Trump nominates Neil Jacobs to Leader NOAA: NPR

Neil Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist, is Trump’s choice for leader NOAA.

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WHO: Neil Jacobs

Nominated for: Administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

You may know them from: Jacobs led the agency on an actor’s basis during part of the former Trump administration.

• An atmospheric scientist By educating, he worked earlier in the weather monitoring industry.
• He was quoted for mismatch during an incident known as “Sharpiegate” when President Trump used a card with a changed path for hurricane Dorian during his first period

What does this role do:

• Noaa’s offices study and monitor the sea and atmosphere; Weather Forwarding Efforts by National Weather Service; And organizations that manage the country’s oceanic fishing as well as its marine monuments.

President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to be the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA. Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist, was a former agency’s acting leader under part of the first Trump administration, emphasizing the agency’s focus on weather forecasts.

Jacobs were too quoted for mismatch After the “Sharpiegate” incident where he and others Trump-appointed Noaa-officials proved to have been exerting pressure on scientists To change the forecast for 2019’s Hurricane Dorian to adapt to error information made by President Trump, which suggests the hurricane would hover into Alabama. It didn’t, and the weather modeling hadn’t indicated that it would probably do.

“He turned out to have compromised the scientific integrity of NOAA,” says Andrew Rosenberg, a former NOAA vice director, now a fellow for public politics at the University of New Hampshire. “I think it is very unfortunate that he would be renamed because it means there is no consequence to just ignore science.”

During the second Trump administration, the agency’s priorities are expected to change, emphasize climate research and potentially roll back environmental protection for oceans and fishing, areas that had been prioritized under the Biden administration.

The nomination requires confirmation of the Senate. Republicans have a majority of seats in the Senate.

NOAA was established in 1970 under President Richard Nixon as part of the Department of Commerce. NOAA administrators have primarily been researchers who are located to direct the agency’s broad portfolio of both scientific research and regulatory efforts. Jacobs’ nomination continues this pattern. Jacobs is an atmospheric scientist at training and has worked in the weather monitoring industry. He is currently Chief Science Advisor for United Forecast System, an initiative within NOAA to “better predict weather and climate”, according to to its site.

The agency is about 40% of the Department of Commerce’s budget from 2025 and has more than 11,000 employees across the country and territories.

Rosenberg says a large cross -section of Americans benefits from the science that the agency delivers – from weather forecasts to charts used by recreational sailors.

“If you are interested in the weather if you are interested in the sea, if you are interested in the climate,” says Rosenberg, “then you depend on a significant degree of work that Noaa does. Whether you know it or not . ”

During the bite, NOAA expanded the protected areas of the sea and invested in climate and weather research. Bid assigned billions Against the agency’s efforts to improve the weather forecast functions and increase climate’s resilience in coastal cities.

Trump and many of his followers have specifically criticized Noaa’s climate research efforts. Project 2025, a conservative agenda created by the Heritage Foundation, described the agency’s climate research wing as “one of the most important driving forces for the alarm industry in climate change” which suggests that the wing should be “dissolved.”

It also suggested that the entire organization should be divided, moving or dismantling many of its current offices and privatizing others as National Weather Service. In nomination hearings last week, nominated trade department Howard Lutnick said he did not intend to move or dissolve the agency.

Trump has previously expressed interest in privatizing national weather forecasts. During his first administration, Trump suggested that the NOAA administrator position went to Barry Myers, who at that time was CEO of Accuweather. Myers withdrew his candidacy before the Senate was scheduled to vote on his confirmation.

The former Trump administration also aimed at climate and weather sciences on the agency. Craig McLean, who served as acting chief scientist for the agency during the first Trump administration, is reminiscent of the pressure on Jacobs and other scientists who were exercised under “Sharpiegate” to confirm the presidents’ unfounded predictions.

McLean is concerned that similar pressure will fall on researchers in the new administration. “You know pressure will be there,” he says.