Trump kills key hurricane forecasting tool
Meteorologists are about to lose one of their best forecasting tools — in the middle of hurricane season.
The Trump administration is terminating a military satellite program that has been one of the world's only sources of high-quality data that helps forecasters predict when hurricanes will make sudden, extreme gains in wind speed, writes Chelsea Harvey. The satellites are still fully functional, but the data will go dark by Monday.
Such rapid intensification is notoriously dangerous and difficult to predict. It can transform tropical storms into a major hurricane in mere hours, leaving emergency managers little time to evacuate people and fortify infrastructure.
The administration offered no explanation for — and did not respond to Chelsea's requests for comment about — why it was ending the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, alarming meteorologists.
'There is no sugar-coating it: Hurricane forecasts will undoubtedly be worse after this loss,' Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, told Chelsea. 'For anyone near a hurricane-prone area, this is alarmingly bad news.'
'This decision will kill people'
The military satellite program, which has operated since the 1960s, is made up of a constellation of weather satellites that collect measurements used to track everything from thunderstorms and fog to snow and ice cover. Its defining feature is its microwave sensor, which provides detailed scans key for accurate hurricane models. The program accounts for as much as half of the microwave scans that help forecasters build their predictions.
'Microwave data are already relatively sparse, so any loss — even gradual as satellites or instruments fail — is a big deal; but to abruptly end three active functioning satellites is insanity,' McNoldy said.
The military program is one of the largest single sources of high-quality microwave data in the world. NASA operates a similar satellite, as does Japan.
The program's cancellation is the latest in a string of Trump administration cuts that experts say are blinding the country to the impacts of climate change.
Thousands of federal workers have been fired or accepted buy-outs at agencies that monitor climate change, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. The White House's budget request for fiscal 2026 has proposed severe cuts to climate and weather research programs, including the elimination of NOAA's entire research arm.
'This decision will kill people,' hurricane researcher Jimmy Yunge wrote in a message to NOAA's Office of Satellite and Product Operations.
Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net.
Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Brian Dabbs breaks down the Trump administration's plan to downsize the Energy Department's network of national research laboratories, which have powered U.S. scientific and technological breakthroughs for decades.
Power Centers
SCOTUS takes aim at nationwide injunctionsThe Supreme Court's decision today to restrict the power of federal judges to issue nationwide orders could lead to a patchwork of lower court fights over federal agency decisions, including the Trump administration's plans to roll back environmental and energy rules, write Niina H. Farah and Lesley Clark.
The 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA marks a major win for the Trump administration, which has found its efforts to remake government repeatedly blocked by the courts.
Spain's big blackout: A cautionary taleThe nation's top energy regulators are trying to understand what led to the temporary collapse of Spain's and Portugal's electricity system in April as a brutal heat wave across the eastern U.S. pushes power providers to the limit, writes Peter Behr.
'I want to be clear that this is not simply a resource's fault,' a U.S. grid security executive told members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at a recent briefing. 'It's an engineering and operational challenge.'
France tries to kick the climate can French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants to delay agreement on the European Union's next climate target, write Zia Weise, Louise Guillot and Clea Caulcutt.
The move risks weakening the bloc's international green ambitions.
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Trump said he has signed a deal with China to unblock the flow of rare earth elements to U.S. companies, after a trade spat riled U.S. automakers reliant on the materials.
Ireland has become the latest in a growing number of countries to entirely phase out coal-fired power plants, even as Trump has grand plans to revive what he calls 'beautiful clean coal.'
California air regulators have repealed a state rule that would have mandated rail operators phase out the diesel locomotives that traverse the state.
That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
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