As Georgians hunker down, waiting for the worst of Hurricane Helene to pass, Republicans in Washington, D.C., are preparing to dismantle the agency that brings hurricane forecasts to people in the path.
Project 2025, the brainchild of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, laid out its plans for the Trump administration, should former President Donald Trump be reelected this November. The plan wasn’t written by the Trump campaign, and Trump has said he knows nothing about it. But it was written by 140 people who worked in the Trump administration and another 100 with direct ties to Trump. It is reasonable to assume that it will be the framework for a second Trump term.
Credit: Courtesy Photo
Credit: Courtesy Photo
Among the departments and agencies the plan proffers to eliminate is the National Weather Service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Yes, the very agencies that track severe weather, including hurricanes.
Project 2025 states, “The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states.” The rationale for such a move? NOAA “is one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” Project 2025 recommends that the National Weather Service, part of NOAA, “commercialize” — privatize, in other words.
With Hurricane Helene bearing down, we rely on the federal government to provide us with accurate and timely information about the storm’s path, severity and impacts. Could we trust a corporation to relay important information if it conflicts with its investors’ interests?
After Helene passes, we cannot be not complacent. Scientists warn that we will see more of these events unless our environmental policies improve.
But Project 2025 takes us in the opposite direction, supposedly to stimulate the economy while ignoring the downside. This detailed 920-page document covers energy and the environment among numerous other areas. It advocates terminating “government interference in energy decisions.” It says, “bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangle domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rule making processes.” The document advocates gutting the EPA’s “costly, job-killing regulations that serve to depress the economy.”
These regulations are designed to protect Americans by attempting to reduce pollution, including those that contribute to climate change. Scientists believe we need much stronger regulation on fossil fuels — not a watering down regulatory efforts. The International Panel on Climate Change said in its 2023 report that the Earth is likely to surpass a 1.5-degree Celsius warming by 2029. It has long been understood that the 1.5-degree mark is the tipping point for irreversible climate impacts. “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all,” the IPCC said.
But, the IPCC warned, “Projected CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure without additional abatement would exceed the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C (50%).”
Project 2025 actively promotes increased use of fossil fuels, saying, “reserves of oil and natural gas are not an environmental problem” It classifies the Biden administration’s meager moves toward renewable energy as- “extreme climate policies.” It even suggests that the U.S. Agency for International Development “should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world.”
Never mind the negative impact that man-made climate change is having on our lives — such as the increasing number and increasing strength of hurricanes hitting our shores. Never mind that the main driver of climate change is carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
The document justifies its radical approach by declaring consumer prices will fall when energy production is increased. The implication is that President Joe Biden caused high gas prices. Among other things, the war in Ukraine is a direct cause of price increases, as is a bad OPEC deal pushed by Trump when he was in office.
In fact, as reported by the Bureau of Land Management, under Biden drilling permit approvals have risen versus under “drill, baby, drill” Trump. Both crude oil and natural gas production are now at record highs, exceeding the Trump years.
Clearly, Project 2025 would move the United States in the wrong direction, pushing the next Trump administration to put corporate profits above health and safety.
Normally, scientists and others who work at agencies like NOAA and EPA would stop some of the more radical proposals. But, per Project 2025, “Scientific agencies like NOAA are vulnerable to obstructionism of an Administration’s aims if political appointees are not wholly in sync with Administration policy.” Basically, it advocates getting rid of scientists and replacing them with malleable political types with little or no scientific background.
Some people have a knee-jerk negative reaction when it comes to regulation by national, state or local governments. But when it comes to specific regulations that affect us personally, our response is different. We want regulations when we realize the negative aspects of going unregulated. Think of the meat and cheese recalls after deli foods from a Boar’s Head plant in Virginia were linked to cases of listeria across several states. A tenth death related to the recalled food was announced Thursday. Many people wondered where the regulators were. How could a plant that makes the food in our lunchboxes operate in such a way?
Project 2025 would be a true disaster for America. Get ready for more hurricanes and less notice.
Jack Bernard, a retired business executive and former chair of the Jasper County Commission and Republican Party, was the first director of health planning for Georgia.
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