Trump budget would crush crucial weather data program

Benjamin Spillman | Reno Gazette-Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption How Trump budget threatens crucial weather data for Reno, U.S. A proposed 82 percent budget cut to Regional Climate Centers threatens data used for everything from wildland firefighting to planting crops. The Western Regional Climate Center wouldn't have money to operate if Congress approves Trump's proposed cut

RENO — A trove of nationwide weather data that keeps wildland firefighters safe and helps farmers plant crops is in jeopardy under the budget proposed by President Trump.

Regional Climate Centers, a little-known network of weather data gathering and processing centers, face an existential threat in the form of a recommended 82% budget cut in Trump’s proposed budget.

Centers manage weather information that helps fire managers battle wildland fires, helps farmers decide where and when to plant crops and helps engineers design dams and bridges that can stand up to extremes.

Operators of the six climate centers say if Trump’s vision becomes reality the centers would run out of money in March.

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“If this budget stays as proposed it will require us to shut down services,” said Tim Brown, director of the Western Regional Climate Center, which operates from the Desert Research Institute in Reno.

A petition posted on websites of climate centers in Baton Rouge; Lincoln, Neb.; Champaign, Ill.; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Chapel Hill, N.C., also says those centers would be forced to close were Congress to approve Trump’s budget.

Trump’s disdain for climate research and funding for environmental protection is widely known and documented in his tweets as well as proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and programs aimed at slowing or reversing destructive, human-caused climate change.

Even before his election as president, Trump publicly called the well-documented phenomena of climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

After Trump took office, Mick Mulvaney, his budget director, disparaged climate observation and research as "a waste of your money."

What’s less publicized is the role climate data from thousands of weather stations and volunteer observers plays in daily decision-making across the United States that’s crucial to everything from the safety of wildland firefighters to the operation of ski areas to construction of major infrastructure to helping farms survive droughts.

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“I think a $3.6 million a year program that helps communities across the country is pretty darn cost effective,” said Lexi Shultz, spokeswoman for the American Geophysical Union, a non-profit organization that counts among its members nearly 63,000 scientists in 139 countries.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross acknowledged during testimony before Congress the climate centers would struggle to recover from the proposed cuts.

“I don’t know that they will be able to fill the funding gap,” Ross said, according to Environment & Energy News, a trade publication. “The level of activity will go down, will go down considerably, but no one will be left without a center.”

Ross defended cuts to the Commerce Department, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under which climate centers operate, by saying Trump and Mulvaney, “prioritized programs that provide good return to the taxpayer.”

But Trump’s proposed cut of about $3 million is a minuscule amount compared to the totality of the budget and areas where Trump wants to increase spending.

For example, the estimated cost of Trump’s proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico is about 7,000 times greater than federal taxpayers’ share of the climate centers’ funding.

Centers produce big bang for few bucks

Founded in 1986 to fill the gap between state and national climate data and monitoring services. Regional centers are important because they cover large climatological zones and huge landscape features such as mountain ranges that cross state lines.

Wildland firefighters, and the communities and habitat they protect, would be among the most directly affected by the demise of climate centers, particularly in the west.

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Data processed through the Western Regional Climate Center is the foundation for an online map that updates wildland fire danger in California every hour.

“Firefighting it is an extremely dangerous job,” said Tom Rolinski, a senior meteorologist and predictive services manager for the U.S. Forest Service in Riverside, Calif. “Without that information, our firefighters would be at much more risk to harm.”

In addition, ready access to reliable and comprehensive weather data saves taxpayers incalculable amounts of money.

Fires, floods, smoke and even diseases like West Nile are influenced by weather patterns.

“Hazard plus vulnerability equals what the risks are,” said Aaron Kenneston, emergency manager for Washoe County, Nev. “The more accurate the data the better our ability to better understand the hazard.”

Officials then apply their understanding to reduce the risk in advance of an emergency to prevent harm and save taxpayers money.

“The whole idea of mitigation is that it is much less expensive to prevent an incident from happening than it is to respond and recover and rebuild,” he said.

Centers also produce the U.S. Drought Monitor and other information that is crucial to farmers, particularly in the Midwest.

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And data from centers helps coastal communities prepare for hurricanes and other hazards.

A disruption in government weather and climate data also could affect other users of historical weather data such as airlines, transportation and shipping companies, manufacturers and insurance companies.

Playing politics with science

Ross’ testimony to Congress doesn’t explain why the Regional Climate Centers were targeted for a massive cut despite their tiny cost relative to the budget.

The proposal calls for devastating cuts while stating the centers will “produce and deliver climate data, information and knowledge” to decision makers without stating how it can accomplish the job with majority funding directed elsewhere.

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The centers aren’t the only data gathering and science oriented entity the Trump administration is targeting with cuts.

The National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Science at the Department of Energy are among areas targeted with cuts.

Ted Bordelon, director of communications for 314 Action, an advocacy group seeking to encourage more scientists to run for office, criticized proposed cuts to the climate centers as putting politics ahead of science.

“These centers are valuable to public health and public good, it is definitely alarming when their funding is threatened because of a political agenda,” Bordelon said.

Whether cuts to the Regional Climate Centers come to fruition remains to be seen. To become reality Congress would need to approve Trump’s request.

If Congress doesn't approve Trump's version of the budget and doesn't pass a new budget of its own the centers could remain at existing funding levels.

Follow Benjamin Spillman on Twitter: @ByBenSpillman

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