INDIANAPOLIS (AP): Indiana's top official in charge of improving the state's air quality has angered some of his co-workers with a remark expressing skepticism about global warming.

Keith Baugues is assistant commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Office of Air Quality. The Indianapolis Star reports he posted a remark on a government message board during February's frigid weather saying “anyone who says global warming is obviously suffering from frostbite.”

Baugues later said he was just joking. But several IDEM staff members replied with their own messages saying his comment had offended and embarrassed them because it flies in the face of nearly unanimous scientific consensus about global warming.

Indiana ranks near the top in the nation for air pollution and coal production for power plants linked to global warming.