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A Senate Republican committee leader today blamed an ongoing global food crisis on “decades of misguided environmental and energy policies.”

James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said worldwide access to food is declining and prices are skyrocketing because of meddling politicians bureaucrats in Washington who have been afraid of expanding energy supplies.

Current policy that has led to the consumption of more corn as ethanol-based fuel rather than as food “has skewed common sense and has violated the principles of a sound energy policy,” Inhofe said on the Senate floor.

He urged Congress to revisit its December 2007 biofuel mandate and admit that it made a mistake by implementing it, and he said the Environmental Protection Agency should review its statutory options to relieve the impact of the mandate.

Categories: Oklahoma, James Inhofe, Agriculture, Environment, Energy, Foreign Affairs

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Sen. James Inhofe joined five of his Republican colleagues this week in introducing a bill aimed at reviving plans for a nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert to handle the spent nuclear fuel currently spread among dozens of states.

Inhofe, R-Okla., explained the proposal in a speech on the Senate floor. “The debate is no longer in existence, whether a repository should be built at Yucca Mountain. That decision was made in 2002. The task that remains is to develop a respository that protects public health and safety and the environment.”

Categories: Nevada, Oklahoma, Health, James Inhofe, Environment, Energy

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The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the campaign arm of House Republicans, has produced a series of videos that features GOP lawmakers making the case for putting them in charge of Congress again.

The last of the series, titled “Rediscovering Your Party,” went online Friday. “We’re returning to our roots of fiscal discipline, traditional values, reform, and defense and homeland security,” says Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana.

Other participants in the series were: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri; Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio; NRCC Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma; Jeb Hensarling of Texas; Kevin McCarthy of California; Patrick McHenry of North Carolina; and Candice Miller of Michigan.

The earlier videos covered topics like: earmarks in spending bills; accountability and transparency for federal spending; opposition to the “fairness doctrine” that once required equal time for competing viewpoints on the airwaves; and the Republicans’ prospects for regaining the House majority in 2008.

Categories: Military, House, California, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Politics, Kevin McCarthy, Terrorism, Budget, Economy, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Social Policy, Marsha Blackburn, Patrick McHenry, Candice Miller, Tom Cole, Jeb Hensarling

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Former Vice President Al Gore has drawn hordes of attention to concerns about global warming this year, what with his Academy Award for the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and his recent share of the Nobel Peace Prize for his focus on climate change. But Gore’s views on the subject have not gone unchallenged.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has been one of Gore’s chief critics over the past year, and today he delivered a two-hour speech on the Senate floor to challenge some of the research underlying conclusions about global warming as a threat to Earth. His staff on the Environment and Public Works Committee, where Inhofe is the top Republican, captured parts of the speech in shorter video clips and posted them to YouTube.

The videos are the latest in a series that capture Inhofe’s kickback against Gore and other advocates of government intervention to counteract global warming. You can see the others at his YouTube page.

Categories: Oklahoma, James Inhofe, Environment

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The Senate yesterday voted 81-12 to clear the final version of a bill that would reauthorize water resource development programs of the Army Corps of Engineers. The House passed the measure, which the Heritage Foundation has criticized for being laden with pork-barrel spending, in August.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., was among the supporters of the legislation and defended it on the floor.

Categories: Oklahoma, James Inhofe, Budget, Natural Resources

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