I was planning to write today about a superb piece by Coral Davenport of the New York Times which has run a few intelligent articles on climate and the environment lately:

Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

However, for me the most interesting part was close to the end:

Mr. Inhofe, 82, will complete his current Senate term in 2020. While he declined to speak of his retirement plans, Mr. Inhofe said of Mr. Pruitt, “I think he’d make a great senator.”

I will say very firmly that there are few politicians I admire as I think we are poorly served by most. However there are a few notable exceptions and Inhofe is one. Yes there are always back room guys who do the actual work like Mark Morano and others, but as I like to put it: “you always need a fairy to put on top of the tree”. And Inhofe was the guy who became the key politician, at a time of immense and systematic hostility, who was willing to speak up for common sense on climate.

Any politician can get behind a cause which is widely respected and liked. But few have the guts to stand up for what they know to be right at a time when every other politician is going with the crowd the other way. But Inhofe stood up to be counted at a key time and in doing so he was widely vilified and the target of much public hate. That takes guts for a politician.

Once Inhofe was one of the key politicians constantly in the climate news. But since Trump, I’ve noticed that Inhofe’s name has been missing and I was even wondering what had happened to him …. now perhaps we know? Has he has metaphorically handed the snowball onto a younger generation?

Thanks for all you’ve done Inhofe.