Elon Musk’s latest cost-cutting initiative has sparked alarm, with a former Trump administration official warning that it targets a vital federal agency: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In an op-ed for The New York Times, Ryan Maue, who served in Trump’s NOAA and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, called the proposal a dangerous misstep.
“With the rising costs of and vulnerability to extreme weather in a changing climate for the United States, dismantling or defunding NOAA would be a catastrophic error,” Maue wrote. The proposal to reduce NOAA’s funding is part of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint to streamline the federal government. It is spearheaded by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency.
The plan reportedly labels NOAA as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry” and recommends that it be “broken down and downsized.” Maue strongly refuted these claims, emphasizing NOAA’s critical role in monitoring and forecasting extreme weather events. “Using satellites, balloon launches, ships, aircraft, and weather stations, NOAA and its offices around the country provide vital services like clockwork, free of charge — services that cannot be adequately replaced by the private sector in part because they wouldn’t necessarily be profitable,” he argued.
Slashing NOAA’s funding, he warned, would leave the U.S. vulnerable to the escalating threats of extreme weather, including hurricanes, wildfires, and floods. Such moves, Maue wrote, would have far-reaching consequences for public safety, economic stability, and even national security.
“And because the military relies on NOAA’s infrastructure, the risks of and damage from extreme weather and climate events are a national security concern as much as an economic one,” Maue added. Critics of Project 2025 have raised concerns about its potential impacts on climate research and preparedness.
NOAA’s data and services are integral to disaster response, agriculture, aviation, and other sectors, offering life-saving information that the private sector has neither the incentive nor the capacity to provide at scale.
Maue’s op-ed serves as a stark warning against prioritizing budget cuts over the resilience and safety NOAA ensures in an era of increasingly volatile weather patterns. As debates over federal spending intensify, NOAA’s role in safeguarding Americans against climate-related risks remains firmly in the spotlight.