Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
It was a freaking weird afternoon in the Senate, as senators voted on three climate change-related amendments—two sponsored by Democrats, one by a Republican—to its Keystone XL bill on Wednesday afternoon. The votes included one entirely expected result—Republicans voted down Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz's amendment saying that climate change is caused by humans—and a lot of weirdness.
As the voting on Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's amendment specifying that "climate change is real and not a hoax" was about to begin, noted climate denier Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe asked to be made a co-sponsor. Because, he said, the climate is changing, but "The hoax is that there are some people who are so arrogant to think that they can change climate."
Inhofe's words created a loophole for Republicans to vote yes on the amendment without embracing anything extreme like taking action to slow climate change. It subsequently passed by a 98 to one vote, with Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker the lone no vote. It really was an inspired bit of trolling. The story got a little more complicated, though, on subsequent votes. Up next was an amendment from North Dakota Republican John Hoeven which looked like a sort of weak-tea "let's pretend to take climate seriously without actually doing so" option for Republicans. And, uh, it fell one vote short of the 60 votes needed. With its sponsor, John Hoeven, voting against it.
Finally, and predictably, the Schatz amendment was voted down, 50 yes to 49 no, with a handful of Republican yes votes.
But let's talk about the fact that the Senate spent an afternoon voting on these to begin with.
I like this "voting for which facts are real" approach. So much more cost effective than doing science-stuff.
— @HunterDK
Dear Senators please vote on validity of math next.
— @jamisonfoser
At least the Senate said math existed? Even if it then rejected the idea that math was useful in determining amounts of things?
