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(Nevada News Service) Environmental groups are concerned part of the proposed Project 2025 calls for closing several federal agencies political conservatives consider too powerful or superfluous.

There is a particular concern among Nevadans science-based agencies, particularly those battling climate change, would be eliminated or their functions privatized.

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David Kieve, president of Environmental Defense Fund Action, said agencies such as the National Weather Service would be privately operated to make a profit instead of providing a vital public service.

"The idea that you would privatize the National Weather Service doesn't just mean that the quality of the forecast would decline," Kieve pointed out. "It also, critically, means you might not get life-or-death warnings to seek shelter at a time when you really need it."

The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is a 900-page plan likely to be adopted if Republicans win control of the government. It would completely restructure operations to align with right-wing conservative values and replace thousands of civil servants with trained party loyalists.

Kieve emphasized Nevada has a great deal to lose if agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service are privatized. He added climate change has brought more extreme weather events, year-round wildfires and a sharp increase in the number of days with extreme heat, saying once they are lost, public services agencies could take decades to replace.

"Replacing career civil servants with political appointees will significantly undermine the public good done by agencies like the National Weather Service have worked in the public interest for a very, very long time," Kieve contended.

Kieve added while the Biden-Harris administration has focused on reducing pollution, developing clean energy and fighting climate change, Project 2025 promotes the goals of groups such as the oil industry and pharmaceutical makers pushing to eliminate all regulations.

"There is a cynicism within Project 2025 toward the value of government service that is deeply, deeply disturbing," Kieve argued. "That will not benefit the American people in any way, shape or form."