March 3, 20255 min readTrump Official Who Tried to Downplay Major Climate Report Now Will Oversee ItStuart Levenbach alarmed scientists years ago when he attempted to meddle with a congressionally mandated climate reportBy Scott Waldman & E&E News Steam and exhaust rise from a power plant. Stuart Levenbach said his new role at OMB would be to "ensure that agencies align with the President's priorities." Lukas Schulze/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | A former Trump official who alarmed scientists years ago when he attempted to meddle with a congressionally mandated climate report has returned to the White House in a role that's expected to heavily influence the next version of the assessment.Stuart Levenbach was tapped last month by administration officials to serve as associate director for natural resources, energy, science, and water in the Office of Management and Budget.The previous time President Donald Trump was in the White House, Levenbach attempted to tone down the summary conclusions of the National Climate Assessment, a wide-ranging report that relies on the contributions of hundreds of researchers to assess how global warming is transforming the United States.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Scientists say Levenbach tried to downplay climate risks in the fourth installment of the report, which comes out every four years or so. In that edition, Levenbach was concerned especially with the higher greenhouse gas emissions assumptions the report partially relied on and sought to soften the language of the report's summary, the scientists say.He was the one that tried to slow it down to the point of it not coming out, said Don Wuebbles, a climate scientist at the University of Illinois who has worked on all five previous National Climate Assessments.Levenbach's delay tactics were ultimately unsuccessful, and the fourth installment of the report was released in 2018 on the day after Thanksgiving.In response to questions from Politico's E&E News, a Trump administration official with the Office of Management and Budget described the scientists' concerns as fake news.Levenbach is joining OMB at a time when its director, Russ Vought, wants to suppress climate science throughout the federal government and increase Trump White House oversight over the next installment of the National Climate Assessment, which is due out in 2026 or 2027.Vought, an architect of the conservative policy playbook known as Project 2025, specifically targeted the National Climate Assessment in the chapter he wrote on expanding presidential power. Vought said the report must be controlled more closely by the White House in order to reduce its influence on litigation and also hamstring its ability to underpin federal regulations.Vought described the assessment as a threat to presidential power.The U.S. Global Change Research Program "produces strategic plans and research (for example, the National Climate Assessment) that reduce the scope of legally proper options in presidential decision-making and in agency rulemakings and adjudications," he wrote.During the first Trump administration, Levenbach served as chief of staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before being appointed as a senior adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality and then the National Economics Council. When he was at NOAA, the release of the National Climate Assessment caught the administration by surprise.Levenbach was one of several Trump administration officials who tried to force the scientists who worked on the report to weaken their findings, said Wuebbles of the University of Illinois.He said Levenbach questioned the reports scientific conclusions and then demanded to see research backing up the original findings, even though they were cited in the report. It appeared to be an intentional attempt to create a series of roadblocks designed to block the reports release, he said.The whole idea was lets slow this down so it never comes out, Wuebbles said.At the time, Levenbachs role at NOAA carried more weight than usual because the agency was operating without a permanent administrator, and did so for the entire first Trump presidency.Reached for comment, OMB spokeswoman Rachel Cauley did not deny that Levenbach tried to alter the report, but she criticized how it was put together.The assessment was riddled with the worst case scenario and the authors werent transparent about it, she said in a statement.Levenbach declined to comment.The National Climate Assessment is based on a range of emissions scenarios, including those that are not worst-case scenarios. The fourth version of the report concluded the country was not on track to cut carbon dioxide emissions at a pace to avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change.While mitigation and adaptation efforts have expanded substantially in the last four years, they do not yet approach the scale considered necessary to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades, researchers concluded.During Trumps first term, White House officials discussed withholding the report. Someone suggested firing the scientists who worked on it, POLITICO'S E&E News previously has reported.Federal researchers who resisted the pressure of Trump officials to alter the reports findings were removed from their jobs and reassigned to lesser roles.That included Virginia Burkett, who was chair of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which produces the report. Burkett said she refused Levenbachs attempts to weaken the reports scientific conclusions, and she has claimed that because of that stance she was removed as chair of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and demoted.In July 2024, Burkett filed a whistleblower complaint with the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior. She noted that several retaliatory actions were taken against me for blocking the change to the National Climate Assessment.I led a successful interagency effort to prevent last minute alterations to the reports Summary Findings by political appointees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, she said in a statement. These proposed changes would have drastically misrepresented the work of more than 300 federal and academic scientists in a report that had been through extensive peer, public and National Academies review.That complaint is still open and under investigation, according to the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, which is working with Burkett.Craig McLean, who was a top scientist at NOAA under Trump, said Levenbach and other NOAA officials "held up" the National Climate Assessment, and that the report may never have been released without Burkett's advocacy.It was an impasse until Virginia stepped up, and then suddenly it was, yeah, OK, we're gonna have to let it go, McLean said. It was being held up. NOAA wouldnt approve it.In the end, the fourth National Climate Assessment was released, but the administration tried to bury it by putting it out on Black Friday. The plan backfired, however, and the report generated significant media coverage.Trump later said he did not believe the report.After Trumps loss in the 2020 election, Levenbach worked at Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, on the use of sustainable energy sources around the world. He holds a doctorate in marine ecology.Levenbachs appointment to a powerful White House role with oversight of the nations scientific endeavors comes at a time when the administration is preparing a possible challenge to the endangerment finding, a bedrock ruling which considers greenhouse gases a danger to public health and is a foundation of climate regulations.On his Linked-In profile, Levenbach noted that his new role at OMB would be to ensure that agencies align with the President's priorities.Trump and his team have said their priorities include restricting immigration, slashing the size of the federal government and bolstering the U.S. fossil fuel industry.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.