(AXEL SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
Sen. James Inhofe makes a press statement at the Bella Center in Copenhagen.

COPENHAGEN -- Leading Senate climate skeptic James Inhofe, R-Okla., crashed the party here for just a couple of hours this morning before heading back to Capitol Hill for health care votes later today. He used his time at the conference to hold court with reporters in the media center, where he blamed "Hollywood elites" and the United Nations for perpetrating what he considers a climate change hoax.

The Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member said he had come to spread his message to the 192 other assembled nations and warn them, "Don't go back home with the false impression as to what we're going to do" in the U.S.

He said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., "misled" people here on Wednesday in pledging that Congress will pass climate legislation next year. "We are not going to pass something like a cap-and-trade" next spring, Inhofe said, "because the votes just simply aren't there."

He did, however, offer his own prediction about who will be in charge in 2010. Noting to reporters his ranking status on the Environment and Public Works panel, Inhofe said, "When the Republicans were the majority, I was the chairman of that committee. I probably will be again after the next midterm election."

Other than holding the press briefing, Inhofe said he had a couple of "not significant" meetings and dodged questions about who specifically he planned to meet with. "I'm meeting with you guys right now," he said.

The tight security at the conference site as well as Inhofe's tight schedule appeared to stymie planned theatrics from environmental activists, who were planning to shadow Inhofe. In fact, the only real opposition voice Inhofe heard here might have been a reporter from Der Spiegel who told Inhofe at one point, "That's ridiculous. You're ridiculous."

CORRECTION: The original version of this post misidentified Sen. Inhofe's position on the Environment and Public Works Committee.