CNN
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Former U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe, the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the most vocal climate change deniers in the U.S. Senate, has died, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday.
Inhofe, 89, served in the U.S. Senate from 1994 until his retirement in 2023.
“The people he served, a group far broader than the proud residents of the Sooner State, were far better off,” McConnell said in a statement. “Jim’s diligent stewardship of massive infrastructure projects transformed life throughout the Heartland. His relentless advocacy for American dominance in the energy sector paved the way for new prosperity across the country. And his focus on growing and modernizing the U.S. military made the entire free world safer.”
Inhofe was a defense hawk who served as the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee during his final years in the Senate.
He is also the former chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he angered environmentalists by denouncing climate change as a “hoax.” He notably brought a snowball to the Senate to oppose the existence of climate change.
When he announced his decision to retire in February 2022, Inhofe noted that his 55-year political career — from the state legislature to Tulsa mayor to the U.S. House and Senate — began after he realized he had to visit 27 government offices to get a dock permit.
“If we wanted government to work for the people, not against the people, it was up to us to make the change,” Inhofe said at the time.
This story has been updated with additional background information.
