CLIMATWIRE | President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the disaster recovery department has been skeptical of climate change, has refused to accept federal climate money and has been criticized for her own handling of a natural disaster.

Trump on Tuesday named Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota to lead the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a time when damage from extreme weather is mounting. FEMA distributes billions in disaster relief annually and runs the nation’s largest insurer against floods – the US’s most damaging disaster

But Noem rejected the idea that humans are causing the temperature to rise.

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Asked by a reporter in March 2022 if she believed the climate was changing, replied Noah“I think the science has been mixed, and it hasn’t been proven to me that what we’re doing is affecting the climate.”

Noem, a Republican, is one of five governors who declined to accept EPA Planning Grants that the Biden administration offered every state to address climate pollution.

She is the only governor scrap a new $4 billion Energy Department program that gives states money to hand out to residents for appliance rebates and energy-efficient improvements. South Dakota’s share was $69 million, one of the highest per capita amounts in the nation.

“That money would have been available for commercial contractors to install energy-efficient appliances, which would lower heating and cooling costs for people who rent or buy those homes,” South Dakota state Sen. Linda said Tuesday Van (D). .

“We’re trying to keep costs down for individuals, so there was a tremendous opportunity there,” Duba added.

Ian Fury, a spokesman for Noem, said last year that the governor refused the rebate money because “federal spending is often tied to certain conditions, and more of them is often not a good thing.”

Noah refused the pollution subsidy because “we’re focused on solving long-term problems with one-time investments rather than creating new government programs,” Fury said.

Noem also did not claim most of the money that FEMA made available to states through a grant program for resiliency projects.

FEMA gave each state $3.6 million from 2021 to 2023. South Dakota collected just $1.3 million, FEMA records show. This is one of the lowest collection rates of any state.

Noem also sought minimal funding from a separate FEMA grant program that pays for flood damage reduction projects, FEMA records show.

She would be the eighth Homeland Security secretary since the department was created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Two of them had also been governors — Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Janet Napolitano of Arizona.

Noem is expected to focus heavily on border and immigration issues if confirmed by the Senate. DHS includes Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Noem joined the legal attacks on climate programs

Noem’s skepticism about climate change stands in stark contrast to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, both currently serving under President Joe Biden. Both pointed to the enormous damage caused by intensifying hurricanes, fires and floods, which they linked to climate change.

Trump has yet to name a FEMA administrator, which requires Senate confirmation, and will likely wait until he chooses his cabinet and other top officials.

Noem, who is running for governor in 2019, faced criticism for her response in June to major flooding in southeastern South Dakota from heavy rains that overflowed, including the Big Sioux River. Some the locals criticized Noem for not activating the National Guard in South Dakota and for flying to Tennessee during the floods to attend a Republican fundraiser.

When reporters asked Noem why she didn’t deploy the National Guard, she pointed to the cost and said no local officials had requested it, according to the South Dakota Searchlight. Fury, the spokesman, said at the time that county emergency managers handle local emergencies and are supported by the state upon request.

“Quite honestly, she was back and forth from the state when all that rain was coming down, and her focus should have been right here. They should have canceled all their press and be here because the flooding was substantial,” said Duba, the Democratic state senator.

A few weeks after the flood, Noem asked Biden to approve federal disaster aid for South Dakota. Biden approved the request, and FEMA awarded $9.1 million to 1,100 residents for emergency expenses and minor home repairs.

Noem has experience with the FEMA disaster system. During her tenure, she made 10 requests to the White House for FEMA aid after natural disasters — five to Biden and five to Trump, who rejected one request due to insufficient damage. South Dakota has received a total of $142 million in FEMA aid under her leadership, agency records show.

In 2023, Noem hired Navigators Global, a Washington lobbying firm, “to make sure South Dakota gets its fair share of all the taxpayer money they send to the federal government,” one lobbyist said. Cesar Conda said then.

Noem met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in early 2023. Around the same time, her chief of staff, Mark Miller, met with Mitch Landrieu, who was then in the White House overseeing implementation of the bipartisan infrastructure bill .

While seeking help from the White House, Noem also attacked some of the Biden administration’s actions on climate change. It he joined 15 other Republican governors to protest a move by the Securities and Exchange Commission to require publicly traded companies to disclose their climate change risks.

“Because climate change patterns vary dramatically, the notion of assessing investment risk based on such uncertain variables is inherently subjective and uncertain,” the governors wrote to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler in 2022. The SEC rule is linked of a judicial challenge.

Also Noah joined a lawsuit to stop the Biden administration from putting a price on the “social cost” of carbon emissions, which agencies could use to draft stronger climate regulations. The lawsuit was dismissed.

“You’re fired!”

A year after becoming governor, Noem gained national attention during the pandemic for insisting that state and local businesses stay open. She was the only governess at which reject Trump’s offer of additional unemployment benefits.

Noem described the pandemic and response as a life-changing event.

“In 2020, dysfunction has turned into dictatorship,” Noem wrote in her autobiography, No Going Back, published this year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic changed our country and changed me. It almost killed us, and I’m not talking about a virus. Most of the American population was at high risk of being controlled,” Noem wrote.

“South Dakota,” she boasted, “was the only state in the nation that never closed a single business.”

Before then, as a member of Congress from 2011 to 2019, Noem had little to do with climate or disaster issues and focused on agriculture and the military.

Noem, who is 52, served in the South Dakota Legislature from 2007 to 2011 and grew up on a farm in the eastern part of the state.

In Not My First Rodeo, Noem’s memoir published in 2022, she wrote: “If I had to describe my general political beliefs — and the political beliefs of my entire family and most of my neighbors — in one word, it would be: respect.”

But Noem expressed a clearer edge in her newest book, “No Going Back.”

Near the end, she lists the actions she would take as president on her first day. These include “closing the border” and “building that wall and restoring the ‘Made in Mexico’ policy.”

Noem also said he would “hire John Kerry as climate czar just to have the satisfaction of looking him in the eye and saying, ‘You’re fired!'”

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024. E&E News delivers essential news for energy and environmental professionals.