Courtesy Photo Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary employee Don La Barre conducts some research on a NOAA boat on Aug. 8. If implemented, Project 2025 could disband NOAA and end much of its climate change research.

ALPENA — Tucked deep inside Project 2025 there are proposals that, if implemented, could impact scientific climate change studies and its impacts on the Great Lakes done by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists in Alpena.

It also calls for NOAA to be disbanded and many of its functions and assets moved to other government agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.

Project 2025 also calls for a preponderance of NOAA’s climate-change research to be disbanded because it is a cause of alarmism among citizens.

Project 2025 is a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate running for president in the November election, has said he knows nothing about Project 2025 and has distanced himself from it, as have other Republicans.

However, more than 140 former members of the Trump administration are involved with Project 2025, CNN reported.

Since the release of Project 2025, Trump released a list of what he claims are his primary goals for his America First platform, if granted a second term.

Project 2025 calls for sweeping changes to many of NOAA’s six primary offices, such as the National Weather Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, to name a few.

These entities could be privatized or merged with other federal government departments, or their responsibility could be handed off to private companies.

Project 2025 says NOAA has become too vast and costly and aspects of it need to be changed significantly. The plan claims all of the offices under the NOAA umbrella cost taxpayers millions of dollars while stirring up fear over the potential effects of climate change.

“These offices form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity,” the plan says. “This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized.”

In Alpena, NOAA scientists do much more than research shipwrecks and search for wrecks that remain unfound. Scientists study critical components of the water, ecosystems, and wildlife to help determine the impact of climate change and how to plan for further effects.

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is a critical part of Alpena’s economy, educational system, and recreational offerings.

If implemented, it is not known how Project 2025 would impact the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and its missions and goals.

James Hogge, communications director for Congressman Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, said Bergman reviewed Project 2025 and took little of it with much seriousness.

“Republicans across the nation are united on our pro-growth, America first message and we will not be distracted or do the bidding of any special interest or lobbying groups craving attention such as what we are seeing with the so-called Project 2025,” Hogge said. “After looking at it, the general has given it very little thought as many of the policy proposals are unserious in nature – at best. Privatizing NOAA is not something that the Congressman is in support of nor will he ever be.”

A request for comment was left with Bergman’s challenger in November Callie Barr, D-Traverse City, over some of the proposals in Project 2025 including for NOAA. No comment was ever submitted to The News.

Project 2025 could also impact what boats and planes NOAA has at its disposal to accomplish its research and prediction goals.

The project says a policy should be made that breaks up the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which provides the ships and planes used by NOAA and reassigns its assets to other agencies.

Without the water and aerial vessels, it would be difficult for NOAA to conduct studies, record data, and make recommendations for long-term plans, especially in terms of climate change.

Project 2025 also supports allowing start-up companies and existing businesses that are developing the latest research technology to play a larger role in research and save taxpayers money.

“Lowering the barriers of entry for startups and small businesses will also provide greater innovation without excessive increases in spending,” Project 2025 says. “Reaching beyond traditional partnerships for innovative engagement tools that encourage entrepreneurial innovation will allow NOAA’s research programs to adapt more quickly to the world’s changing needs. Multiple competitions should take place in cities to attract a variety of innovators and investors to propel innovation forward in a way that benefits the needs of NOAA.”

Once released by the Heritage Foundation, Democrats attacked some of Project 2025’s proposals, much in the same manner Republicans did when the environmental platform called The Green New Deal was introduced.

Some Democrats shied away from the list of environmental goals because they believed the proposals were too extreme, similar to how many Republicans are today with Project 2025.

The Heritage Foundation is an activist American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1973.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.