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”—will keynote the third International Conference on Climate Change June 2 in Washington D.C. The Oklahoma Republican, for years the scourge of climate change alarmists, once held a press conference in a snow storm in Washington to ridicule global warming predictions.

Inhofe will join U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and more than 20 of the world’s elite scientists and economists in a day-long conference built around the theme “Climate Change: Scientific Debate and Economic Analysis.” The theme reflects the fact that the scientific debate is not over, and that economic analysis is more important than ever, now that legislation seriously is being considered to fix a problem that may not exist. Inhofe said recently that “the climate change debate should be based on fundamental principles of science … (and) instead of censoring skeptical viewpoints as my alarmist friends favor, these scientists must be heard, and I will do my part to make sure that they are heard.”

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, which together with more than 35 co-sponsoring organizations is producing the conference, said, “The real science and economics of climate change support the view that global warming is not a crisis, and that immediate action to reduce emissions is not necessary. This is, in fact, the emerging consensus view of scientists outside the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and most economists outside environmental advocacy groups.”

Confirmed speakers at the conference at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue NW, include Dr. Richard Lindzen of MIT, Dr. Roy Spencer of NASA, Dr. Willie Soon of Harvard, and Dr. Gabriel Calzada, Madrid, whose work on job creation shows green job programs pre-empt or destroy more jobs than they create.

Also presenting will be former astronaut Harrison Schmitt and meteorologist Anthony Watts, who found laughably incompetent siting of National Weather Service equipment to record U.S. temperatures.

For more information about speakers, to arrange interviews, or to register for the conference contact: Dan Miller at (312) 377-4000 or [email protected] or Tammy Nash at (312) 377-4000 or [email protected]. More information also is available on The Heartland Institute’s Web site at www.heartland.org.