Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) denounced claims that the earth is experiencing human-induced global warming on Wednesday, accusing proponents of using “rigged” data and claiming climate science was an excuse to redistribute wealth in the United States.

Inhofe made the comments on Fox News, where he was discussing his book The Greatest Hoax, which was released on Tuesday.

“I did some checking into the science only to find out that they had rigged the science — and the book covers it — how the United Nations rigged this thing all the way through,” Inhofe said.

{mosads}“You talk about appropriate timing … right when we’re getting this spike in gas prices, as soon as they start. Their plan, which they are doing, is to regulate the CO2 in the refineries. You’re going to see another huge spike.”

“Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy asked Inhofe if global warming was merely a “convenient excuse to redistribute wealth in this country” on the part of “environmentalists and people on the political left.”

“That is exactly right,” Inhofe responded, adding that because the Obama administration was unable to legislate its energy policy, it was looking to instill “fear” in people to justify its regulations.

An overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists say the planet is undergoing climate change and that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are a major contributor. Some Republicans in Congress argue that the data presented is not conclusive, and suggest some lawmakers are pushing the issue to further promote green energy policies.

In 2009, a batch of emails was released that some claimed showed scientists hiding data, which raised questions about the validity of global warming — investigations into the hacked emails concluded that was not the case, however.

Efforts to address the issue have also had little momentum in Congress.  An attempt to pass cap-and-trade legislation stalled in the Senate in 2010.

—This story was updated at 9:20 a.m.