Colorado scientists, lawmakers sound the alarm over proposed cuts to climate research
share
BOULDER, Colo. — In March, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency fired hundreds of workers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The firings included many Coloradans.
Now, a leaked White House memo shows the Trump administration has more plans to gut federal climate research — cuts that will have a major impact in Colorado.
According to the document, which several news outlets obtained a copy of, the Trump administration wants to slash more than a quarter of NOAA’s budget and eliminate the agency’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. In Colorado, OAR is responsible for studying drought, wildfires, air pollution and more.
The Trump administration is also targeting cooperative institutes, which are nonprofit, academic research institutes that support NOAA.
Two of the nation’s 16 cooperative institutes are in Colorado, the only state with multiple institutes. The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) is part of CU Boulder and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) is based at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
CIRES is the largest and oldest of the cooperative institutes. About 900 people work at the institute. Waleed Abdalati, the former chief scientist of NASA and the current executive director of CIRES, told Rocky Mountain PBS that about half of the workers at Boulder’s NOAA offices are supported by cooperative institutes.
“We have something that’s pure gold in terms of a robust research ecosystem that supports the lives and livelihood and wellbeing of not just people in Boulder and in Colorado, but people in the country and the world,” said Abdalati, who earned his doctorate at CU Boulder.
CIRES research has improved the collective understanding of tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and drought. The institute has more than 10 areas of research, ranging from the ocean floor to the atmosphere.
The proposed cuts to NOAA would "take us back to the 1950s in terms of our scientific footing and the American people," Craig McLean, a former director of NOAA's office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, told NPR.
Colorado Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, both Democrats, along with Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (Boulder), sent a letter last week to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik — who once called climate change “the defining issue of our time” — condemning the administration’s plans to end funding for the cooperative institutes. NOAA is part of the Department of Commerce.
“It is our fear that if sweeping cuts are made, the damage will be irreversible. Even short-term interruptions in their research could threaten the safety and economies of the communities that CIs serve across the nation,” the congressmen wrote in the letter.
Rocky Mountain PBS reached out to NOAA and the Department of Commerce as well as Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the only member of Colorado’s congressional delegation on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. We did not hear back by deadline.
The proposed cuts in the leaked memo are not a foregone conclusion. Congress still has to approve the budget for fiscal year 2026.
The leaked memo, known as a “passback,” instructs NOAA to “align the 2025 operating plans with the 2026 Passback,” meaning the agency should adjust its spending for the rest of 2025 to align with proposed plans for next year’s budget.
Abdalati said that means the cooperative institutes could be impacted even before the 2026 budget takes effect.
When federal budgets are approved, Congress is typically required to get very specific about how money sent to different agencies, such as NOAA, must be used.
But the “continuing resolution” spending bill Congress passed in March to avert a government shutdown — with the help of some Democrats, most prominently Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — did not come with any specific instructions, which could give the White House and DOGE more power to determine how agencies like NOAA are permitted to use their funding.
Abdalati said he expected the Trump administration to target climate research.
“What came as a bigger surprise to me was the fact that to pass the continuing resolution for 2025, Congress gave up its authority to do those [line item] deliberations and really did leave it to the White House,” Abdalati said.
If Congress approves the cuts proposed in the memo, hundreds of Coloradans could lose their jobs.
John Tayer, the president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, said “our hearts go out to the individuals, so many of them who dedicated their careers to research and scientific knowledge that is not only important for our economic opportunity, but for addressing critical global issues.”
The cuts to NOAA are part and parcel of the Trump administration’s sweeping plans to gut federal research. The federal government has already canceled around $11 billion worth of university research funding.
Experts are warning the cuts will affect not only climate research, but also studies focused on cancer or HIV.
Conservatives called for many of the cuts the Trump administration is now proposing. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the Trump administration, accused NOAA of being "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity."
Project 2025 called for NOAA to be “dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.”
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Lutnick said he did not agree that NOAA should be dismantled. Nevertheless, many of the Trump administration’s policies mirror the Heritage Foundation’s proposals.
As Rocky Mountain PBS previously reported, the suggestion to privatize parts of NOAA is easier said than done, according to weather experts in the private sector.
“I don’t think that we can absorb all the capabilities that NOAA provides,” said Daniel Rothenberg is an atmospheric scientist based in Weld County, “and we certainly can’t reproduce all of the value that the National Weather Service creates for the American public.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.