Washington, DC — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) must immediately halt access by operatives of billionaire Elon Musk to its databases, according to a letter sent today to Acting Commerce Secretary Jeremy Pelter by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). PEER is also calling on the Acting Secretary to publicly disclose which databases and information were accessed by the Musk operatives, as well as the names of those operatives.

Last week, Musk operatives took control of NOAA databases despite questions about the legality of their actions, their cybersecurity practices, and the security clearances of the operatives. NOAA, an agency within the Department of Commerce, collects meteorological and atmospheric data and data on fisheries, oceans, and deep-sea conditions. It also operates satellites, planes, and ships to collect this data.

“NOAA’s data collection efforts are vital to protecting lives and understanding the world,” says PEER’s Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. “Political and financial meddling in NOAA’s databases by the world’s richest man will be a disaster for the planet.”

NOAA has long been a target of the climate denial industry and companies that want to profit from the taxpayer-funded data NOAA collects. Project 2025, the Trump administration’s playbook for governing, describes NOAA as a primary component “of the climate change alarm industry” and says it “should be broken up and downsized.” One of its targets is the National Weather Service. Project 2025 says NOAA “should fully commercialize its forecasting operations.”

If this were to occur, NOAA would stop providing free weather forecasts. That task would be given exclusively to private companies who could charge users for access to vital, lifesaving weather information. Many weather forecasting companies oppose NOAA’s practice of making all taxpayer-funded data public because it hurts their bottom line.

One company that would benefit financially is SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, which launches satellites for NOAA and has at least one cooperative research and development agreement with the agency.

“NOAA’s data collection efforts are the crown jewel of the world,” says Kyla Bennett, PEER’s Science Policy Director. “The Acting Secretary needs to clearly state what Musk operatives are doing and have done at NOAA. Elon Musk works only for himself and cares only about his bottom line, not the American people or the integrity of NOAA’s data.”

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Read PEER’s letter to Acting Secretary Jeremy Pelter

Read a Musk-NOAA Cooperative Agreement

Learn More About Musk’s DOGE

Read PEER request that EPA Reveal Musk-EPA Ties