Senator Inhofe’s Energy Bills Included in Clinton Emails Released by WikiLeaks

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His efforts over the years in energy measures before the U.S. Senate earned Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe in those controversial. Hillary Clinton emails released this month by WikiLeaks.

A search of the Clinton emails on the WikiLeaks website showed Sen. Inhofe was mentioned 98 separate times. Some involved his stance in support of a South African President while many pertained to his efforts in the Senate to offer energy bills while Clinton was Secretary of State.

For instance, one Nov. 13, 208 email concerned the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Legislation in the 100th Congress. Another pertained to Inhofe’s work on the Public Buildings Cost Reduction Act of 2007. He also was mentioned for his work on the Alternative Fuel Standard Act.

In most cases, the emails were simply explanations of the bills or amendments. Inhofe was specifically mentioned in the summer of 2012 when Secretary Clinton was pushing support for the nominations of James B. Cunningham of New York to be Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Richard G. Olson of New Mexico to be Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Her aide, Cheryl Mills indicated to Clinton that Cunningham would be confirmed while Olson would be held up for a fuller discussion.

“We teed up Marc and Ryan today for a number of calls to R Senators, including Lugar, Inhofe, Barasso, and Risch, all of which went better than expected—Lugar and Inhofe even started whipping other Members to support us. We thought we had worked through all the issues but then Paul proved too obstructionist.”

In another specific mention of Inhofe, Sec. Clinton received a 2011 memo from State Department aide Lauren Jiloty about the Senator’s defense of President Gbagbo of the South African country of Cote d’Ivoire.

“This is a heads-up: Senator Inhofe just called my deputy Don Yamamoto this evening to inform us that: 1) He had sent a letter to Secretary Clinton recently and was still awaiting a response. (Comment: We have not seen the letter in the Africa Bureau.) 2) the Senator will be sending an editorial or article to the Los Angeles Times as well as other news outlets tonight.”

She went on to state that Inhofe indicated “there is ample evidence of irregularities to demonstrate that opposition candidate Ouattara stole the presidential election and there should be new elections.

“Comment: Senator Inhofe has close ties to President Gbagbo, has criticized our Cote d’Ivoire policy and has resisted our previous efforts to get him to call Gbagbo to step aside.”

Sen. Inhofe’s office did not respond to an email request from OK Energy Today for a comment about the WikiLeaks emails.