Dude Picked To Run Commerce Department Will Probably Wreck The National Weather Service

Howard Lutnick is set to take over the Commerce 
Department under Trump.  Commerce controls NOAA
and the National Weather Service, and this all
bodes poorly for climate change research, and
timely weather emergency warnings. 

Last week we received word, that Donald Trump wants this guy named Howard Lutnick to be his commerce secretary.  

The U.S. Commerce Secretary's main role is to promote U.S. business, trade and innovation. 

Trump, as you probably heard on the news Wednesday, wants to impose these big tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.  Lutnick is a big cheerleader for tariffs, so his pick is no big surprise.

Never mind that most economists tell us that tariffs like those Trump and Lutnick so love would tank the economy and make the inflation we saw under the early parts of the Biden administration seem like a walk in the park. 

OK, I can hear you telling me, fine, but this is supposed to be a weather and climate blog. Why the hell are you blathering on about tariffs?

Fair enough, but I'm finally getting to the point now. 

Commerce is a sprawling agency, overseeing a lot of other agencies. Among Lutnick's management duties is NOAA, in which th National Weather Service is a big part. 

Given Lutnick's loyalty and general agreement and subservience to Trump on just about everything, this is bad.  Since he's such a Trump loyalist, he'll likely follow through and wreck the National Weather Service too. 

Trump's campaign statements that he doesn't know much about Project 2025, the blueprint for "governance" that his minions put out, is ominious.

Per NPR: 

"Project 2025 - a planning document drafted by Trump allies - calls for dismantling the parent agency of the weather service, NOAA, and either eliminating or privatizing its functions or turning them over to the states. 

While Trump has sought to deny a connection, there is plenty of overlap between Project 2025 and his agenda."

This would dwarf the mischief that Trump and his then commerce secretary Wilbur Ross conducted during Trump's first term.

This goes back to the famous "Sharpie" incident in which Trump falsely said Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama.  That's when Trump showed a weather map altered with a Sharpie that purported to show the hurricane was headed toward Alabama.

National Weather Service meteorologists in Alabama ran afoul of Trump by truthfully saying that the hurricane was no threat to Alabama. 

Ross threatened to fire meteorologists who contradicted Trump.

That incident was small potatoes compared to what's coming. 

Project 2025 calls for dismantling NOAA, I'm thinking mostly because scientists there study climate change, and Trump is trying to gaslight the world by vainly trying to convince everyone that said climate change doesn't exist.

This Project 2025 also would get rid of the National Weather Service, likely by privatizing it.  The results, at least from what I can tell, would be far less accurate forecasts, no coordinated warning system for severe weather, and worse, perhaps putting weather forecasts behind a paywall, so that only people who can afford it can get, say tornado or flash flood warnings.

All you rubes who can't afford a paywall like this are on your own. If you get killed by a tornado or a hurricane, it's your fault for not being rich, apparently.  

So, we knew Trump's picks for his cabinet would be bad for the battle against climate change, and against science in general. How that will happen is now coming into focus as we learn who's going to doing what in the Trump administration.