Privatizing Weather Information

[admiralty58]

Do yourselves a favor and call Rick Santorum (R) PA @ 202 224 6324 and ask his aid exactly who benefits from his bill to privatize weather information, and why he is so interested in this passing. Apparently it got attached to something today.Maybe call your rep too....

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I haven't heard anything about this. Does this mean no more NOAA weather radio?

 

[Nonchalant1]

I did, and sent a e-mail letter to Dennis Hastert because I live in his district!

The deal is that lobbyists for AccuWeather.com and their ilk do not want this to be available free to the public. The want to just take the work done by the government and sell it to us after reformatting it for their websites. The internet has become so available to all that NOAA is working on providing a good user interface to their already free data, and AccuWeather knows it's competition for them, so they want to stop the gov't from giving t away free. In their zest to help the lobbyists, congressmen may forget to retain the free and reliable NOAA marine VHF forecasts that we rely on for SAFETY and we'll lose the benefit.

Typical congress-lobbyists B.S.

Doug

 

[eze2bme]

Someone needs to remind "the Government" who's taxes pay for NOAA, etc!

 

[Genesis]

Someone needs to put a fork in Accuweather. Their "forecasting" this last storm season was abysmal. The NHC wasn't perfect, but at least they had SOME scientific basis for their prognostications!

 

[spartonboat1]

Recent Boat/US newletters indicated that until recently Santorum had found no other sponsors for his bill and it was getting no traction. I wrote our Senator Levin and got the typical lame response, although not in support of the bill.

If the Sen. has attached it to another bill, then that is a new story. Boat/US should be notified immediately. I will contact them myself.

In effect, if the bill passes then all weather info will come only from commercial sources, even though originated from NOAA. Boat owners and aircraft operators have been very opposed to this bill.

Thanks for this post!!

 

[Nonchalant1]

The bill concerning NOAA forecast availability has been referred to the senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. I wrote my congressmen and received the att'd reply below from Senator Durbin:

February 28, 2006

Mr. Douglas Shuman
3020 Meadow Drive
Saint Charles, IL 60175

Dear Mr. Shuman:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to S. 786, the
National Weather Service Duties Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

I share your concerns about S. 786. This bill places significant
restrictions on National Weather Service (NWS) activities. It eliminates
direct and convenient access by the public to all NWS information except
for weather warnings. Furthermore, this bill would restrict NWS
forecasters from directly communicating with emergency managers, the
media, or anyone, even during hazardous weather conditions.

I joined several of my colleagues in sending a letter to Senators Reid
and Frist urging them to oppose any attempt to move this bill to a vote or
attach it to other moving legislation.

This bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation. Although I am not a member of that committee, I will
keep your views in mind in case the bill come before the full Senate for
consideration.

Thanks once again for writing. Please feel free to keep in touch.

Sincerely,


Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

My House Rep. is Denny Hastert and when I wrote him, he said "it's a senate bill, wirte your senators". I wrote him back and said that he knows and I know that bills must pass House and Senate before becoming law and that they work together (Duh.....) and that his staffers just didn't get it. I haven't heard back from my other senator (Obama) yet.

Doug Shuman

Recent Boat/US newletters indicated that until recently Santorum had found no other sponsors for his bill and it was getting no traction. I wrote our Senator Levin and got the typical lame response, although not in support of the bill.

If the Sen. has attached it to another bill, then that is a new story. Boat/US should be notified immediately. I will contact them myself.

In effect, if the bill passes then all weather info will come only from commercial sources, even though originated from NOAA. Boat owners and aircraft operators have been very opposed to this bill.

Thanks for this post!!

 

[egaito]

Someone needs to remind "the Government" who's taxes pay for NOAA, etc!

That someone is you and me! I'll be calling and writing....again.

This issue gets to me almost as much as the recent run of eminent domain issues!

As long as only a few complain and don't remember to vote based on records, we deserve what we get.....

-Ed G.

 

[Nonchalant1]

So I've been writing again and BaracK Obama is on our side. I'm in his district so he actually responds, as follows:

Dear Douglas:

Thank you for contacting me with your opinion on the National Weather Service Act of 2005 (S.786). The weather affects our everyday lives regardless of severity, and the National Weather Service (NWS) does an excellent job notifying the public about what they can expect on a day-to-day basis from Mother Nature.

As you may know, the NWS was created 135 years ago to forecast the weather and provide warnings to protect life and property. It has evolved into a national meteorological database that can be accessed by other government agencies, the private sector, the public and the global community.

I agree that the National Weather Service Act of 2005 would unduly limit information provided by the NWS. This Act seeks to focus the NWS solely on alerting the public to severe weather conditions. This would remove the NWS as a source for general weather broadcasts, essentially allowing only private companies to compete over this service.

The Act is currently being considered in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. I do not serve on this panel, but I will discuss your concerns with my colleagues who do.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me in the future on this or any issue of concern.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

 

[Maynard Rupp]

A little off this thread, but I just discovered that NOAA marine charts are available for download free. They are available in raster scan and vector format. I saw the article in the Boat US magazine. I downloaded lots of charts and tried them on my Nobletech program. They work GREAT. Free is good eh?

 

[spartonboat1]

Sorry if I am a sourpuss, but free they ain't. Your just getting what your taxes paid for, which is not really very common. But am I complaining? No!

 

[Nonchalant1]

Cool! What's the URL?

Doug

A little off this thread, but I just discovered that NOAA marine charts are available for download free. They are available in raster scan and vector format. I saw the article in the Boat US magazine. I downloaded lots of charts and tried them on my Nobletech program. They work GREAT. Free is good eh?

 

[Maynard Rupp]

here is the thread
http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/
Yes, a tiny gift for the unending tax money that we pour in. And they have the gall to try and eliminate free weather info. BAH!!!

 

[Nonchalant1]

Hey Maynard!

That's great! I just downloaded a chart of Florida "big Bend" and it works perfectly with my laptop GPS program that will put the boat on the chart and add navigation functions, tracking, waypoints, the whole 9 yards. It's like a freebie GPS chart download and all updated by NOAA.

Thanks,

Doug Shuman