Climate wire | President-elect Donald Trump, who was nominated to lead the department in charge of disaster recovery, is a climate change skeptic who has refused to accept federal climate funding and has been criticized for his own response to natural disasters.
President Trump on Tuesday nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency as damage from extreme weather events soars. FEMA distributes billions of dollars in disaster aid each year and operates the nation’s largest insurance company for floods, the nation’s costliest disaster.
But Noem rejected the idea that humans are causing the temperature rise.
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When asked by a reporter in March 2022 if she thought the climate was changing, Noem said, “I think there’s a lot of different scientific research, but what we’re doing is affecting the climate.” That hasn’t been proven.”
Noem, a Republican, is one of five governors who have refused to accept EPA planning grants that the Biden administration has provided to states to combat climate pollution.
She is the only governor who has chosen not to participate in a new $4 billion Department of Energy program that gives states money to distribute to residents in rebates on energy-efficient appliances and improvements. South Dakota’s share is $69 million, one of the largest per capita amounts in the nation.
“That money could have been used by commercial contractors to install energy-efficient equipment, which would help renters and buyers of their homes,” Democratic Sen. Linda Duva of South Dakota said Tuesday. Heating and cooling costs will be lower.” .
“We’re trying to reduce costs for individuals, so there was a huge opportunity there,” Duba added.
Noem spokesman Ian Furey said last year that the governor rejected the rebate money because “federal spending often comes with strings attached and increased spending is often not a good thing.”
Noem rejected pollution subsidies because “we’re more focused on solving long-term problems with one-time investments, rather than creating new government programs,” Fury said. Ta.
Noem also did not claim most of the funding that FEMA provided to states through the Resilience Projects Grant Program.
FEMA offered states $3.6 million from 2021 to 2023, but South Dakota collected just $1.3 million, according to FEMA records. This is one of the lowest collection rates of any state.
Noem is also seeking minimal funding from another FEMA grant program that pays for projects that reduce flood damage, according to FEMA records.
She will be the eighth Secretary of Homeland Security since the Department of Homeland Security was created after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Two of them were also governors — Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Janet Napolitano of Arizona.
If confirmed by the Senate, Noem is expected to focus primarily on border and immigration issues. DHS includes Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nomu joins legal attack on climate change programs
Noem’s climate change skepticism stands in sharp contrast to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator DeAnne Criswell, who currently serve under President Joe Biden. They emphasized that climate change is linked to the devastating damage being caused by intensifying hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
President Trump has not yet named a FEMA administrator, which must be confirmed by the Senate, and will likely wait until he selects Cabinet members and other senior officials.
Noem, who has served as governor since 2019, faced criticism for her response to massive flooding in southeastern South Dakota in June when heavy rains caused rivers, including the Big Sioux River, to overflow. Some local residents criticized Noem for not activating the South Dakota National Guard and for flying to Tennessee during flooding to participate in a Republican fundraiser.
When journalists asked Noem why she didn’t send in the National Guard, she pointed to cost and said local officials hadn’t asked for it, according to South Dakota Searchlight. Spokesman Furey said at the time that county emergency managers are responding to local emergencies and receive state assistance upon request.
“Frankly, when that rain was coming down, she was traveling up and down the state, and her focus should have been right here. The flooding was so severe that she canceled all press meetings. and should have come here,” said Duba, a Democratic state senator.
Weeks after the floods, Noem called on Biden to approve federal disaster aid for South Dakota. Biden approved the request, and FEMA provided $9.1 million to 1,100 residents for emergency expenses and minor home repairs.
Noem has experience with FEMA disaster systems. During her time in office, she made 10 requests to the White House for FEMA assistance after natural disasters, five to Biden and five to Trump, but rejected one request because the damage was not sufficient. I refused. Under her leadership, South Dakota has received a total of $142 million in aid from FEMA, according to agency records.
In 2023, Noem hired the Washington lobbying firm Navigators Global “to ensure that South Dakota receives its fair share of all the taxpayers it sends to the federal government,” lobbyist Cesar Conda said at the time. Ta.
Noem met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in early 2023. Around the same time, Chief of Staff Mark Miller met with Mitch Landrieu, who at the time was overseeing implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure law in the White House.
While asking for help from the White House, Noem also attacked some of the Biden administration’s actions on climate change. She joined 15 other Republican governors in protesting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s move to require public companies to disclose risks from climate change.
“Climate change models change dramatically, so the concept of assessing investment risk based on such uncertain variables is inherently subjective and unreliable,” the governors wrote in 2022. A letter was sent to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. SEC rules are tied to court challenges.
Noem also joined a lawsuit to block the Biden administration from putting a price on the “social costs” of carbon emissions that government agencies could use to create stronger climate change regulations. The lawsuit was dismissed.
“You’re fired!”
A year after taking office as governor, Noem gained national attention for advocating for the state and local businesses to stay open during the pandemic. She was the only governor to reject President Trump’s proposal for additional unemployment benefits.
Noem described the pandemic and its response as a life-changing event.
“In 2020, dysfunction mutated into dictatorship,” Noem wrote in her autobiography, “No Going Back,” published this year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our country, and it has changed me. It almost killed us, and I’m not talking about the virus. Most of the American people… The risk of being controlled is high,” Noem wrote.
“South Dakota is the only state in the nation that has never shut down a single business,” she boasted.
Previously, Noem, who served in Congress from 2011 to 2019, rarely touched on climate issues or disasters, focusing instead on agriculture and the military.
Noem, 52, served in the South Dakota State Assembly from 2007 to 2011 and grew up on a farm in the eastern part of the state.
In Noem’s memoir, Not My First Rodeo, published in 2022, she writes: : Respect. “
But Noem expressed a sharper edge in her latest book, No Going Back.
Near the end, she lists the actions she would take on her first day as president. These include “closing the border” and “building a wall and reinstating the ‘Made in Mexico’ policy.”
Noem also said, “Hiring John Kerry as climate change secretary would be as satisfying as looking him in the eye and saying, ‘You’re fired!'”
Reprinted from E&E News Published with permission of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides news that matters to energy and environment professionals.
