Trump Business Insights

Administration cancels meteorologist disaster training

Click for more from The Hill. {beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment First in The Hill Administration cancels meteorologist disaster training The Trump administration has canceled a training that prepares meteorologists to forecast during disasters, The Hill has learned. © Rachel Leathe, Associated Press The incident meteorologist training for the National Weather Service...

0 0

Administration cancels meteorologist disaster training

Click for more from The Hill.

{beacon}

Energy & Environment

First in The Hill

Administration cancels meteorologist disaster training

The Trump administration has canceled a training that prepares meteorologists to forecast during disasters, The Hill has learned.

The incident meteorologist training for the National Weather Service was canceled amid “short staffing” and a severe reduction in how much employees are allowed to spend on travel, according to an email viewed by The Hill.

An agency source expressed concern that the cancellation of this session would delay new incident meteorologists from being certified — leaving the weather service less able to respond to disasters like fires and putting an even greater strain on the existing workforce.

The source said that employee purchase cards were reduced to $1, so people were unable to book travel and some who had already booked travel had to cancel their flights.

Incident meteorologists are specially trained forecasters who have typical meteorology jobs at the weather service but also volunteer to work on disasters, said Larry Van Bussum, national fire weather operations program manager at the weather service.

They get 250 hours of training to give weather information to incident managers as part of an effort to keep response crews and the general public safe.

Meanwhile, this also does not appear to be the only government training that has recently been canceled.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to The Hill that fire trainings at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were also being canceled, saying via email, “The bottom line is we are no longer paying for non-employee travel. We are only authorizing travel for mission critical programs, this isn’t one.”

Read more at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Essential Reads

How policy will affect the energy and environment sectors now and in the future:

Microplastics may be stoking antibiotic resistance: Study

The microscopic shards of plastic found in every corner of the planet may be exacerbating antibiotic resistance, a new study has found.

Full Story

Staff shortages halt some federal weather balloon launches amid Trump cuts

The Trump administration is pausing at least a handful of balloon launches that collect weather data in at least three locations due to staffing shortages.

Full Story

Ontario agrees to suspend electricity surcharge ahead of talks with US

The government of Ontario on Tuesday backed off its threat to impose a surcharge on electricity to three U.S. states amid broader trade talks.

Full Story

In Other News

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

Trump buys Tesla to ‘make a statement’ about Musk backlash

President Trump said Tuesday he was buying a Tesla vehicle as he doubled down on his support of Elon Musk, who has come under mounting scrutiny for leading the Trump administration’s government cost initiatives.

Full Story

What We're Reading

News we've flagged from other outlets touching on energy issues, the environment and other topics:

Atomic Detectives Who Inspect Iran Sites Are Affected by Trump’s Aid Freeze (The New York Times)
US energy secretary says global warming a side effect of modern economy (Reuters)

On Tap

Upcoming news themes and events we're watching:

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear testimony on minerals-related legislation.

What Others are Reading

Two key stories on The Hill right now:

House Republicans pass bill to avert government shutdown

The House on Tuesday passed a funding bill to avert an end-of-the-week government shutdown, teeing up the measure for consideration in the Senate. Read more