US to Continue Funding Major Ocean Science Program After Lawmaker Intervention

BRUSSELS — The Trump administration is no longer planning to cut a major research program contributing to global ocean science after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill protecting its existence, POLITICO's E&E News reported on Thursday.

The U.S. National Science Foundation — a government agency that funds science in the U.S. — said it "will not proceed" with its plans to remove underwater infrastructure that collects crucial information about oceanic currents and how climate change is affecting them, pointing to “concerns raised by the range of stakeholders,” in a written statement published Thursday.

The announcement comes after lawmakers from both U.S. chambers of Congress wrote letters to the NSF asking it to maintain the $368 million (€321million) program earlier this week. On Wednesday the U.S. Senate also passed legislation to protect the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Last May the NSF had said it would dismantle the observation network and remove “all in-water infrastructure” on parts of its coastline after the Trump administration had fired the NSF's independent board.

The news prompted backlash from experts. Other regional ocean observation networks, including Europe's ocean monitoring and simulation systems, rely on data gathered by American infrastructure to understand how oceans are evolving.

U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, welcomed the decision but criticized the agency for attempting to dismantle the program. “To be clear, this should have never happened,” Lofgren said. “This pathetic scheme was illegal. NSF is governing via chaos and reactionary nonsense.”

“Scientists and coastal economies that depend on this data deserve better. My oversight team and I will be following closely what NSF does next,” she added.

Earlier this month the European Commission launched a €92 million “OceanEye” program to invest in critical ocean observation technologies and data collection including the creation of a digital twin and to develop a virtual replica of the ocean.

Jennifer Yachnin contributed reporting.