Inhofe Insults Pro-Energy Reform Veterans

Across the country, veterans have been speaking out about the national security threats of our addiction to oil and how it’s fueling global warming.

Some of the most prominent examples came in July, when a series of retired military officials addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lee F. Gunn, a retired Navy Vice Admiral testified, “Climate change poses a clear and present danger to the United States of America.” And Dennis McGinn, a retired Navy Vice Admiral and member of the Center for Naval Analysis Advisory Board, told the committee, “A business-as-usual approach constitutes a threat to our national security.”

Additionally, a veterans group called Operation Free has been traveling the country. They’re working to draw attention to the threats posed by our energy status quo and the opportunities of clean energy.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) has a name for those veterans: Attention hogs.

That’s what Inhofe told the New York Times Magazine:

There are a lot of generals who don’t like to be out of the limelight. They’d like to get back in.

In the same interview, Inhofe boasted of his plans to draw attention to himself by serving as a self-appointed “a one-man truth squad” at the climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen. Inhofe is also the same person who said he was excited to block clean energy & climate legislation because, “I will be able to stand up and say, ‘No, it’s over. Get a life. You lost. I won!’” Does that sound like a man interested in only low-key, civil, reasoned debate?

It sounds more like the man whose dedication to keeping America hooked on polluting fossil fuels earned him Big Oil’s MVP.