Three of Hawai‘i's four national congresspeople are attempting to rally Congress to protect the Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawai‘i Island.
Earlier this year, the Donald Trump Administration announced — amid a wide range of budget cuts — plans to cancel the leases for several facilities of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
One of those leases on the chopping block was that of a Hilo office of the Global Monitoring Laboratory, which supports the Mauna Loa Observatory, a facility that has monitored atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations since the 1950s. The Hilo office’s lease is set to expire Sunday, Aug. 31.
According to the Department of Government Efficiency’s website, the 4,638-square-foot office is leased at a cost of $164,391 annually.
The Observatory itself is not currently targeted for closure, but the staff of eight who operate and maintain the Observatory work out of the Hilo office being targeted for closure. From there, they remotely operate equipment at MLO, which is currently inaccessible save by helicopter, after lava from the 2022 Mauna Loa eruption cut off the facility’s sole access road.
Hawai‘i Senator Mazie Hirono and representatives Jill Tokuda and Ed Case are worried that shutting down the lab office will compromise the Observatory’s ability to function.
On Thursday, the three lawmakers introduced a resolution commemorating the decades of research at MLO and reaffirming congressional support for continuing operations, including for its support sites on Hawai‘i Island.
“The historic research conducted at the Mauna Loa Observatory has been monumental in contributing to the world’s understanding of climate change and our country’s leadership in atmospheric research,” Hirono said in a statement. “Trump has already frozen scientific research funding and undermined the Environmental Protection Agency — cancelling this lease is yet another attack on science.”
“Any effort to undercut the work of the observatory will cripple not only our generational leadership in atmospheric science, but our worldwide efforts to specifically identify and address the threat of our age,” Case said in his own statement.
The Trump Administration also plans to close three NOAA atmospheric observatories in Alaska, American Samoa and the South Pole, leaving MLO as the sole remaining observatory in the Global Monitoring Laboratory network.
No action has yet been taken on the resolution.
