The federal district court for the District of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction preventing the National Science Foundation (NSF) from transferring stewardship of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC) away from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The NWSC conducts weather, climate, and atmospheric research used by governmental agencies and private companies to inform their operations and prepare for extreme weather patterns. The court rejected NSF’s challenge to its subject matter jurisdiction. The court found that NSF’s decision to divest UCAR of stewardship of NWSC was final and was determinative of UCAR’s rights and obligations, as required for jurisdiction under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court further rejected NSF’s contention that the case was not ripe for judicial review, concluding that NSF’s decision represented a final agency action that did not depend on uncertain or contingent future events and that withholding review would cause significant hardship to UCAR. In assessing UCAR’s request for a preliminary injunction, the court determined that UCAR was likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that NSF’s decision was arbitrary and capricious because NSF failed to provide an explanation for its decision to divest UCAR of stewardship over NWSC. The record showed no evidence of dissatisfaction with UCAR, and the court noted evidence in the record indicating that the decision might have been motivated by the Trump administration’s dispute with the State of Colorado. Additionally, the NSF failed to follow its own timeline for collecting public feedback before making a decision and ignored the majority of responses disfavoring transfer. The court determined that UCAR would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction, including loss of employees, potential financial impact, and damage to its institutional mission. Finally, the court found that the balance of equities favored an injunction since there was a strong public interest in efficient and uninterrupted data collection and there would be no concrete harm caused by preserving the current stewardship.

Lawsuit alleging that federal agencies' "dismantling" of the National Center for Atmospheric Research constituted unlawful retaliation. 

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research v. National Science Foundation

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Colorado Federal Court Granted Preliminary Injunction Preventing Transfer of Stewardship of National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Climate Supercomputing Center

Filed

United States of America

Colorado

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Colorado Federal Court Granted Preliminary Injunction Preventing Transfer of Stewardship of National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Climate Supercomputing Center

Risk

Impacted group

Just transition

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance