A July 2025 report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) claims that U.S. tide gauge measurements "in aggregate show no obvious acceleration in sea level rise beyond the historical average rate." However, a new study by Chris Piecuch, a physical oceanographer with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), reaches a dramatically different conclusion.

Piecuch’s results “directly contradict” the claims made in the DOE report that are based on a cursory discussion of tide gauge time series from just a handful of locations, the study states. “U.S. tide-gauge records taken collectively do show an obvious RSL acceleration above the long-term historical average trend.”