Trump’s climate skepticism could hurt military operations
Proposals to “dismantle” NOAA and roll back energy efforts pose “a huge risk,” said one expert.
Patrick Tucker | November 8, 2024 09:55 PM ET
White House Pentagon Climate Logistics
The U.S. military would be weakened by Trump-ally proposals to break up the federal government’s main weather-monitoring agency and roll back efforts to reduce Pentagon dependence on fossil fuel, DOD leaders and former national-security officials say.
“I think it would be a real mistake to pivot,” Brendan Owens, assistant defense secretary for energy, installations, and environment, told reporters on Friday—a mistake, he said, that China or Russia could exploit in wartime.
Project 2025—the Heritage Foundation’s policy plan for a Trump presidency—says the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, “should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.” Trump has attempted to distance himself from the document, which was largely produced by his former appointees and staff. But during his first term as president, he lashed out at NOAA after its scientists contradicted a false statement of his, and, more generally, attempted to squelch scientific reporting on climate change.
While Project 2025 calls for privatizing the provision of weather-service data, Owens said, “I don't know any alternative” to the capability NOAA provides.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2024/11/trumps-climate-skepticism-could-hurt-military-operations/400961/?oref=d1-featured-river-top
