CLIMATE FEED | President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the disaster recovery department has been skeptical of climate change, refused to accept federal climate money and faced criticism for his own handling of a natural disaster.

Trump on Tuesday named Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota to head the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a time when damage from extreme weather is skyrocketing. FEMA distributes billions in disaster aid each year and operates the nation’s largest insurer against floods – the most devastating disaster in the United States.

But Noem rejected the idea that humans are to blame for rising temperatures.

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When asked by a reporter in March 2022 if she thought the climate was changing, Noème replied“I think the science on this is varied, and it hasn’t been proven to me that what we’re doing affects the climate.”

Noem, a Republican, is one of five governors who have refused to accept EPA Planning Grants that the Biden administration has proposed to every state to fight climate pollution.

She is the only governor to withdraw from a new $4 billion Department of Energy program that gives states money to distribute to their residents for rebates on energy-efficient appliances and upgrades. South Dakota’s share was $69 million, one of the highest per capita amounts in the country.

“This money would have been available for commercial contractors to install energy-efficient appliances, which would reduce heating and cooling costs for individuals who rent or purchase these homes,” the state senator said Tuesday. South Dakota, Linda Duba (D). .

“We are trying to reduce costs for individuals, which is a huge opportunity,” Duba added.

Ian Fury, Noem’s spokesperson, said last year that the governor refused the rebate money because “federal spending often comes with strings attached, and more of it is often not a good thing.”

Noème refused the pollution subsidy because “we are focused on solving long-term problems with one-time investments rather than creating new government programs,” Fury said.

Noem also did not claim most of the money that FEMA made available to states through a grant program for resiliency projects.

FEMA offered each state $3.6 million from 2021 to 2023. South Dakota only collected $1.3 million, according to FEMA records. This is one of the lowest collection rates of any state.

Noem also sought minimal funding from a separate FEMA grant program that funds projects aimed at reducing flood damage, according to FEMA records.

She would be the eighth secretary of Homeland Security since the department was created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Two of them had also served as governors: Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Janet Napolitano of Arizona.

Noem is expected to focus largely on border and immigration issues if the Senate confirms her. DHS includes Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Noem joined legal attacks on climate programs

Noem’s skepticism of climate change stands in stark contrast to that of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, both of whom currently serve under President Joe Biden. They both highlighted the enormous damage caused by intensifying hurricanes, wildfires and flooding, which they link to climate change.

Trump has not yet nominated a FEMA administrator, which requires Senate confirmation, and he will likely wait until he has chosen his cabinet and other top officials.

Noem, who has been governor since 2019, was criticized for her response in June to major flooding in southeastern South Dakota due to massive rainfall overflowing waterways, including the Big Sioux River. A few residents criticized Noem for failing to activate the South Dakota National Guard and for traveling to Tennessee during flooding to attend a Republican fundraiser.

When reporters asked Noem why she didn’t deploy the National Guard, she pointed to the cost and said no local officials had asked for it, according to South Dakota Searchlight. Fury, the spokesman, said at the time that county emergency managers handle local emergencies and are supported by the state when requested.

“Frankly, she was going back and forth out of state when all that rain was falling, and she should have been concentrating here. She should have canceled all her press activities and come here because the flooding was bad,” said Duba, the Democratic state senator.

A few weeks after the floods, Noem asked Biden to approve federal disaster aid for South Dakota. Biden approved the request and FEMA gave $9.1 million to 1,100 residents for emergency expenses and minor home repairs.

Noem has experience with the FEMA disaster system. During her tenure, she made 10 requests for FEMA assistance to the White House after natural disasters — five to Biden and five to Trump, who rejected one request due to insufficient damage. South Dakota received a total of $142 million in FEMA aid under his leadership, agency records show.

In 2023, Noem hired Navigators Global, a Washington lobbying firm, “to make sure South Dakota gets its fair share of all the taxpayer dollars it sends to the federal government,” the lobbyist said . César Conda said at the time.

Noem met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in early 2023. Around the same time, her chief of staff, Mark Miller, met with Mitch Landrieu, who was then at the White House overseeing implementation of the law bipartisan on infrastructure.

As she sought help from the White House, Noem also attacked some of the Biden administration’s actions on climate change. She joins 15 other Republican governors to protest a move by the Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to disclose their climate change risks.

“Because climate change models vary widely, the notion of assessing investment risk based on such uncertain variables is inherently subjective and unreliable,” the governors wrote to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, in 2022. The SEC rule is linked to a legal challenge.

Noème too joined a lawsuit to prevent the Biden administration from putting a price on the “social cost” of carbon emissions, which agencies could use to write tougher climate regulations. The lawsuit was dismissed.

“You’re fired!” »

A year after becoming governor, Noem gained national attention during the pandemic for insisting that state and local businesses remain open. She was the only governor to reject Trump’s offer additional unemployment benefits.

Noem described the pandemic and the response as a life-changing event.

“In 2020, dysfunction turned into dictatorship,” Noem wrote in her autobiography “No Going Back,” published this year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our country and changed me. It almost killed us, and I’m not talking about a virus. Most of the U.S. population was at high risk of being controlled,” Noem wrote.

“South Dakota,” she boasted, “was the only state in the country that never closed a single business.” »

Before that, as a member of Congress from 2011 to 2019, Noem had little to do with climate issues or disasters and focused on agriculture and the military.

Noem, 52, served in the South Dakota Legislature from 2007 to 2011 and grew up on a farm in the eastern part of the state.

In “Not My First Rodeo,” Noem’s memoir published in 2022, she writes: “If I had to describe my overall political beliefs – and those of my entire family and most of my neighbors – in one word, it would be : respect.”

But Noem expressed a sharper tone in her latest book, “No Going Back.”

Towards the end, she lists the actions she would take as president on her first day. They include “close the border” and “build this wall and restore the Made in Mexico policy.”

Noem also said she would “hire John Kerry as climate czar just to have the satisfaction of looking him in the eye and saying, ‘You’re fired!'”

Reprinted from E&E News courtesy of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News provides essential information for energy and environmental professionals.