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1-6 of 6 messages
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The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by AC5SU on April 30, 2005
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Lately there has a lot of grassroots banter about Senator Rick Santorum's bill, the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 (S.786). I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
What would this legislation really do? First of all, this bill is vague except on two points: creating and protecting a few major private franchises and preventing the NWS from favoring one customer over another. However, the language of this bill is so broad that the NWS, the Hurricane Watch Net and SkyWarn COULD conceivably be prevented from reading any "predictive" warnings or bulletins over the air. Although there is an exemption for information regarding information designed to protect life and property and comply with international aviation accords, this bill is so broad it could prevent hurricane and tornado forecasts from being broadcast for free. The end result of such badly written, vague and broad legislation is usually arguments and lawsuits.
Essentially, this bill is designed to prevent the NWS from providing free daily forecast information and competing with AccuWeather and the Weather Channel. Yes, as a taxpayer, you'll pay for your information twice and the NWS would become an active player only in certain circumstances. The NWS websites would go back to "pre-internet" days (or dark altogether). The NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs has been silent regarding this legislation, but Ed Johnson, NWS Director of Strategic Planning and Policy, stated the problem this way: "you don't plug in your clock when you want to know what time it is." If you've ever used your weather radio or the NWS office website when there WASN'T a thunderstorm or tornado warning--that's what the bill really seeks to silence.
What prompted all of this? In December 2004, NOAA, the parent agency of the NWS, formally repealed its 1991 noncompetition policy and implemented a new policy that promises to give "due consideration" to the abilities of the private sector. This created a threat in the private sector's view--after all didn't you notice the difference? This past summer, the NWS established a free data stream in XML and XML-based RSS format with hourly METAR observations through the National Digital Forecast Database SOAP server. In spite of its ominous technical description, this was a powerful experimental product offered for free. Since then various services including the Storm Prediction Center have added RSS feeds for watches and mesoscale discussions. The private sector's response via Sen. Santorum has been a "cannon to kill a mosquito." In his opinion, the NWS cannot be trusted any longer to provide the public with information and the NWS shouldn't duplicate any services provided by the private sector. In the words of Barry Myers, VP of AccuWeather, this issue has been brewing for ten years.
"We don't want any special treatment," Myers said. "What private weather companies want," he said, "is for the NWS to continue to provide free public weather information -- as it has always done -- but to curb efforts to provide specialized data and forecasts that are the bread and butter of the private weather industry."
Quite a jump from here to the "end of SkyWarn," right? Still, the bill is disturbing for other reasons unrelated to SkyWarn. This bill would restrict the free flow of information and market innovations and protect the interests of "infopreneurs" that have already profited from the NWS's other overriding policy of "timely and public" information. Want to know the seven-day forecast? Want to know what the temperature is right now? Are you using the NWS data stream? Under this bill, the NWS couldn't give it to you--go to WeatherChannel. Most disturbing, SkyWarn-type information COULD be restricted to only this private enterprise consortium, massively curtailing or ending the Amateur Radio Service portion of the SkyWarn program. Also, pilots could find themselves without free or low-cost NWS-FAA weather products.
Additionally, AccuWeather, Inc., is a State College, Pennsylvania-based company founded by Joel Myers, whose employees have contributed thousands over the past five years to Senator Santorum's coffers. Finally, for those in the know, the term "santorum" has come into its own as a bipartisan term in political science circles as descriptive of "slick and opportunistic neo-classical privatization."
In my humble opinion, this bill is more properly titled "The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005." I cannot support this legislation in its present form. I DETEST THE LEGISLATIVE CREATION OF ANY EXCLUSIVE CLOSELY-HELD PRIVATE FRANCHISE BASED ENTIRELY UPON PREVIOUSLY-FREE AND PUBLIC ACCESS TO TAXPAYER-FUNDED PROGRAMS AND INFORMATION--LET THE COMPETITIVE FREE MARKET DECIDE IF YOU ARE TRULY BEST PRODUCT. I would urge anyone to consider this issue carefully before offering any support. Currently the bill has been assigned to Senate Commerce Committee.
The Committee members include:
Ted Stevens - Alaska
John McCain - Arizona
Conrad Burns - Montana
Trent Lott - Mississippi
Kay Bailey Hutchison - Texas
Olympia Snowe - Maine
Gordon Smith - Oregon
John Ensign - Nevada
George Allen - Virginia
John Sununu - New Hampshire
Jim DeMint - South Carolina
David Vitter - Louisiana
Daniel K. Inouye - Hawaii
John D. Rockefeller IV - West Virginia
John F. Kerry - Massachussetts
Byron L. Dorgan - North Dakota
Barbara Boxer - California
Bill Nelson - Florida
Maria Cantwell - Washington
Frank Lautenberg - New Jersey
E. Benjamin Nelson - Nebraska
Mark Pryor - Arkansas
There are plenty of sites offering the full text of the legislation and commentary. The current NWS policy is located here:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/partnershippolicy/
Below is my letter to Senator Lott regarding this bill
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Subject: Commerce
Dear Senator Lott,
I am writing to voice my opposition to the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 (S.786). This bill would ban the National Weather Service (NWS) from "competing" with private entities by restricting its ability to communicate with the public. S.786 would make it unlawful for the agency to publish user-friendly weather data on its website because it might draw people away from the offerings of companies like AccuWeather. S.786 would also bar NWS experts from granting one-on-one interviews with press organizations to offer analysis of weather data.
As an amateur radio operator and a volunteer member of NWS SkyWarn weather spotter program, it is vitally important that we can operate these networks with unrestricted access to the NWS weather products including predictions, statements and current digital images. Private companies simply do not provide the level of service essential to our mission. Without the NWS data available on the internet, lives WILL be lost because the tools that we need to help provide good reporting to the NWS will not be there.
I believe this vague and overly broad bill is contrary to our national interest. A valuable public service should not be dismantled simply to ensure that companies like AccuWeather make more money repackaging and reselling weather data to taxpayers, especially when we are the ones who funded its creation. Also, such a change in policy could severely restrict or end the participation of the Amateur Radio Service in the SkyWarn spotter program. As a constituent, I hope you will join me in opposing the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Ben B B Jones II
246 Highland Place Dr
Jackson, MS 39211-5909
(601) 981-3703
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RE: The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by WA4MJF on May 1, 2005
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I guess I'd have to ask this:
Since Skywarn is a critter of the NWS
and I don't know that the new bill affects
sharing information within the NWS, how
would it affect Skywarn?
I guess same-same for the NHC which runs
the HWN.
Just wanna know, as I've read all the sky
(no pun itended) is falling chicken littles
sounding off about this also.
73 de Ronnie
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RE: The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by W0IPL on May 2, 2005
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Comparing the pending legislation on what the NWS can (will?) be broadcasting to Emergency Communication is like comparing the height of an ant hill to the Empire State Biulding. While both have measurable height and contain many "beings" there is little else to make the comparison worth the time.
Second, If you have such a long post, in the future, how about getting a web page set up to hold all of it. Then you need only post the URL.
ipl
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RE: The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by AC5SU on May 5, 2005
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Both are 120-story beehives of activity and we see what happens to "ants." My sincere apologies for intruding upon the forum, Pat.
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RE: The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by K1CJS on June 8, 2005
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In relationship to Skywarn, it could be said that the NWS was supplying restricted general information to spotters so the spotters could go to where the NWS needs the comprehensive info only someone 'on the scene' could provide. Admittedly this is stretching things a bit far, but the government can and does 'stretch things'.
In short, if spotters aren't told where the weather 'is happening' how can they report to the NWS as to the on site conditions there?
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RE: The AccuWeather Jobs Protection Act of 2005
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by KG4RUL on June 9, 2005
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I am sorry but, I don't agree with Pat. I like to have the text posted here and not have to go to a URL to get the info.
Dennis KG4RUL
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