Neil Jacobs, the NOAA administrator who faced scrutiny over his role in the 'Sharpie-gate' hurricane map controversy, has been nominated by President Trump to lead the agency once more.
Neil Jacobs, who served as the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) in 2019 during the infamous 'Sharpie-gate' incident involving President Trump 's alteration of a hurricane impact map, has been selected by Mr. Trump to lead the agency once again.
Jacobs, a seasoned atmospheric scientist with two decades of experience in both the public and private sectors, and other NOAA leaders faced criticism in a Department of Commerce inspector general's report stemming from the incident. The controversy erupted on September 1, 2019, as the National Weather Service predicted Hurricane Dorian's trajectory along the Atlantic coast. President Trump, however, incorrectly asserted on Twitter that Alabama was within the storm's path. Subsequently, the National Weather Service in Alabama clarified on Twitter that Alabama would not experience any impact from Hurricane Dorian. Three days later, on September 4, President Trump persisted in his claim that the storm had previously been projected to hit Alabama. He presented a week-old map of the storm's path, altered with a black marker to depict the hurricane potentially heading towards Alabama. 'That was the original chart,' President Trump stated. 'It was going to hit not only Georgia but Florida. It was going toward the Gulf.'Hurricane Dorian ultimately did not make landfall in the United States or approach Alabama. In the aftermath, NOAA leadership issued a statement supporting President Trump and criticizing the work of its weather forecasters. The inspector general's report concluded that this statement 'unnecessarily rebuked NWS forecasters...for doing their jobs.' Both a report by a panel of the National Academy of Public Administration for NOAA and the inspector general's report determined that the statement backing President Trump was 'driven by external political pressure,' stemming from a 'request from the White House then-Acting Chief of Staff.' The reports further stated that Jacobs, the head of NOAA at the time and the recent nominee, 'violated the Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management set forth in Section 7.01 of NOAA's Scientific Integrity Policy when they failed to engage the Birmingham WFO in the development of the September 6 Statement.' The National Academy report emphasized that Jacobs 'engaged in misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard of the Code of Scientific Conduct or Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management in NOAA's Scientific Integrity Policy.' According to the inspector general's report, Jacobs felt pressured. 'In Dr. Jacobs's view, he could make the statement more accurate, but the Department would issue, or would cause NOAA to issue, a statement one way or another,' the report stated. 'If he resigned or were fired, he reasoned, the final statement likely would have been worse and more inflammatory.' Despite the controversy, some weather professionals at the American Meteorological Society meeting in New Orleans last month expressed their support for Jacobs, hoping that President Trump would appoint him to lead NOAA once more. 'I think the Neil Jacobs appointment is a strong pick,' Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, told the Associated Press
NEIL JACOBS NOAA HURRICANE DORIAN SHARPIE-GATE TRUMP POLITICAL PRESSURE WEATHER FORECASTING
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