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US climate change denier James Inhofe joins Al Gore in fight against soot
In a surprise U-turn, the Republican senator has put forward a bill to review the dangers of black carbon to health and the environment
He has called global warming a hoax, compared the Environmental Protection Agency with the Gestapo, and over the years dismissed Al Gore as desperate and "full of crap". So it was startling when America's arch climate change denier came out ahead of the green curve in the fight to save the Arctic and other icy regions.
Could James Inhofe, a conservative Republican senator from Oklahoma, be the newest recruit to Barack Obama's green revolution?
Inhofe, in a surprise move, joined Democratic senators in putting forward a bill for an official review of the dangers of soot or "black carbon" to public health and the environment late last month.
"Black carbon ... is thought to be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide," the bill said. It gave experts from the Environmental Protection Agency a year to make suggestions to Congress on reducing the pollutant, caused by old diesel engines and burning wood.
Inhofe has been fighting for years against the growing body of science that claims human activity causes climate change. Obama's determination to move America off fossil fuels – and a series of new green measures – initially appeared to have no effect on the Oklahoman.
In Senate hearings, the Republican continued in his self-appointed mission of heckling Gore and experts on climate change and squabbling with the chair of the environment and public works committee, Barbara Boxer.
His support for the black carbon bill met with astonishment from left and right.
more...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/05/inhofe-black-carbon-bill
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