Lame Duck: Trump Removed Head of Climate Science Research

Following a historic Presidental election in which President-elect Biden crushed Trump, Smart Dissent took three weeks off from new posts after not taking a week off since February 2017.  We're back with new additions to our database because Trump and Republicans continue to undermine our nation on their way out.  We hope to not need to add nearly as much as we get into 2021 but will post as needed.

With that in mind, let's look back to 11/9/20:

The White House has removed the head of the program that produces the federal government's most definitive scientific report on climate change.... 

Michael Kuperberg had worked as executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the National Climate Assessment.  Congress requires the federal government to produce updated NCA reports, the authoritative government-wide report on climate change, every few years. It is produced by the USGCRP, which coordinates contributions from 13 government agencies.

Kuperberg had run the USGCRP since 2015 and was expected to remain there until the fifth edition was completed in 2023. An administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed Kuperberg's move and said the change was a surprise.

Kuperberg is not alone in post-election dismisals.

Kuperberg’s reassignment is the latest in a string of high-level personnel moves to remove officials deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump after his reelection loss. Earlier on Monday, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper. On Friday, Neil Chatterjee was removed as FERC chair on Friday after advocating for opening up markets to renewable sources and exploring carbon pricing.

There's a LOT of Trump Swamp to clean up starting in January.

Kuperberg's departure comes in the wake of the Trump administration hiring of David Legates, an academic at the University of Delaware who has written that "carbon dioxide is plant food and is not a pollutant," to a newly created political position at NOAA.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/09/trump-removes-head-of-climate-science-report-435620