PARIS — President Obama quoted Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the opening day of this year's Climate Change Conference. Dr. King said “There is such a thing as being too late.”
The American delegation includes Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R.-Oklahoma), the Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee), were not invited.
But as a solitary reporter observed, immediately after Mr. Obama made his plea to 200 world leaders for meaningful action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, McConnell — who drones on endlessly that the president is waging a war on coal — and Inhofe, the author of The Greatest Hoax: Public Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future — burst into the conference room, saying “Long live dirty coal! We love our dirty petroleum!”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, always pleased to oppose Obama at every opportunity, applauded, together with Chinese President Xi Jinpin.
The Conference ends on December 11. McConnell and Inhofe told our associate solitary reporter, Lewis Thompson, that they plan to send GOP operatives into the conference room tomorrow, chain Mr. Obama to his chair, and stuff cotton balls and Canadian crude petroleum into his mouth to prevent him from speaking.
But French President François Hollande said that that would be impolite.
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