A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s first major attempt to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, ruling that halting the move was in the public interest.
Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation, which funds NCAR, began taking steps to transfer NCAR’s Wyoming Supercomputing Center to the University of Wyoming. NCAR uses the supercomputing center for computing capacity and data storage, and the proposed transfer was part of a broader Trump administration effort to break up the Boulder-based lab and shift parts of the institution to new public or private operators.
The scientific community has pushed back on the plan, arguing that breaking up one of the world’s leading atmospheric research institutions would undermine scientific research and leave the United States less prepared to respond to extreme weather events.
In March, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a nonprofit consortium of 129 universities that manages NCAR under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation, sued the agency to stop the transfer of the supercomputing center and block funding cuts to NCAR.
On Monday, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to keep the supercomputing center under NCAR’s management while the case proceeds, writing that UCAR was likely to prevail and that allowing the transfer to proceed would harm NCAR.
Of about 60 UCAR employees who manage the supercomputing center, eight have left in the past four months, leaving the center understaffed, according to the court opinion, with several citing uncertainty about the organization’s future as their reason for leaving.
“NSF’s unexplained decision to divest UCAR of stewardship over the NWSC [NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center] has already begun to erode the personnel, institutional capacity, and financial stability necessary to carry out [UCAR’s] responsibilities,” Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in his opinion.
“That erosion is likely to continue, further compromising UCAR’s ability to fulfill its organizational mandate,” he wrote.
“We are pleased that Judge Jackson recognized how damaging the proposed transfer of the NWSC to another operator would be for the nation’s scientific community,” said UCAR Interim President Eric Barron.
“Our work supports national security, public safety, and economic prosperity, and any steps made toward divesting NCAR of its high-performance computing facilities would risk disrupting the country’s extraordinary advances in weather and space weather modeling and forecasting.”
Rep. Joe Neguse also praised the ruling.
“Today, a federal court took the first step toward blocking the president from unilaterally dissolving, selling, or relocating key programs operated by NCAR,” he said in a statement, adding that the Trump administration’s attempts to break up NCAR were “reckless, dangerous, and undermine the work being done at Boulder’s cutting-edge research institution.”
The Trump administration has been taking steps to break up NCAR since December. The plans were broadly publicized on X in an announcement by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, in which he called the lab “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
The announcement followed months of criticism by President Trump of Gov. Jared Polis over the conviction of Tina Peters, a former Colorado election official convicted of felonies related to 2020 election conspiracy theories.
UCAR’s lawsuit argues that the administration’s attempts to break up NCAR, including transferring the supercomputing center, were retaliation for Polis’ refusal to pardon Peters and were therefore unconstitutional.
UCAR also argued that the Trump administration had failed to follow proper procedure to transfer the center.
During a May 7 hearing, a federal attorney argued that the NSF had not taken final action to transfer management of the center and therefore was not violating the law. The government presented the judge with a statement from NSF Acting Director Rebecca Keiser that a final decision had not been made.
UCAR disputed this claim, relying on two key pieces of evidence:
First, a Feb. 12 letter from NSF to NCAR leadership stating that “NSF has decided to transfer stewardship of the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputer [sic] Center (NWSC).” Second, a statement made by NSF Program Officer Steven Ellis in March to NCAR officials after they pushed back on the transfer, in which he said: “This is a decision made.”
When asked why the decision had been made, Ellis responded: “Because NSF has said so.”
Jackson, an Obama appointee, agreed with UCAR on this point.
“The record leaves no doubt that NSF has reached a final decision,” he wrote.
Jackson also wrote that the lack of an explanation for the decision made it likely UCAR would win its procedural argument, since procedure requires government agencies to articulate adequate reasons for their decisions.
“Dr. Ellis’ blunt response that UCAR was losing stewardship over the NWSC [supercomputing center] ‘[b]ecause NSF has said so’ underscores the lack of any explanation in the record,” Jackson wrote.
During May 7 arguments, Department of Justice attorney Marianne F. Kies told the judge that, “Dr. Ellis’ statements were misinterpreted, or that he himself misinterpreted what the guidance was.”
“How do you misinterpret those statements?” Jackson said. “Because to me, they’re in plain English.”
Jackson ruled that the public would likely suffer harm if the supercomputing center was transferred, as it “supports the efficient and uninterrupted data collection that supports more accurate climate-prediction modeling, which in turn is used to mitigate harmful extreme weather events that are a feature of our world.”
By contrast, he said NSF had not been able to articulate how it would be harmed by keeping management of the computing center under NCAR, and NSF had “identified no deficiency in UCAR’s performance.”
Great news. Great story!
Always appreciate Brooke’s reporting and BRL!