As the United States Senate’s new Republican majority takes over, leadership shuffles are expected in many of the chamber’s committees. Among the biggest changes, a vocal denier of climate change is likely to replace the current head of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

The senator, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, has aggressively denounced the Environmental Protection Agency and opposed legislation to lighten the environmental impacts of coal burning, fracking, methane emissions and other problems. Despite overwhelming consensus of climate change’s reality from researchers around the world, Inhofe asserts that it is an “environmental-liberal conspiracy” and anti-biblical.

The Republican’s biggest funders are the oil and gas industries, which have donated millions of dollars to his political campaigns.

Inhofe’s pending appointment as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee is completely deplorable. Denying climate change is no longer a reasonable stance for politicians of any party.

Surveys have shown that the majority of the American public — including most Republicans — is in favor of action against climate change. Other countries around the world have long since taken strides toward addressing environmental damage.

With Inhofe and other climate deniers in environmental leadership positions, the U.S. will fall behind the rest of the world and fail to take responsibility for one of the biggest threats to its citizens.

We urge both leaders and citizens to voice opposition to Inhofe’s pending appointment to a leadership position in a Senate committee that’s supposed to be an advocate for effective environmental policy.