Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) never planned on becoming an author, but his passion for questioning global-warming theories led him to write his first book. The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future hit bookshelves Tuesday.
Q: What inspired you to write this book?
When the issue first came up, I actually believed it because everyone said it, until I became chairman of [the Environment and Public Works] Committee. At that time they came out with the cost to install some type of cap-and-trade system, and the range was always between $300 [billion] and $400 billion a year. I said, “We better make sure it’s right.”
Scientists started calling me on how the science was cooked … About 2003, I came to the conclusion that the science was not real. I became so impressed with the United Nations involvement that I started writing about it back them. When we determined that cap-and-trade wasn’t going to happen, I stopped writing.
And then we find out that it was going to be done by regulations. I started writing again.
Q: What is your writing process like?
I’ve never written anything before … but I’ve enjoyed doing it, and doing it kind of piece by piece. And then I’ve had a lot of people, one lady in Tulsa said, “You need to change this around.”
Q: What was the most difficult part of this project?
Explaining the truth to people because they’ve all been so brainwashed over the years.
Q: You open the book by saying you decided to take up the fight against global warming because no one else would. Did it feel lonely those first days?
Absolutely. In fact, my staff wasn’t all that excited about it, and we were getting terrible press, and it was one of those things that I felt we had to do.
Q: Whom do you consider your biggest ally in the fight these days?
[Sen.] Jeff Sessions [R-Ala.] has always been with me the longest in agreement on this.
Q: And your biggest adversary?
The obvious ones: the John Kerrys, the Barbara Boxers, the Henry Waxmans. Ed Markey. Generally just the far left. They really want to believe this stuff. If you stop and think about the investments and time — the George Soroses and the MoveOn .orgs — they’re holding on with white knuckles to something they believed at one time, but they can’t now.
Q: Al Gore comes up a lot in your book. What’s your relationship like with him?
It used to be pretty good, but he got off on this thing, and the more he got involved in it, I think the power got to him, and he became less and less realistic, and it was an obsession with him. And when that time came, I lost my personal relationship with him. It’s been adversarial since that time. It didn’t start that way, though.
Q: If the Republicans win back the Senate this year, you’d reclaim your seat as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, right? What’s the first thing you’d do?
The first thing I would do would be to undermine all the regulations they’re trying to put in place … I came from the private sector, and one of the reasons I ran many years ago was over regulation. We would go after the regulations that are in my opinion harassment.
Q: You include long excerpts from popular author Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear. Why’d that book speak to you?
The reason I did it is because, first of all, Michael Crichton was not just an author. He was a scientist and doctor. He always did heavy research, and I’ve always been impressed with that.
He had the best handle from anyone I’ve seen of how the media is manipulating this. We had him as a witness in the Senate, and he did such a great job. He addressed the human side of it — how people became obsessed with this thing. I thought, there’s no better way to show people how it worked.