The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the consortium of universities that manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has asked a federal court to immediately halt the government’s efforts to break up NCAR while its lawsuit proceeds.
In a motion filed April 3, UCAR requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump administration, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce and Office of Management and Budget, from taking further steps to divest NCAR and UCAR of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.
NCAR is funded by the National Science Foundation. In February, the NSF announced plans to transfer the supercomputing center to a third party, which the lawsuit alleges is the University of Wyoming. The move is seen as the first step in a plan announced in December to break up NCAR, whose headquarters are in Boulder. UCAR argues that without court intervention, NCAR would lose highly skilled employees and its forecasting abilities would be compromised.
“Transferring NWSC [NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center] management would result in the loss of jobs, disrupt ongoing research projects, and impede UCAR’s ability to perform its contractual obligations with both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and third-parties,” the preliminary injunction reads.
“A transfer would also undermine the nation’s ability to forecast and respond to devastating natural disasters, risking lives and property.”
The supercomputing center is one of several key NCAR assets not located in Boulder. Plans to shift its management were among the first steps the Trump administration took to break up NCAR and “rescope” its work. In March, Rep. Joe Neguse said he had confirmed a whistleblower’s claims that the Trump administration planned to transfer parts of NCAR’s space weather program, based in Boulder, to a private company. Boulder Reporting Lab has not independently verified those claims.
NCAR is a world-renowned atmospheric science laboratory that conducts research and provides data and forecasting tools used by scientists, forecasters and federal agencies nationwide. It is run by UCAR, a Boulder-based nonprofit consortium of 129 universities, established under a 1960 contract with the NSF to create NCAR. The Trump administration’s effort to dismantle it began in December. At the time, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the federal lab “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Both UCAR and Democratic lawmakers argue the effort is part of broader actions taken by the Trump administration in retaliation for Gov. Jared Polis’s refusal to grant clemency to Tina Peters, an election official convicted of felonies related to 2020 election conspiracy theories. UCAR’s lawsuit hinges in part on proving this point.
Sen. John Hickenlooper has been among those making that argument.
When asked at a press conference at CU Boulder on April 3 how he knew the Trump administration was targeting NCAR because of Peters, he responded, “Because he said it.”
“He said again and again that because Gov. Polis won’t give Tina a pardon, he thinks Colorado is a rogue state,” Hickenlooper told a group of reporters, including Boulder Reporting Lab. “In essence, he’s saying it should be punished.”
While UCAR challenges the Trump administration’s effort to break up NCAR in court, CU Boulder has responded to the NSF’s call for proposals with a plan to take over NCAR’s core functions alongside partner universities, including the University of Wyoming. The proposal would appear to replace UCAR while maintaining much of NCAR’s current structure.
The court has not yet ruled on UCAR’s request. It could grant the injunction, pausing further federal action, if it finds UCAR is likely to win its case and would suffer “irreparable harm” without the injunction.
UCAR argues that is the case. In addition to job losses, UCAR argues its own credit ratings are tied to the operation of the center and would be harmed by a lapse. Losing access to the supercomputing center would also undermine its ability to fulfill contracts, including its agreement with the NSF to run NCAR, the organization argued.
“Even a temporary gap in NWSC operation or management risks compromising real-time space weather predictions that facilitate disaster preparation,” UCAR said. “Furthermore, researchers have designed multi-year projects that depend on NWSC’s specific capabilities, fluid operation, and integration with NCAR’s earth science models and data archives.
“If a severe weather event occurs during a period of degraded forecasting capability, no amount of money damages would bring back lives lost or property destroyed because of inadequate warnings.”
UCAR also requested an expedited hearing schedule that would give the government 10 days to respond.
The Trump administration argued that the expedited schedule is not necessary or practical.
In its response, also filed April 3, the administration argued that “even if” UCAR is correct that a decision to transfer the supercomputing center was made Feb. 12, the transfer would not happen quickly. UCAR “does not explain how it would be physically possible to transfer stewardship, operation, or maintenance’ of a Supercomputing Center within a matter of days,” the administration wrote.
“(Indeed, it has not happened despite Plaintiff’s allegation that a final decision issued more than seven weeks ago),” it continued.
Administration lawyers also argued that the expedited schedule was not achievable because the two federal trial attorneys assigned to the case “have preexisting travel plans (one of them international)” between April 4 and 8, leaving limited time to respond.
On April 6, the court granted UCAR’s request for an expedited hearing, but on a slower timeline, under the assumption that the supercomputing center will not be transferred before the hearing.
If found necessary, the court will hold a preliminary injunction hearing on May 7.
