Washington, DC — The sheer volume of communications from Elon Musk and his corporate operatives within the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during the past year is so large that the agency cannot categorize and produce them, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result, the public cannot monitor the extent to which Musk or operatives from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, are acting within NOAA for the benefit of Musk or other private enterprises.

On March 5, 2025, PEER submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for all Musk-related communications with NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, the National Weather Service (NWS), and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Services (NESDIS). Due to the time sensitivity, PEER requested expedited processing, as provided in the statute.

In reply, Eubanks and Associates, which is representing PEER in this FOIA, received a notice that the agencies would not process its requests because NESDIS and NWS have identified more than 200,000 potentially responsive documents, while the Office of Space Commerce identified more than 16,000 potentially responsive documents. The PEER requests covered the 13-month period from January 2024.

“The incredible magnitude of this information traffic only fuels our concerns about conflicts of interest and insider dealing,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “There has apparently been no effort to bring even a ray of transparency to the unprecedented arrangement of giving one corporate interest exclusive inside access to government offices of direct benefit to it.”

Musk’s business interests include aerospace, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence, which are adjacent to NOAA’s work. Of particular concern is the infiltration of Musk’s team of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce which sets national policy to “foster the conditions for the economic growth and technological advancement of the commercial space industry,” in the words of its mission statement. It also licenses private remote sensing space systems.

Moreover, Musk and DOGE are also driving the removal of hundreds of NOAA employees, who could be replaced by private contractors, such as Musk. These cuts not only fuel concerns regarding privatization, but also include those NOAA employees handling FOIA requests, thus causing further delays in FOIA responses.

“Musk’s role in designing the privatization of government space-related agencies could give him an insurmountable advantage over any commercial competitors,” added Elizabeth Lewis, Senior Associate Attorney at Eubanks & Associates. “The public has a right to know what the government is doing with the data and services paid for by our tax dollars. We will not back down in the fight for the disclosure of these records.”

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Look at the PEER information request 

See the document estimate for NWS

See the document estimate for NESDIS

View the 10,000 document estimate for Office of Space Commerce