Hundreds of layoffs at top US climate agency: lawmaker February 28, 2025
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Feb 27, 2025
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Hundreds of layoffs at top US climate agency: lawmaker
Issam AHMED
Hundreds of scientists and experts have been laid off from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a key US agency responsible for weather forecasting, climate analysis, marine conservation, and more, a Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.
The cuts come at a time when Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is promoting broad reductions in the federal workforce - measures that critics say may exceed legal authority.
NOAA has been the main target of the conservative ideologues behind Project 2025, a government plan that the new administration of President Donald Trump seems to be following.
The plan, developed by the Heritage Foundation, describes NOAA as one of the “key drivers of the climate change alarm industry” and calls for the agency to be dismantled.
It also seeks to privatize the National Weather Service, leaving weather forecasting in the hands of companies like AccuWeather.
“Hundreds of NOAA scientists and experts just got the news every federal employee dreads,” wrote Congressman Jared Huffman of California in a statement.
“Musk's false mission is undermining vital programs. People across the country depend on NOAA for free and accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information,” added Huffman, who is the second most powerful member of the House Natural Resources Committee.
“Eliminating career government scientists, experts, and civil servants and cutting important programs will cost lives.”
A NOAA spokesperson said the agency would not comment on internal personnel issues.
“We continue to provide weather information, forecasts, and warnings consistent with our public safety mission,” spokesman Theo Stein told AFP.
Environmental campaigners expressed concern about the move.
“Trump's mass layoffs at NOAA are an act of sabotage against one of our most important federal agencies,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
She added that eliminating the agency “will undermine essential life-saving programs that predict storms, ensure ocean safety, and prevent the extinction of whales and sea otters.”
Trump reappointed meteorologist Neil Jacobs to lead NOAA, despite his role in the “Sharpiegate” scandal during Trump's first term.
Jacobs, who led the agency from 2018 to 2021, was officially censured for giving in to political pressure and misleading the public about a hurricane forecast.
Controversy erupted in 2019 when Trump falsely claimed that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama.
After the National Weather Service corrected him, Trump backtracked, displaying a doctored forecast map, altered with a felt-tip pen. NOAA later issued an unsigned statement supporting Trump, provoking negative reactions. Official investigations punished Jacobs for his involvement in the statement.
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