Trump’s Project 2025 Would Charge Hardworking Americans for Emergency Alerts and Smoke Forecasts

Washington, D.C. – Wildfires are raging across northern California, and Donald Trump, who previously denied that climate change is causing them, is threatening to charge Americans money for the privilege of learning that their lives are in danger. Trump’s Project 2025 would privatize National Weather Service forecasts – which would let ultrawealthy CEOs charge people for the (currently free) emergency alerts telling them to evacuate from fires, the smoke forecasts telling them if the air is safe to breathe, and the flash flood warnings that keep them aware.  

This weekend, The Los Angeles Times reported that “Project 2025 urges the demolition of some of the nation’s most dependable resources for tracking weather, combating climate change and protecting the public from environmental hazards.” Trump’s plan calls for privatizing both NOAA and the National Weather Service, agencies that are “often the first to foresee potentially dangerous events — such as atmospheric rivers, extreme heat waves, fire weather conditions or even a rare West Coast hurricane — and disseminate information to the public.”

Climate Power Communications Director Alex Glass issued the following statement: “Donald Trump doesn’t think the imminent threat of a wildfire is enough of a danger to Americans on its own. He wants to block their safety alerts with a paywall and force them to dig around for their credit cards as flames race closer to their homes. Trump’s dangerous Project 2025 agenda will put Americans in harm’s way to please his ultrawealthy Big Oil donors.”