Sen. James Inhofe to Climate Change Skeptics: 'We Are Winning'

Sen. James Inhofe told a group of climate change skeptics that they are winning the fight against those who believe in man-made global warming at the event hosted by the Heartland Institute.

"We are winning," said the Oklahoma Republican, who on Thursday opened the two-day 10th International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, D.C., The Daily Caller is reporting.

"They've lost the battle on getting legislation passed," Inhofe told the crowd, but now the Obama administration is working to push regulations through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee put the blame for the climate change movement on the United Nations, The Hill reported.

"The United Nations is the reason that this all came along. We all know that," he said. "They want independence. They don't want to be accountable to anybody, to the United States or any other country."

The Oklahoma senator cited former French President Jacques Chirac who said that global warming "is the first component of authentic global governance."

Inhofe also had a message for Pope Francis — stay out of the climate change debate, The Guardian reported.

"Everyone is going to ride the Pope now. Isn't that wonderful," he told the crowd.

"The Pope ought to stay with his job, and we'll stay with ours," he said, adding that "I am not going to talk about the pope. Let him run his shop, and we'll run ours."

Inhofe was honored by the Heartland Institute with the Political Leadership on Climate Change Award, which was presented by former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint.

Texas Rep. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, also addressed the group Thursday, in which he described the EPA's effort to impose new rules as "dictatorial," The Dallas Morning News reported.

The conference continues through Friday with political commentator Mark Steyn and Lord Christopher Monckton, chief policy adviser to the Science and Public Policy Institute, of Britain, scheduled to speak.

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