ClimateWire | A few years ago, a former Trump official, who surprised scientists when he tried to confuse scientists with a parliamentary climate report, returned to the White House with an expected influence on the next version.
Stuart Levenbach was knocked on administrative officials last month to serve as a deputy director of natural resources, energy, science and water at the management and budget office.
When President Donald Trump was in the White House, Relvenbach attempted to conclude a summary of the national climate evaluation. Contribution of hundreds of researchers It assesses how global warming changes the United States.
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Scientists said they tried to ignore the climate risk at the fourth installment of Levenbach every four years. In this edition, Levenbach says that the report is especially associated with high greenhouse gas emission families that are partially dependent on the report and soften the language of the report summary, scientists say.
Don Wuebbles, a climate scientist at Illinois University, said, “He was a man who tried to slow down it.
Levenbach’s delayed tactics ultimately failed and the fourth installment of the report was announced in 2018. The day after Thanksgiving.
In response to the questions of Politico’s E & ENews, the Trump administrative management of management and budget offices explained that scientists’ concerns were “fake news.”
Levenbach is joining OMB when the director Russ Vought wants to curb climate science throughout the federal government. Increase the White House director Trump Next installment of national climate evaluation scheduled for 2026 or 2027.
Vought, an architect of conservative policy playbooks, known as Project 2025, aimed at the national climate evaluation, especially at the venue on the expansion of presidential power. Vought said the report You need to control it in more detail The White House is to reduce the impact on litigation and prevent the ability to support federal regulations.
Vough described the evaluation as A Threat.
The US Global Change Research Program said, “We create strategic plans and research (eg, national climate evaluation) that legally reduces the scope of the right options in the rules and rules and rules of the presidential decision and agency.
In the first Trump administration, Levenbach was appointed as a senior advisor to the White House Environmental Council and National Economics Council before serving as a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When he was in NOAA, the release of national climate evaluation was surprisingly caught the administration.
Levenbach said that Wuebbles at the University of Illinois is one of some Trump administrative officials who want to force scientists who have performed the report.
He said Levenbach asked for a study that originally supported the original discovery, even though it was cited in the report after questioning the scientific conclusions of the report. He appears to be an intentional attempt to create a series of road blocks designed to block the release of the report, he said.
“The whole idea has never been released because it is slowed down,” said Wuebbles.
At the time, the role of Levenbach in NOAA was more weight than usual, and the institution was operating without permanent managers and did so for the entire first Trump.
OMB spokesman Rachel Cyley did not deny that Levenbach was trying to change the report, but she criticized how it was combined.
“The evaluation was a mystery due to the worst scenario, and the authors were not transparent about it.”
Levenbach refused to comment.
The national climate evaluation is based on a variety of discharge scenarios, not the worst scenario. that The fourth version of the report In conclusion, it was concluded that it did not cut carbon dioxide emissions to avoid the worst results of climate change.
Researchers concluded that “easing and adaptation efforts have been substantially expanded in the last four years, but we have not yet approached the size necessary to avoid significant damages to economy, environment and human health for decades.”
During Trump’s first term, a White House official discussed the withholding reports. Someone proposed to launch scientists who worked it. POLITICO’s E & E News reported earlier.
Federal researchers, who resisted the pressure of Trump officials, insisted that they would change the results of the report.
This included Virginia bucket, chairman of the US Global Change Research Program, which writes a report. Burkett rejected Levenbach’s attempt to weaken the scientific conclusions of the report, and because of that, she was demoted as the chairman of the US Global Change Research Program.
July 2024 Burkett is A Inner accuser complaints With the Ministry of Home Affairs. She mentioned that “some retaliation measures were taken against me,” she said to block the change of national climate evaluation.
“I have led a successful effort to prevent the last instant change of the summary of the reports of the National Maritime Affairs Bureau’s reports,” she said. “These suggestions would have been greatly false of the work of more than 300 federal and academic scientists in the report reported through a wide range of colleagues, public and national academies.”
According to the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which is working with Burkett, this complaint is still open and under investigation.
Craig McLean, the chief scientist of Trump’s NOAA, said Levenbach and other NOAA officials said they had national climate evaluation.
McClean said, “It was in trouble until Virginia stepped. Suddenly, “ Yes, we must let go of it. ” “It was open. NOAA will not approve it. ”
Eventually, the fourth national climate evaluation was announced, but the administration tried to bury it on Black Friday. But this plan was counterproductive and the report created a significant media report.
Trump later said the report “did not believe.”
After Trump was lost in the 2020 election, Levenbach used “sustainable energy sources around the world” in the energy technology company Baker Hughes. He earned a Ph.D. in marine ecology.
As a supervision of the state’s scientific efforts, the administration’s appointment for Levenbach’s powerful White House role is Preparation of possible challenges for endangered crisis resultsBasic cancer ruling that considers greenhouse gas as a risk of public health and is the basis of climate regulations.
his Linked profileLevenbach pointed out that his new role in OMB is to “consist of the president’s priority.”
Trump and his team said priority included strengthening the US fossil fuel industry, reducing immigration, reducing the size of the federal government, and strengthening the US fossil fuel industry.
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