Updated at 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
More than half a century after its founding, the Trump administration has vowed to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a Boulder-based research hub built to better understand Earth’s weather systems.
Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, posted the news Tuesday on X, claiming NCAR is one of the country’s largest sources of “climate alarmism.” USA Today broke the story earlier in the day.
“Any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location,” Vought wrote.
The National Science Foundation established NCAR in 1960 to accelerate research into fundamental science behind the Earth’s weather systems. It built the Mesa Lab on a hill overlooking Boulder seven years later, establishing an iconic symbol of the nation’s investment in atmospheric science and Colorado’s role as a global destination for the world’s top researchers.
Since then, the federally funded lab has built supercomputers and developed radar tools to help improve weather predictions. Its staff include about 830 employees working under the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a nonprofit consortium of colleges and universities tasked with managing NCAR on behalf of the federal government.
The announcement faced swift pushback from Colorado’s state and congressional leaders. In a statement released Tuesday, Gov. Jared Polis said the state hasn’t heard directly from the White House, but if it dismantles NCAR, “public safety is at risk and science is being attacked.”
“If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery,” Polis wrote.
In a statement posted to its website, UCAR claimed it hadn’t received any additional information about plans to break up the research center.
On Tuesday, however, a statement posted to the NSF’s website announced it was reviewing the structure of NCAR, and would explore options to transfer management of a supercomputer and aircraft operated by the research center. In May, a NSF budget proposal suggested Congress should cut NCAR’s funding by 40%.
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat whose district covers Boulder, suggested the move was in retaliation for Colorado’s refusal to release Tina Peters, a former Mesa County Clerk currently serving a nine-year state prison sentence for illegally accessing voting machines after the 2020 election.
President Trump issued a symbolic pardon for Peters last week, exercising a power widely understood to only apply to federal crimes. Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser have both refused to honor the pardon and release Peters.
“It is clearly animated by both their desire to gut climate science programs across the country and by a desire to retaliate against Colorado specifically,” Neguse said.
In response to questions from CPR, the White House press office did not directly address Neguse's comments, instead referring to Vought's tweet.
Vought’s announcement comes a day after the Trump administration released plans to cancel $109 million in transportation grants for Colorado-based projects with climate protection benefits. Those awards include funding for rail improvements in northern Colorado and assistance to help Fort Collins purchase electric vehicles for its city fleet.
Neguse suggested those cuts were also retaliation for Colorado’s refusal to release Peters.
Peters’ lawyers issued a statement saying they had emailed copies of the Trump pardon to the Colorado Department of Corrections and hand-delivered one to the prison itself, but were notified by DOC that the pardon had no legal effect on her sentence and she would not be released. The attorneys discouraged anyone from trying to take action to get Peters out on their own.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the White House did not address a comment made by Rep. Joe Neguse.
