Federal buyouts affect Asheville’s NOAA office

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

A judge gave federal employees facing a dilemma to accept the recent “buyout” option a temporary reprieve.

Employees originally had until midnight Thursday to accept or reject an offer from the new Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk. A federal judge suspended the deadline during a court hearing earlier in the day, stating he would reconsider the matter on Monday.

The ruling impacts North Carolina’s 23,000 federal employees, including about 4,000 in Asheville. Among them, 175 work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with most based at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which houses one of the world’s largest climate and weather data archives.

Craig McLean, who spent nearly 40 years at NOAA and led the agency’s research division, told BPR that the interference could disrupt day-to-day life and commerce. He said the Asheville office, a repository of the country’s climate data, is essential.

“Asheville holds a data record that’s important to every American citizen,” McClean said. “Simple things like an emergency coming, the floods in Asheville, those forecasts were accurate.”

Researchers around the world, as well as professionals in both the public and private sectors, use data and access tools—including insurance companies, which base their rates and risk analyses on climate data records and projections.

“Banking, finance, real estate, the transportation industry, agriculture,” McClean added. “Economy, safety of life and property are all delivered to the American citizen by NOAA.”

Sources familiar with the situation confirmed that work at the agency is continuing as usual, but say employee resource groups were disbanded by verbal order in late January. Employees were instructed to remove internal web pages, cancel events and meetings.

Some federal workers in the region belong to the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, which was part of the lawsuit that led to today’s court action over the Trump administration’s buyout offer.